In a division race that has grown tighter than ever looked possible earlier in this year, the Dodgers managed to hold serve this weekend.
Just barely.
With a 3-2 defeat of the Oakland Athletics on Sunday, the Dodgers stayed 4 ½ games ahead of the San Diego Padres and five games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, finally holding their ground in what was their first road series win since late June.
“I’m a little more in tune with it,” manager Dave Roberts said of the division standings, where the Dodgers’ once-nine-game lead has been trimmed in half. “But still the focus is on us just playing better baseball.”
Finally, the Dodgers did this weekend.
After starting this trip with a series loss to the Houston Astros and a two-game losing sweep against the Padres in San Diego, the Dodgers bounced back from a Friday night loss to the last-place A’s by following up Saturday’s 10-0 rout with what on Sunday was a narrow rubber-match win.
Both teams scored two runs in the first inning, with Kiké Hernández’s two-run double being erased by Brent Rooker’s two-run homer.
A third-inning RBI single from Cavan Biggio proved to be the only difference the rest of the game.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what the standings look like right now,” infielder Kiké Hernández said. “But coming here getting those two wins was big time.”
It was the Dodgers’ bullpen that came up biggest Sunday, following River Ryan’s one-run, 4 ⅔-inning start with 4 ⅓ scoreless innings of relief.
Slumping former closer Evan Phillips had the most important contribution, escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam he inherited from Ryan in the fifth by freezing Rooker on a front-door, knee-buckling sweeper for a called third strike.
“To get a punchout right there I think was the ballgame,” Roberts said, “and just gave us a lot of momentum.”
The rest of the Dodgers’ previously scuffling bullpen — which had the fifth-worst reliever ERA in the majors in July — kept stringing together zeroes from there.
Blake Treinen tossed a scoreless sixth inning, despite center fielder Kevin Kiermaier losing a ball in the sun for a double.
Alex Vesia worked a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out two batters while flashing 92-93 mph fastballs (his velocity had dropped in his previous couple outings).
Roberts faced a trickier decision in the eighth inning, electing to use his best remaining reliever, Daniel Hudson, to tackle the heart of the A’s order.
That left the ninth inning to left-hander Anthony Banda, a minor-league trade acquisition earlier this season who — after a scoreless ninth inning Sunday — now has a 2.16 ERA in 31 outings this year.
“It’s the best,” Phillips said of the bullpen’s spotless day. “We have such a great group down here in the pen. Watching the guys go out there and get the job done, one after another throughout the whole series and being able to build off that moving forward will be huge for us.”
The Dodgers can only hope so.
Despite steadying the ship in their final trip to Oakland Coliseum (the A’s are moving to Sacramento next year, and will eventually relocate to Las Vegas), the team still finds itself protecting an unexpectedly narrow division lead.
Their upcoming schedule will do them no favors, with the NL-leading (albeit recently slumping) Philadelphia Phillies coming to Dodger Stadium this week, and nothing but playoff contenders on the schedule for the rest of the month. The team will also have just two off days over the next three weeks.
“It’s sort of a gauntlet before we get to September,” Robert said.
Which is why, in their series against the lowly A’s this weekend, the Dodgers couldn’t much afford another series loss.
For a couple of days, at least, they stopped their recent slide and, thanks in large part to the bullpen on Sunday, held their place in an ever-tightening NL West race.
“Our relievers, I’ve said it all along, I think that part of our team is a strength,” Roberts said. “It was good to get those guys back on track.”