blake treinen

MILWAUKEE — Blake Treinen’s first save of the postseason was hardly a memorable performance.

He threw more balls than strikes. He walked the first batter he faced and nearly hit the second. And he got the final out on a pitch that was well out of the strike zone.

But he did get the final out, preserving the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opening game of the National League Championship Series on Monday.

And for Treinen and the bullpen he’s supposed to be anchoring, that counts as major progress.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work to try to get some things in a better place with myself,” Treinen said. “Today, I thought I executed almost every pitch.”

The fixes, he said, were simple mechanical tweaks that helped set up his pitches.

“Sometimes through catch-play and touching the mound a little bit, things start to click. And you’re kind of shocked at how a subtle tweak can change everything,” he said.

In the Dodgers’ World Series run last season, Treinen was as vicious as an ill-tempered Doberman, going 2-0 with three saves, a 2.19 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.

This year, not so much. In his first four playoff appearances more batters got a hit than struck out and five of the 12 men he faced reached base. That followed a disastrous September in which he went 1-5 with a 9.64 ERA.

He wasn’t so much putting out fires as he was starting them. The poor performances began to build on one another.

“At times this year, when it hasn’t gone well, th[ings] can speed up a little bit in your mind,” he said. “That’s the hard part, to carry the thoughts and focus on what you’re good at.”

But manager Dave Roberts, who has had Treinen for the last five seasons, kept giving him chances to turn things around.

“I think the best way to for me to kind of view it is whether you’re a position player slumping or a pitcher maybe not getting the outs at the clip that you want, we all know what our abilities are,” Treinen said. “Dave’s seen me at my best and at my worst, and so when he calls my name, I’m grateful that he has confidence in me.

“And I have confidence that he’s putting me in situations for the team to win. So there’s a lot of peace in that.”

Treinen may have been at peace but he didn’t have much wiggle room when he replaced Roki Sasaki on the mound Monday with two out in the ninth and the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead.

Sasaki, the team’s surprise playoff closer, had been lights out in the postseason, with just one of the 17 hitters he faced reaching base. Against the Brewers, he gave up two walks, a ground-rule double and a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the span of two outs. When Treinen entered, Milwaukee had the tying run on first and the winning run on third — and the right-hander immediately made things worse by walking William Contreras on six pitches to load the bases.

Treinen quickly got ahead of Brice Turang, the Brewers’ left-handed cleanup hitter, but courted disaster again when he sailed a 1-2 sweeper that nearly hit Turang. That would have forced in the tying run had Turang not instinctively danced out of the way, eliciting a groan from the sold-out crowd.

“It’s a natural reaction,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “When the ball is coming towards you, it’s a breaking ball, your natural reaction is to do that.

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the ninth inning against the Brewers in NLCS Game 1 on Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It happens. He’ll learn from that situation. But it’s hard.”

For Treinen, whose only luck lately has been bad luck, the break was one he quickly cashed by getting Turang to chase the next pitch, which was head high, to end the game.

That swing brought equal measures of joy and relief for Treinen, who has supplied little of either for the Dodgers this postseason. This time, he said it felt good to finally be able to contribute.

“Our guys have been playing great baseball,” he said. “Our bats are doing a great job. Our starters have been amazing. So [I’m] just doing my job to finish the game.”

He also did his job in picking up Sasaki, the hero of the NL Division Series win over the Phillies, who stood to be the goat if the Dodgers lost Monday.

“Any time as a professional, when you have the ability to pick up your teammates, there’s a lot of pride in it,” Treinen said. “You just want to do your part because it’s a team game.

“I’ve certainly had guys pick me up this year. To have the opportunity to pick someone else up, it feels good.”

And it’s been a long time since Treinen has felt that.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was trying to play the long game Monday night.

Which is why, when his team entered the ninth inning with a three-run lead in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, he gave the save opportunity to Blake Treinen instead of Roki Sasaki.

If all things had been equal, it’s likely that Roberts would have turned to Sasaki to start the inning. In just two weeks since returning from a shoulder injury and being moved to the bullpen, the converted rookie starter has become the club’s most dominant relief option.

But, for as much of a revelation as the 23-year-old right-hander had been in that time — posting four scoreless outings with a 100-mph fastball and unhittable splitter — the team remained conscientious about managing Sasaki’s workload, which included one appearance in Game 2 of the wild card series, then another in Game 1 of the NLDS just days prior.

Thus, with Roberts feeling confident enough in Treinen (the veteran right-hander coming off a career-worst season but also some recently improved outings) to protect a three-run cushion that felt relatively comfortable, he left Sasaki sitting in the bullpen despite the save situation.

He tried to take advantage of an opportunity to give his ace reliever rest.

“He hasn’t gone two out of three [days] much at all,” Roberts said after the game. “So I didn’t want to just kind of preemptively put him in there. I felt good with who we had.”

That plan, of course, almost backfired in disastrous fashion. Treinen gave up two runs without retiring a batter. Alex Vesia needed his defense to turn a wheel play on a Bryson Stott bunt to limit the damage from there. And in the end, Sasaki entered the game anyway to record the final out.

Moving forward, Roberts confirmed on Tuesday, Sasaki is “definitely the primary option now” for any future save situations — the closest the team will come to calling him their outright closer, since they could also choose to use him in high-leverage spots before the ninth.

“Obviously what Roki has done, has continued to show, has been very encouraging on a lot of fronts,” Roberts said.

The question, however, remains exactly how hard the Dodgers can ride him the rest of these playoffs; and how delicately they’ll have to balance the burden they place on a young pitcher who has never before pitched in a relief role.

“He’s not going to close every game, it’s just not feasible,” Roberts said Tuesday. “This is something he’s never done. And you’re expecting to go a few more weeks [in the postseason]. So all that stuff has to play in, that a lot of people don’t have any appreciation for.”

The deeper the Dodgers go in the playoffs, the more tricky this calculus will get.

For now, the team’s preference would be for Sasaki to have at least one day of rest before each of his outings. And while Roberts didn’t rule out using him back-to-back days, he described it as “the next graduation point” for the offseason Japanese signing (who had made only eight MLB starts at the beginning of the season before initially getting hurt and missing the next four months).

“There’s no guarantee what the stuff’s going to be like [in a back-to-back sequence],” Roberts said, adding that any potential usage of Saskai on consecutive days would require conversations beforehand with pitching coaches about how Sasaki looked in pregame catch sessions.

“I would love to have Roki throw every single day if he could, but that’s just not feasible,” Roberts reiterated. “Again, we have a lot of conversations, and then I make my decision.”

In other words, Sasaki will get the majority of save opportunities moving forward. But he likely won’t be the only one to handle such spots.

Sheehan responds in set-up role

Emmet Sheehan reacts after closing out the eighth inning against the Phillies in Game 2.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

After a promising regular season in which he posted a 2.82 ERA in 15 outings, the Dodgers looked to Emmet Sheehan to be a multi-inning set-up man for their beleaguered relief corps.

His first playoff outing was troublesome: Giving up two hits and two walks while recording only one out in Game 2 of the wild-card series against the Reds.

But on Monday night, he bounced back with two innings of one-run relief to keep the Dodgers’ lead intact entering the ninth.

The biggest moment of Sheehan’s outing (in which he retired the side in the seventh, before giving up a down-the-line triple to Max Kepler and RBI single to Trea Turner in the eighth) came after he’d yielded that lone run. The Phillies had left-handed sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper due up next. The Dodgers had Vesia, their top left-handed option, warming in the bullpen.

For a brief moment, as pitching coach Mark Prior came to the mound and Sheehan fidgeted with his PitchCom device during an extended pause, it appeared the Dodgers were just stalling for Vesia to get warm.

But Roberts ultimately stayed put and let Sheehan pitch to the Phillies’ star duo. His faith was rewarded with two outs that ended the inning. Sheehan struck out Schwarber with a 97.6-mph fastball on the inside corner, tied for his third-hardest pitch for a strikeout this season. Then he got Harper to fly out on a changeup, pumping a fist into his mitt as he skipped off the field.

“I think it just showed some adjustments that I made compared to that previous game [against the Reds],” Sheehan said.

The biggest one?

“Definitely controlling your emotions,” Sheehan acknowledged. “It’s a big piece of coming out of the bullpen. I’ve talked to a lot of guys about that, especially after Cincinnati where I wasn’t as comfortable out there.”

That Reds outing, of course, was a major red flag for the Dodgers’ bullpen plans. Given the struggles from the team’s traditional relievers entering the playoffs, Sheehan was supposed to essentially be a set-up man out of the bullpen capable of bridging the gap from the starting pitcher to the ninth.

Sheehan said, in that wild-card outing, he felt he was “trying to do a little too much, trying to be a little too fine with my pitches at the corners.”

“That’s not really my game,” he said in hindsight. “So I think just getting back to the approach and the game plan that’s been working for the past couple months was big. Trying to just go right at them and attack in the zone.”

Roberts gave Sheehan the leash to do that Monday, and will likely keep calling upon him in high-leverage spots moving forward, perhaps making Sheehan and Sasaki his preferred combination to close out the final innings of games.

“I just felt that his stuff was still real good [and that] he wasn’t going to run from those guys at the top,” Roberts said Tuesday of letting Sheehan face Schwarber and Harper (who are a combined one for 14 in the NLDS with two walks and eight strikeouts).

“I trusted him. I felt in that moment he was the best option. And it proved to be right.”

Treinen lacking ‘edge’

At the other end of the reliever trust spectrum is Treinen, who not only failed to retire any of the three batters he faced in Game 2 but also, at least in Roberts’ estimation, also didn’t look like someone confident in their stuff.

“I just didn’t see that edge last night,” Roberts said Tuesday, “that I know I’ve seen it many times over.”

Indeed, Treinen was the Dodgers’ most trusted reliever during their World Series run last year, when he was credited with three saves, two holds and two wins and punctuated his October with 2 ⅓ scoreless innings of relief in Game 5 of the World Series.

This season has been a different story, with Treinen stumbling to a career-worst 5.40 ERA after missing much of the first half with a forearm problem.

Despite that, Treinen had entered Monday on more of a high, after striking out three batters in his regular-season finale before making two scoreless appearances in the wild-card series.

The Phillies, however, took advantage of his inability this year to get as much swing-and-miss, fanning on just one of eight swings while stringing together a single and two doubles (the last one on a half-swing from Nick Castellanos against Treinen’s trademark sweeper).

“I felt that he was getting some momentum before that last one, so I’ll check in on him,” Roberts said. “But there’s ways of how you go about an outing, successful or not successful, and how a player carries himself matters to me.”

On Monday, Treinen didn’t check that box. And whether he will be thrown into such a high-leverage situation his next time out remains to be seen.

Bye-bye bye.

Hello, Dodger bullpen.

It was all so familiar. It was all so infuriating. It was the 2025 season boiled down into three hours of roars, then screams, then sighs.

The gasping, grappling Dodgers needed a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies this week to have any chance at a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs.

Dodgers pitcher Anthony Banda (43) reacts during the first inning of a loss to Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

One game down, and their bullpen has already suffocated them.

They’re not going to get the bye. They couldn’t survive Philly’s first punch. It was the same old story. The Dodgers’ continually vexing relief pitchers gave back a two-run lead, ruined two ensuing comebacks and then were burned for a 10th inning double steal that led to the winning run in the Phillies’ 6-5 victory.

In a scene reminiscent of past October failures, a mournful Dodger Stadium crowd witnessed the Phillies dancing out of their dugout and squeezing into souvenir T-shirts and loudly celebrating on the field after clinching the National League East title.

In a scene also reminiscent of past October failures, just a few steps from the party, the Dodgers clubhouse was deathly quiet.

Max Muncy was asked about the bullpen, which allowed all six Phillies’ runs Monday, including three homers.

“That’s a tough question,” he said.

He attempted to answer it anyway, saying, “It’s frustrating from a team perspective, but they’ve done a great job for us all year and they’ll continue to do a great job.”

Sorry, but there is no spinning out of this mess. This is not a championship bullpen. This is not even a pennant-winning bullpen. This bullpen has been overworked and outmatched and simply outplayed all season, and when the Dodger front office had a chance to fix it at the trade deadline, they did virtually nothing.

It’s everyone’s fault. It’s an organizational failure. This bullpen is going to be the death of them. The slow expiration officially started Monday.

Fueled by fat pitches from Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer and Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen, the Dodgers suffered a loss that may well have ended their hopes of defending their title.

Now trailing the Phillies by 5 ½ games with a dozen games to play, there’s virtually no way the Dodgers can pass them and finish with the National League’s second-best record, which means instead of getting a week off they are headed for a dangerous three-game wild card series.

If they win the West over the San Diego Padres — no guarantee — they will play those three games at home. If they finish second in the West, they will play those three games on the road.

Either way, a team with a cooked bullpen and a sore-handed star catcher and all kinds of uncertainty surrounding their rotation won’t get the advantage of a much-needed rest.

“We want the bye, obviously,” Freddie Freeman told reporters last weekend.

It’s strangely not so obvious to everyone. Throughout the next two weeks there will undoubtedly be experts who will make the argument that the Dodgers don’t really want or need a bye week because it robs the team of its routine and rhythm.

Don’t be a dummy.

Dodgers pitcher Anthony Banda throws from the mound during a loss to the Phillies at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers were desperate for that bye. The Dodgers knew they needed that bye. They knew they needed to rest the relievers, set up a Shohei Ohtani-led rotation, and give Will Smith’s right hand time to heal.

Yes, the bye week bewitched them in 2022 and 2023, when the offense lost its swagger and the Dodgers were beaten in two stunning division series upsets by the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

But, then again, they earned the bye last year and you know how that ended up.

They needed to pass the Phillies. And they needed to start that process this week, as the Phillies’ remaining schedule includes a closing six-game stretch against the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is understandably steering clear of the bye-no bye debate, telling the media, “We’re gonna try to win as many games as we can. … Where it falls out is where is falls out. … I don’t think it matters for me to say how important it is. … I kind of just want to win games and see where it all plays out.”

Here’s how it — ugh — played out Monday:

Banda starts the game as an opener and allows a shot into the right-center field stands by Kyle Schwarber.

Dreyer enters the game with a two-run lead in the seventh and allows a two-run homer to somebody named Weston Wilson.

Vesia allows a go-ahead homer by Bryce Harper in the eighth.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia tosses a rosin bag in frustration after Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper homered at the top of the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Treinen doesn’t hold the runners on base in the 10th, allows a double steal, and JT Realmuto hits the eventual game-winning fly ball.

“I had the guys that I wanted, and that doesn’t always work out,” said Roberts.

It feels like it’s too late to work out.

“Trying to see which guys step up,” said Roberts. “Just gonna try to figure out who’s going to seize the opportunity.”

On Monday night, the opportunity seized them, dragging them into a three-game series that could cost them everything.

Tough to beat a wild card opponent with a bullpen that folds.

It was like Orel Hershiser could hear what Dodger fans were screaming at their TV.

Because, as slumping closer Tanner Scott came trotting into a nightmare ninth inning in Baltimore on Saturday night, the club’s color analyst on SportsNet LA immediately tried to offer a rationalization for his entrance.

“You might be asking, why Tanner Scott tonight?” Hershiser said, moments after the SNLA broadcast showed a clip of the left-hander getting walked off the night before, and moments before he’d get walked off again on a bases-loaded single to end Saturday’s disastrous loss to the Orioles.

Well, Hershiser continued, “If the Dodgers are going to go deep into October, and go back-to-back as world champions, the people Dave Roberts is bringing in have to get it right.”

An unsatisfying answer, perhaps. But one that reflects the precarious reality of the Dodgers’ bullpen situation — with the team feeling little choice but to rely on the high-profile relievers this year’s team was built around.

Granted, Saturday’s collapse epitomized just how difficult that faith has been to maintain.

It starts with Scott, the $72-million offseason signing who was supposed to cement the back end of the unit — not require an explanation from team broadcasters upon entering games in key situations.

It’s been compounded by inconsistencies elsewhere, from similarly scuffling offseason signing Kirby Yates; to Blake Treinen and the unreliable form he has shown since returning from an elbow injury, including a meltdown earlier in Saturday’s ninth inning that forced Scott into an unforgiving situation.

Injuries have also hampered the continuity of the bullpen time and again this season. Hard-throwing right-hander Michael Kopech has been limited to 10 appearances because of arm and knee troubles. Left-handed stalwart Alex Vesia has missed the last two weeks with an oblique strain (though he was set to be activated for this week’s homestand). The team’s only notable trade deadline reliever acquisition, Brock Stewart, made just four outings before going down with a shoulder injury. Evan Phillips is already out for the year with Tommy John surgery. It’s unclear if Brusdar Graterol will return from a shoulder procedure in time to pitch at all this year.

All of those names were supposed to make up the core of this year’s relief unit — the high-leverage pieces that the front office decided to invest in, and Roberts expected he’d be able to trust.

Instead, they’ve been the biggest culprits behind the bullpen’s 4.21 ERA on the season (which ranks 19th in the majors) and a spate of recent painful late-game losses that have kept the Dodgers mired in a two-month slump.

Moving forward, it has left Roberts and his club facing a difficult decision: Continue to trust that underperforming crop of supposed lockdown arms, or look for alternatives from less proven options elsewhere?

For now, the former appears to remain their preferred choice.

If the bullpen is to turn things around, they’ve decided, it will require their biggest names to simply start pitching better.

“These are the guys we signed off on, we believe in,” Roberts said Sunday. “Not to say that you’ve got to have blind faith forever. I understand that. But … I’m going to keep giving [opportunities] to them, until I don’t.”

Pitching coach Mark Prior echoed that same message, reiterating that “those are our guys, and we believe in them,” even as the team searches for late-season improvements.

“The results haven’t been there. It hasn’t been good,” Prior added. “[But we have to] move forward with the three weeks we have left in the season and get on a run. Things happen very fast in this game.”

Prior pointed to last season, when the Dodgers faced other — though much less alarming — bullpen questions leading up to the playoffs. At that time, they didn’t have a set closer in the ninth inning. Several key pieces were either hurt or scuffling in the second half.

Treinen, in particular, was one of the bigger uncertainties, after missing two weeks in August with a hip injury that also doubled as a reset amid a midseason slump. Once he returned, however, the right-hander transformed into the Dodgers’ most trusted late-game option. “Next thing you know, he’s the MVP of our team in the playoffs,” Prior said.

The stability he provided also helped the rest of the bullpen, which effectively carried the Dodgers to their World Series title, flourish around him.

“If they see a guy having some success, things just snowball,” Prior said, describing how successes (and failures) can often feel contagious among a bullpen at large.

That’s the kind of dynamic the Dodgers are trying to rediscover again this year.

It’s why Scott (despite his 4.56 ERA and 12 combined blown saves and losing decisions) keeps getting late-game opportunities. And why Treinen (4.26 ERA), Yates (4.71 ERA) and other disappointments in the Dodgers’ beleaguered relief corps have been given continued leash to work to get back to the best version of themselves.

On paper, those are the most veteran, most experienced, and most trustworthy options on this year’s team. They have, as Roberts has repeatedly reiterated of late, the kind of “track record” the club is still willing to bet on. If just a couple of them can figure things out and get on a dominant run, more unit-wide success might follow in their wake.

“When you’re talking about winning 11 games in October, getting there [requires] guys that you can trust in that hot box of moments,” Roberts said.

“[This] is who we have, it’s not like that’s changing,” Prior added. “So we just gotta keep getting there.”

That doesn’t mean the team will endure more struggles forever. The clock is ticking on the Dodgers’ expected leverage group to finally find a way to realize their potential.

On Sunday morning, for example, Roberts said Scott could be shifted out of his ninth-inning role as he tries to iron out command problems that have led him to consistently miss down the middle. Later that day, the manager entrusted a late-game lead to three rookies in Edgardo Henriquez (who escaped a jam but had shaky command), Justin Wrobleski (who struck out five over two scoreless innings in one of his best outings this year) and Jack Dreyer (a steady left-hander this season who now has three saves to go along with his sub-3.00 ERA) to close out a skid-snapping win against the Orioles.

Come the playoffs, there could be another wild card. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani will likely be needed in the starting rotation, but Roberts acknowledged there have been “thoughts about” whether he could factor into some kind of potential ninth-inning role as well.

“I can’t answer that question right now,” Roberts said. “But I think that we’re going to do whatever we feel is the best chance to give us a chance to win. And I know Shohei would be open to whatever. We certainly haven’t made that decision yet, though.”

But before they get there, much will depend on the actual relievers they expected to be able to count on this season. For as ugly as the performances have been to this point, the Dodgers haven’t yet abandoned all hope for a turnaround.

“I live in a world of, what’s the alternative?” Roberts said. “I just don’t feel that Edgardo Henriquez, for example” — who has 17 career major-league innings — “is now the savior.”

“It’s not a knock on Edgardo, because he’s throwing the heck out of the baseball,” Roberts added. “But you look at our ‘pen, there’s a confidence thing right now that [other guys have] got to get over.”

Over the final three weeks of the regular season, the Dodgers feel their best bet is banking on them to do just that.

“Look, it can turn really quick,” Prior said. “This game is so much about feeling confident … Getting, and being able to stack good outings or quality at-bats. When you’re able to start stacking those things, you feel good. And like anything, if you feel good, you feel better about your stuff. You have more confidence. You feel that you can get anybody out in any situation.”

The Dodgers’ top relievers, of course, appear to be a long way from that at the moment.

But “at the core of it,” Prior insisted, even after the frustrations of the bullpen’s continued failures, “we believe in who we have.”

Sunday was one of those cloudless late-summer Dodger Stadium afternoons in which the flags in center field stirred lazily in the slight breeze and the air felt far hotter than the thermometer said.

The temperature was 83 degrees at the matinee’s first pitch, yet many fans crowded into the top rows of the reserved and loge levels and stood atop the outfield pavilions in search of shade from an unrelenting sun that hovered directly overhead.

As for the Dodgers, they were just as hot as the weather until the bullpen gate swung open at the start of the eighth inning Sunday, with relievers Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia giving up three solo home runs in the span of six batters in a 5-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The deciding run scored when second baseman Ernie Clement drove Vesia’s first pitch over the wall in left field for this eighth homer of the season, ruining another splendid outing from starter Tyler Glasnow and a big offensive day from Shohei Ohtani, who reached base four times before striking out against reliever Mason Fluharty with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Mookie Betts followed by grounding into a force out, the second time in as many innings the Dodgers left the bases loaded. The Dodgers had 10 hits and 13 walks on the afternoon but were one for 10 with runners in scoring position, stranding 16.

Even more important: The loss, combined with the Padres’ win over the Boston Red Sox in San Diego, cut the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two games.

The Blue Jays came to Los Angeles after a three-game sweep of the Rockies in Colorado in which they scored 45 runs and had 63 hits. Against the Dodgers, Toronto scored just three times and had just 17 hits entering the fifth inning. Glasnow did his part, giving up two runs and four hits through 5 2/3 innings, striking out eight. It was his fifth stellar start in six outings since returning from an inflamed shoulder last month and he left with a 3-2 lead, the first time since his first start of the season in March that he left a game with a chance at a win.

But the bullpen couldn’t hold it, with Treinen giving up back-to-back homers to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger with one out in the eighth. After the Dodgers came back to tie the score on a bases-loaded walk to Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the inning, Vesia gave the lead right back in the ninth.

Glasnow, as he has all season, deserved a better fate. He has given up more than two runs just once in his last nine starts and has given up just 20 hits in 34 2/3 innings since returning from the injured list. Yet he has little positive to show for it, with nine of his 11 starts ending with no decision despite a 3.06 ERA and .172 opponents’ batting average.

“I really like the way that he’s got the blinders on it, and nothing’s affecting him,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “To say a player, specifically Tyler, is unflappable is a big compliment, and I think that that’s something he’s worked on because he gets emotional.

“There’s things that you can’t control at times, and his ability to kind of lock back in, he’s been really, really impressive.”

Glasnow got off to a slow start, getting an out on his first pitch then missing the strike zone on five of his next six before Guerrero — who came in hitting .364 lifetime against Glasnow — drove a run-scoring double to the wall in center field.

But by the time Glasnow came out to start the second inning, he had a lead. Ohtani evened the score, lining his 23^rd career leadoff home run into the right-field bleachers to run his hitting streak to nine games, matching his season high. Two outs later, Freeman put the Dodgers in front, slicing an 0-2 pitch over the wall in left-center for his 14^th homer of the season.

Glasnow, who continued to struggle with his control, nearly gave the lead back, loading the bases on two walks sandwiched around a double by Joey Loperfido. But after a mound visit from pitching coach Mark Prior, the right-hander got Nathan Lukes to ground into an inning-ending double play.

That allowed the Dodgers to extend their lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second when Freeman walked with the bases loaded.

Glasnow wouldn’t be in trouble again until the sixth, when Bo Bichette led off with a single and came around to score on a two-out flare to right by Ty France, cutting the lead to 3-2. That drove Glasnow from the mound an out short of the seventh inning.

The Dodgers missed a chance to add to that lead shortly after Glasnow left when Ohtani was thrown out at third on the front end of a double steal with two on and two out and Freeman at the plate to end the sixth. That proved costly when Treinen, the fourth reliever summoned to close out the game, coughed on the lead on the back-to-back homers.

Freeman wouldn’t be denied his next opportunity, drawing his second bases-loaded walk of the game, and the fourth walk of the inning, on a full-count pitch to tie the score with two out in the eighth.

But while the Dodgers would load the bases again the ninth, they would get no more.

Kenley Jansen signed his first professional contract with the Dodgers 21 years ago. He was Clayton Kershaw’s catcher in rookie ball. He has been honored as an All-Star four times. He has saved more games than all but three men in major league history, all of them Hall of Famers. He won a World Series with the Dodgers.

For all that Jansen has accomplished in his two decades in pro ball, there is one thing he has not experienced: He never has been traded.

That could happen in the coming days, with baseball’s trade deadline next Thursday. As we talked about that possibility Friday at Angel Stadium, and about how the sport can be a cold business at times, he dropped 11 words that stood out.

“I thought,” he said, “I would play my whole career with the Dodgers.”

Maybe you can go home again.

The Dodgers are urgently shopping for right-handed relievers. In Anaheim, Jansen is enjoying a season that by some measures is his best since 2021, his last season with the Dodgers.

First things first: Jansen did not sign with the Angels just to rack up saves. He is 36 saves shy of 500, a milestone reached only by Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

“I came here with one goal in mind,” Jansen said, “and the goal was to help this team turn around, to end that playoff drought. That’s what I’m here for.

“If they move me, I’d definitely feel disappointed we didn’t accomplish it.”

But let’s be real: The longest playoff drought in the majors is likely to hit 11 years. The Angels are 4-1/2 games out of a postseason berth, but they would have to pass six teams to sneak into the last wild-card spot in the American League playoffs. Baseball Prospectus projects their chance of making the playoffs at 2%.

The Angels demoted their fifth starter this month. They have been running bullpen games because they had no one in their farm system ready to fill the vacancy. They only have two starters you could pencil into their 2026 rotation.

They need pitching depth, and it would be organizational malpractice not to get some by trading their pending free agents, Jansen included.

Kenley Jansen pitches for the Dodgers against the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the NLCS on Oct. 19, 2021.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For the Angels, the optimal outcome would be a team desperate for a closer overpaying to get Jansen.

However, such a team would be more likely to overpay for the marquee names on the market, including Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins, Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians and Felix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles, with a second tier led by David Bednar of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ryan Helsley of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Dodgers hate to overpay.

Jansen has 17 saves and one blown save, with a 1.00 earned-run average in save situations and a 3.19 ERA overall. The latter is his lowest ERA since 2021. By ERA+, a statistic that accounts for league and ballpark factors, Jansen is at 133 — or 33% better than league average.

The only Dodgers relievers with an ERA+ above 133: left-handers Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer.

Dodgers relievers have thrown 49.1% of the team’s innings pitched; the highest percentage of any major league team. Vesia, Anthony Banda and the injured Tanner Scott rank among the top 20 in appearances. Ben Casparius, who earned his first major league save Friday, ranked second among major league relievers in innings pitched.

In an ideal world, the Dodgers would enter the playoffs with four primary right-handed relievers: Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips.

Phillips is out for the season. Treinen could return from the injured list next week, with Kopech possibly to follow next month and Graterol in September, but it is risky to count on injured players to return healthy and effective.

In a major league career that started in 2010, Jansen never has been on the injured list because of an elbow or forearm issue, and his two stints for shoulder inflammation were brief.

The Dodgers could drop Jansen into their mix of high-leverage right-handers. They would not want Jansen if he would want to be the unquestioned closer.

He is getting the job done as a closer, and he is getting closer to 500 saves. But the Dodgers’ analysts would probably take note of his career highs in exit velocity and hard-hit balls, and a .774 OPS against left-handers that compares unfavorably to his .600 career mark, and might want to spot him against a run of right-handers. Could be the sixth inning, could be the ninth.

Whether it’s the Dodgers or any other contending team, would Jansen consider a role outside the ninth inning?

“At that point, it’s just about getting rings,” Jansen said. “My goal is to win. You play for that, always. I understand there is a milestone I am close to. But, at the end of the day, it’s what you play for. You play to win. You play to win a World Series.

“If I have to go throw the sixth, seventh, eighth, I would do it. I’m a professional. I would do what I do best, and that is pitch.”

Jansen said he hasn’t given up on this Angels team, or this Angels season. He would love to win in Anaheim. The Angels could help him do that: Trade him for another pitching piece that could help them next year, then sign Jansen again over the winter.

When Clayton Kershaw signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers last February, it looked like it could have marked the start of a goodbye tour. The left-hander would take one more trip around the league, then settle into a rocking chair and wait for the Hall of Fame to call.

Instead, Kershaw has shown flashes of the pitcher who won three Cy Young Awards in four seasons, though now he gets by on guile and guts more than curveballs and sliders. On Sunday, however, he was undone by his defense in a 6-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It was the Dodgers’ third loss in as many games since the All-Star break and 10th in a dozen games overall, the team’s worst 12-game slump since 2018.

And the losses keep mounting in other ways as well, with first baseman Freddie Freeman sustaining a left wrist contusion after being hit by a José Quintana pitch in the sixth inning. Freeman is among the Dodgers’ leaders in batting average (.292) and is third in runs (47) and hits (95). With the team already missing third baseman Max Muncy and utility player Kiké Hernández, the possibility of losing Freeman for any stretch would be a significant blow.

The game ended with the slumping Mookie Betts lining out to center field with the bases loaded.

The Dodgers’ rotation has also been battered by injury, which is why Kershaw’s performances have been so important. Despite missing the first seven weeks of the season, he ranks third on the team with 11 starts and has given up two or fewer earned runs in eight of them — including Sunday, when he scattered five hits over 4 1/3 innings, exiting the game with the score tied 3-3 in the fifth.

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the first inning Sunday against the Brewers.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Kershaw, who left without a decision, would have pitched longer had a throwing error by third baseman Tommy Edman and a misplayed fly ball by center fielder Andy Pages not extended the Brewers’ fourth inning twice, forcing Kershaw to throw 29 pitches in the inning. And he battled to get that far, working with a fastball that rarely topped 90 mph and a curve he bounced to the plate more than once.

“It just speaks to the guy,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts before the game. “Even when he doesn’t have his best on that particular day, he does what’s called of him each time out.”

“He has adjusted, as far as using his whole pitch mix more,” Roberts continued. “He’s incorporating a lot more pitches and trying to keep guys more off a particular set, attacking guys differently.”

The Dodgers (58-42) gave Kershaw an early lead with a three-run third. Pages led with a double to left, then scored on a line-drive sacrifice fly by Dalton Rushing. After Betts followed with a single, Shohei Ohtani sliced a 2-0 sinker over the left-field wall for league-leading his 34th home run.

The defense gave all three runs back in the fourth with a two-out throwing error by Edman letting in a run and Pages misplaying a ball that bounced off his glove near the warning track in center for a tying double.

Esteury Ruiz’s first home run for the Dodgers put them back in front in the fifth, but the Brewers (59-40) went in front to stay in sixth, scoring three times off relievers Alex Vesia and Lou Trivino (3-1) on a double, three singles and a walk.

The Dodgers’ bullpen earned-run average of 4.38 ranks 12th in the 15-team National League. The team hasn’t gotten a scoreless game from its bullpen since July 3.

After Rushing’s bases-loaded infield single pulled the Dodgers to within a run in the ninth, Betts, who was elevated to the leadoff spot in the order in an effort to end a slump that had seen him start July hitting .174 with as many strikeouts as hits, lined out to center. He finished one for five, dropping his average to .240.

Notes: Pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen made rehab appearances for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Snell, who has been on the injured list since April 6 because of left shoulder inflammation, made 58 pitchers over four innings, giving up a run on four hits while striking out six. It was his third rehab appearance. Treinen, out since April 19 with a forearm strain, followed with a perfect fifth inning in which he struck out two. He could return to the Dodgers’ roster this week.

Clayton Kershaw was named to his 11^th All-Star Game on Sunday by Commissioner Rob Manfred, who used his “Legend Pick” to select the Dodgers’ left-hander. Kershaw (4-0) is one of just 20 pitchers in baseball history to strike out 3,000 batters.

He’ll be joined on the N.L. team by right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who leads the Dodgers in wins (8), strikeouts (109), innings (96 2/3) and ERA (2.51). First baseman Freddie Freeman, catcher Will Smith and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani were chosen as NL starters last week. The All-Star Game will be played July 15 in Atlanta.

Injury update

The Dodgers’ injury-battered pitching staff could soon be getting healthier. Right-hander Tyler Glasnow threw a bullpen Sunday in preparation for what Roberts will be a return to the rotation during the Dodgers’ six-game roadtrip. Glasnow has been out sine April 28 with shoulder discomfort. He had a 4.50 ERA in five starts before going on the IL.

Left-hander Blake Snell and reliever Blake Treinen are both scheduled to make minor-league rehab assignments this week in advance for their return to the roster. Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, as been sidelined since April 2 with a shoulder injury, is expected to pitch for Class A Rancho Cucamonga. Treinen, who last pitched in mid-April, is expected to make a one-inning outing with Triple A Oklahoma City. He is recovering from a right forearm strain.