Dodgers starting pitchers offer amazing relief, rest for bullpen

That could have been worse.Much worse.While Emmet Sheehan’s implosion Sunday forced the Dodgers to deploy six relievers in a 13-5 loss to the Angels, the surprise bullpen game shouldn’t have any lasting effects — and not just because they aren’t scheduled to play Monday.With Roki Sasaki pitching seven innings in the series opener Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking down eight Saturday, the Dodgers hadn’t asked much of their relievers in the first two games of the series.That wasn’t just the case against the Angels.The starters’ performance has decreased the bullpen’s load by several orders of magnitude. Dodgers relievers have combined to pitch 206 ⅔ innings this season, the fewest of any bullpen in baseball.That marks a dramatic change from last season when their bullpen led the majors in innings pitched.Because of that, manager Dave Roberts said he was hopeful the bullpen would not only be relatively fresh for the team’s upcoming six-game trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago but also maintain stability throughout the season.Last year, their bullpen’s inability to close out games in the middle of the season allowed the Padres to hang around them in the National League West.“Obviously, if you get length out of your starters, that’s always a good thing,” Roberts said.“If we can kind of manage their innings, put them in their rightful lanes, that’s a benefit now and longer term.“It’s always kind of contingent on the starters doing what they’ve been doing.”The starters have been taking down more innings than any rotation in baseball, 375 ⅔ of them to be exact.Without question, Roberts’ fealty to a six-man rotation has played a part in that.

Because they’re pitching less frequently than starters on other teams, members of the Dodgers’ rotation are better-rested and therefore able to get deeper into games when they take the mound.The Dodgers are uniquely positioned to have six starters.Shohei Ohtani’s status as a two-way p...