Bullpen Makeup in the Championship Years

I thought it would be interesting and appropriate to look at the Dodger bullpens in the seasons they won the World Series. This is simply because so much of what I have read lately on our site pertains to the makeup for the post-season of our relief staff.

For the record, the 1955 team used 15 pitchers during the season. Five were primarily starters, Newcombe, Erskine, Podres, Meyer, and Loes. Several made spot starts, Craig, Labine, Spooner, Koufax, Lasorda, and Bessent. Six different pitchers recorded saves, with Roebucks 12 leading the team. Labine, Craig, Spooner, Bessent, and Hughes. Labine, who appeared in 60 games, started eight and relieved in 52 to lead the team. Roebuck had 47 appearances, all in relief. Labine had one complete game as a starter. Craig had 3. Don Bessant’s 2.70 ERA was the best among the relievers. He also posted an 8-1 record. The only save recorded by the pen in the World Series belonged to Labine, who also threw a complete game win. Bessant appeared in 3 games and did not give up a run. Podres, who was the series MVP, threw two complete games.

The 1959 Dodgers were a mixture of old Brooklyn vets and a bunch of kids trying to make their mark. They also had several journeymen players who would contribute to the season. They employed, once again, 15 pitchers during the season. The five starters were Podres, Drysdale, Koufax, Craig, and Danny McDevitt. The ten pitchers who comprised the pen over the year were Labine, Stan Williams, Larry Sherry, Art Fowler, Johnny Klippstein, Chuck Churn, Gene Snyder, Carl Erskine, Fred Kipp, and Bill Harris. Harris got into one game and Kipp two. Erskine was at the end of his career and retired in June. Williams, Sherry, and Snyder all made spot starts. Labine led the team with eight saves. Erskine, Churn, Sherry, Fowler, and Klippstein recorded the rest. In the Series, Sherry would be their main go-to guy. He would record two wins and two saves and win the Series MVP award.

The 1963 team used 14 different pitchers during the season. The starters threw 50 complete games. Koufax, Drysdale, and Podres were the big three. Bob Miller and Pete Richert were the other two. Ron Perranoski was the closer, and he finished with a 16-3 record and 21 saves in 69 games. His bullpen mates were Larry Sherry, Ed Roebuck, and Dick Calmus; in his only MLB season with the Dodgers, Nick Wilhite and Ken Rowe. The bullpen got exactly 2/3rds of an inning of work in the Series. Perranoski came in to save Podres’ game-two win. Koufax pitched two complete games and Drysdale one as they swept the Yankees. And so far, they earned the only WS title win on their home field. All of the others have been won on the road, or in the case of 2020, at a neutral site.

1965

In 1965, the Dodger pitching staff was led by a three-headed monster that won 64 of their 97 wins. They used basically a 5-man bullpen consisting of Perranoski, Bob Miller, Howie Reed, Jim Brewer, and Nick Wilhite. Perranoski had 18 saves, Miller 9, Brewer 2, Reed and Wilhite, one each. John Purdin, Mike Kekich, and Bill Singer had minor roles. Miller was in the most games, 61. Reed had 7 wins, Miller and Perry 6 each. Brewer won 3 and Purdin and Wilhite, two each. In the World Series against the Twins, no saves were recorded. The only time the relief pitchers made an appearance was in the three losses. All four wins were complete game victories by the starters.

1981 was, as we all know, a strike year. It was also the first time in the playoff era that the Dodgers would win a championship. They had lost their first three playoff era World Series in 74-77 and 78. But this was the year of Fernando. They used a 4-man rotation, and nine different pitchers spent time in the pen. Steve Howe led in appearances and saves with 41 and 8. Dave Goltz, Bobby Castillo, Dave Stewart, and Terry Forster were the main guys behind him. Rick Sutcliffe, Tom Neidenfuer, Alejandro Pena, and Ted Power also got into some games. Goltz, who was supposed to be their big free agent starter from the year before, stunk up the joint as a reliever losing seven and posting an ERA north of 5. Stewart and Howe had ERA’s around 2.50. In the first round of the playoffs, against the Astros, no saves were recorded. Ruess and Fernando had complete game wins, and Hooton won his game by 5. In the NLCS, the only save was recorded by Bob Welch in Game 5 in Montreal. In the series against the Yankees, Howe got the only save and also a win.

The 1988 team basically went with a 5-man pen. They were pretty good. Alejandro Pena and Brian Holton had sub-2 ERAs. Howell had a 2.08 ERA and 21 saves. Pena saved 12. Holton saved one and won 7. Tim Crews went 4-0 out of the pen, and Jesse Orosco saved 9. In the NLCS, Howell was ineffective, and if memory serves me correctly, he got a suspension for having a file in his glove. So the bulk of the work went to Holton, Ricky Horton, and Pena. They each worked four innings in the series. Holton and Pena got saves, and Pena was tagged with a loss in game 3. The other save belonged to Hershiser in game 4. They used four relievers in the Series against the A’s, Holton, Leary, Howell, and Pena. Howell got the only save.

During the shortened 2020 season, the pen was a very important part of the team. Since spring training had been split into two parts, and they were only going to play 60 games, the starters would not be going deep into games, and in many instances, they were piggybacked. Fifteen pitchers would make appearances out of the pen. Jansen was the closer. Fifteen saves were recorded by the bullpen, and Jansen had 11 of them. Only Pedro Baez, with 2, had multiple saves besides Jansen. But the bullpen had six pitchers record at least three wins. Jansen, Treinen, Floro, McGee, Kolarek, and Gonzalez. The starting staff only had one pitcher with more than three wins, Kershaw with 6. Ferguson and Alexander won 2 out of the pen. After the season was done, instead of the normal two series to get to the World Series, they would have to navigate 3 Series. They beat the Brewers 2-0 and advanced to play the Padres in the Division Series. Graterol and Jansen earned saves against the Brewers. Except for game 2, which was saved by Joe Kelly, they rolled the Pads in 3 and advanced to the NLCS against Atlanta. By game 5, they were down 3-1 and in a huge hole late in the game trailing by 2. A great play by Mookie had kept Atlanta’s lead at two when he made a shoestring catch and doubled Ozuna off of third because he left too soon. Late thunder came from a 3-run bomb by Will Smith and another by Corey Seager, and they held on for a 7-3 win credited to Treinen. Game 6 saw Buehler stifle the Braves for 6 and then Treinen, Baez and Jansen shut the door. Game 7 was a nail-biter. The two openers, Gonsolin and May, put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole. The pen started its work in the 4th inning. Treinen went two scoreless, then Graterol threw a scoreless inning. In somewhat of a surprise, Roberts went to Urias with the game tied in the 7th. Bellinger’s homer off of Chris Martin untied it, and Julio totally shut down Atlanta, and the Dodgers were on their way to the Series to face the Rays.

The pen got a lot of use in the Series. In game one, Kershaw was masterful over six innings, and the team gave him an 8-1 lead when he left the game. Floro gave up 2 in the 7th, but Gonzalez came in and shut the Rays down. Baez and Kelly finished the game with scoreless innings. The game two loss was decided early when the Rays built up a 5-0 lead off of Gonsolin and May, and Gonzalez by the 5th inning. Kelly gave up another in the 6th, and the Rays held the Dodgers off for a 6-4 win. In Game 3, Buehler took matters into his own hands and shut the Rays down through 6 strong innings. Treinen and Graterol each threw a scoreless frame, and then Jansen came in to pitch the 9th. He allowed a two-out homer to Arozarena and then got the last out.

Game 4 was a see-saw affair, which saw each side getting and then losing the lead. Urias, who started, was not sharp and gave up 2 in his four innings of work. 2 homers were hit off of him. Blake Treinen was also ineffective and gave up 2 in 2/3rds of an inning. The Dodgers had a one-run lead in the 7th, and Baez gave up his second homer and had a blown save. Kolarek and Graterol held the Rays scoreless in the 8th after LA had scored in the top of the inning, and Jansen came in to lock down the win….Ooops. What happened in that 9th inning was surreal to me. We had all seen Jansen’s high wire act before, but this bordered on the unnatural. Jansen struck out Tsutsugo. Kiermaier hit a soft single to right. Wendle hit a hard liner to Pederson for the second out. Jansen then walked Arozarena bringing up Brett Phillips, who had just come into the game. With two strikes, Phillips hit a flair that just made it over the glove of the second baseman, Kike Hernandez; it looked like the game would be tied, but Taylor misplayed the ball, and Arozarena, seeing his bobble dashed towards home, but he tripped and headed back to third, when he saw Taylor’s throw misplayed by Smith, so he reversed direction and scored the winning run. I am pretty sure this little episode, and the homer he allowed the previous game, would factor into Roberts’s decision not to use Jansen to close game six a couple of days later.

All of the scoring in game five was done by the 5th inning. Both pens did great jobs. Kershaw gave up the only runs the Rays would score in the 3rd inning. After he left the game in the 6th, May, Gonzalez, and Treinen shut the Rays down for the 4-2 win. Treinen getting a save. Game 6 saw the Dodgers use an opener again. Gonsolin was ineffective but ended up allowing only one run because Floro came in and struck out Arozarena with a couple of runners on. Wood, Baez, Gonzalez, and Graterol would follow while LA tried to figure out Blake Snell. Through 5, Snell was dominant. He struck out nine and had not allowed a hit. Then in the 6th, with one out, he gave up a sharp single to center by Austin Barnes. Inexplicably, the manager, Kevin Cash, pulled Snell from the game with Betts coming to the plate. Nick Anderson came in. Betts then hit a screamer down the line for a double. Barnes scored on a wild pitch, and then Mookie scored on a grounder to first and beat the throw home. Betts then added an 8th-inning homer off of Pete Fairbanks and Julio Urias, who entered the game in the 7th, did the rest. Striking out Willie Adames for the last out and securing the Dodger’s first title since 1988.

So, who will be the Lockdown Man this time? Getting there is not going to be a walk in the park. Since the Dodgers have dominated the league for most of the year, a target is firmly on their back.