TORONTO — The bases were loaded with none out, Game 1 of the World Series was still tied, and a sold-out Rogers Centre crowd was going berserk when Emmet Sheehan came out of the bullpen in Friday’s sixth inning.
Sheehan is a 25-year-old with fewer than 150 career innings in the major leagues. Before that moment, he had checked into the middle of an inning only once before, while following an opener Sept. 15. What followed — a nine-run barrage that propelled the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-4 rout in their first World Series game in 32 years — highlighted a glaring weakness the Los Angeles Dodgers carry into this final round:
If their starters don’t pitch deep into games, they’re in trouble.
“Just a tough game,” Dodgers ace Blake Snell said after recording just 15 outs, “but a lot to learn.”
On the eve of this World Series, the Dodgers learned that Alex Vesia, one of their best relievers, was dealing with what the team described as a “deeply personal family matter” that would force his removal from the roster. Vesia’s absence essentially whittled down the list of trusted high-leverage relievers to four: Sheehan, Anthony Banda, Blake Treinen and Roki Sasaki. Two of them, Sheehan and Sasaki, are converted starting pitchers.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hoped to give Sheehan only clean innings in these playoffs. But when Snell’s 100th pitch plunked Daulton Varsho in the upper back to load the bases with the score tied 2-2, it was Sheehan who was called to clean up the mess. When he put the next three hitters on base, it was Banda’s turn. And by the end of Banda’s outing — featuring the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, courtesy of Addison Barger, and a two-run homer by Alejandro Kirk — the Blue Jays had become the first team to score at least nine runs in a World Series inning since the Detroit Tigers in 1968.
“We just didn’t make pitches when we needed to to keep that game close,” Roberts said.
Sheehan allowed an RBI single to Ernie Clement on his second pitch, giving the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead, their first of the game. Then he lost pinch-hitter Nathan Lukes on a full count, issuing a bases-loaded walk, and left a changeup over the plate that Andres Gimenez lined for another run-scoring single. Banda was called on to face the left-handed-hitting Barger, but a 2-1 slider caught too much of the plate, resulting in the 413-foot home run that elated Blue Jays fans. Three batters later, Kirk hit Banda’s 1-0 fastball near the middle of the zone 403 feet.
It was the first time Banda had allowed two home runs in an appearance, and it came at the worst time.
“I just didn’t do a very good job of executing,” Banda said.
With Vesia off the roster, Evan Phillips recovering from Tommy John surgery and Michael Kopech no longer considered viable, Banda and Treinen are the only remaining back-end relievers from last year’s bullpen-fueled championship run. The two relievers signed over the offseason to supplement that group, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, struggled throughout the year and were not deemed healthy enough to crack the World Series roster. It’s why Treinen and Banda are so critical, even during up-and-down seasons. It’s why Sheehan, a breakout starting pitcher who has allowed seven runs in 3⅔ innings this postseason, needs to pitch better.
“With the construct of our pen, we’re going to need them,” Roberts said. “We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of baseball, but they certainly got to make good pitches.”
The Dodgers’ pitching staff held the Milwaukee Brewers to four runs while sweeping them in the National League Championship Series, during which they deployed only their best pitchers. Sasaki, Vesia and the Dodgers’ four starters — Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani — accounted for all but nine of the Dodgers’ outs in that series, a byproduct of their rotation’s dominance.
In this series, though, they face a Blue Jays lineup that is every bit as patient but far more powerful than Milwaukee’s. Snell, lacking his typical fastball command and struggling to locate his changeup, needed 29 pitches to escape the first inning and ran his pitch count into the triple digits before recording his first out in the sixth. In five-plus innings, he allowed eight hits and issued three walks. When he exited, the bullpen was tasked with recording 12 outs.
Before the relievers recorded three, the game was essentially over.
“We’re confident,” Snell said of a Dodgers team that entered the World Series with a 9-1 record in these playoffs. “We know how good we are. That was a tough game, and then they came out swinging it and had a better game. It’s four games. You got to win four.”
