Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
Tonight was the annual FamFest outdoor movie at 10-year-old Youngest Master Weisman’s school. That meant I could not be in front of the television during tonight’s Dodger game. I could not be in front of the television.
By Jon Weisman
Adam Liberatore, who had a 0.85 WHIP and 0.61 ERA before the All-Star Break but 1.95 WHIP and 9.45 ERA after, is expected to undergo an arthroscopic left elbow debridement Tuesday, which should allow him to return for the 2017 season.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache will perform the operation in Los Angeles on Liberatore, who set a franchise record July 9 with his 24th consecutive scoreless appearance. Alex Wood recently returned to action after a similar procedure in July.
Liberatore was placed on the disabled list August 3 (retroactive to July 30), and pitched 9 1/3 innings in 14 games thereafter with a 9.64 ERA and 18 baserunners.
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
The best part of tonight’s game at Colorado for the Dodgers is that Corey Seager didn’t appear to be seriously hurt by either of the two pitches that hit him.
Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Bud Norris and Adam Liberatore have been activated from the disabled list by the Dodgers, who optioned Ross Stripling and Casey Fien to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Norris, who is starting tonight, has a 4.34 ERA in seven games (six starts) for the Dodgers, including his most recent appearance July 31, when he left after facing two batters.
By Jon Weisman
Some quick Dodger pitching updates for before the game:
By Miranda Perez
Here are a few highlights from Tuesday the Dodger farm system, including one outing where the hits stopped coming:
By Jon Weisman
Here’s a recap and look ahead at the state of Dodger pitching, based on Dave Roberts’ comments to reporters today:
By Jon Weisman
A flurry of moves have been made by the Dodgers before tonight’s game in Colorado.
Louis Coleman (right shoulder fatigue) and Adam Liberatore (left elbow inflammation) have been placed on the disabled list. For Liberatore, the transaction is retroactive to July 30.
Joining the Dodgers from Triple-A Oklahoma City are pitchers Julio Urías and newly acquired Josh Fields. In addition, outfielder Andrew Toles has been optioned to Oklahoma City to make room for tonight’s starting pitcher, Brock Stewart.
By Jon Weisman
Some quick Dodger injury updates, mostly courtesy of Dave Roberts:
By Jon Weisman
In the Dodgers’ final inning before the All-Star Break, the best closer in the National League, Kenley Jansen, entered the game to protect a one-run lead against the fourth-place team in the National League West.
At that moment, the Dodger bullpen was several weeks into an extended resurgence that was forcing fans and media alike to unlearn everything it thought it knew about the team’s relievers. It progressed in stages, as if reversing the five stages of grief.
Dodger bullpen failures have been branded into the collective memory of recent years, the scar tissue making it nearly impossible for most to feel the moments when the relievers were doing well — which, of course, was more often than the distraught and cynical could concede.
But by the time Jansen took the mound Sunday, the bullpen’s growing success was no longer possible to ignore.
Dodger relievers lead the Major Leagues with a 2.83 ERA. They lead the Major Leagues with a 1.02 WHIP.
In fact, as Dodger broadcaster Joe Davis pointed out, the Dodger bullpen’s opponents batting average of .192 is currently the lowest in modern baseball history. The team’s WHIP is the lowest in NL history.
That’s extraordinary. And that’s not wishcasting. That’s something that has been happening. The Dodger bullpen has become the opposite of an albatross. It’s a primary reason that, despite the “I Love Lucy” chocolate conveyor belt of injuries, that Los Angeles (51-40) is on a 91-win pace and once again a team to be reckoned with.
In terms of inherited runners stranded, the Dodgers were seventh among MLB teams at 72 percent — in the upper echelon but with room for improvement. The good news — the great news — is that the improvement is already underway.
![Image-1[47]](https://mlblogsdodgers.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/image-147.jpg)
Adam Liberatore has become a key face in the Dodger bullpen. (Not pictured: Adam Liberatore)
On Pups in the Park Day at Dodger Stadium, Adam Liberatore struck out both batters he faced to set a Dodger record with his 24th consecutive scoreless appearance, helping preserve a 4-3 Dodger victory over San Diego.
The 29-year-old Liberatore has thrown 18 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings during the streak, retiring 54 of 66 batters, 23 of them on strikeouts. Two of 14 baserunners he has inherited have scored, both harmlessly enough in Dodger victories.
Matthew Mesa/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
As this sentence was being written, the Dodgers and Orioles were tied, 4-4, in the ninth inning. At that moment, two things were certain:
If there were going to be a Dodger hero today, a fine young man carried off the field, it would be a hitter.
And some Dodger reliever would either be a goat, or lost in the shuffle.
So what happened?
In the Dodgers’ longest game since they played 17 innings at San Diego on May 22 — on a day that Chase Utley became the first Dodger to have six hits since Shawn Green’s memorable day in Milwaukee on May 23, 2002 — Jonathan Schoop hit a two-out, sinking line drive in the 14th inning that barely eluded Trayce Thompson’s glove, driving in two runs for a 6-4 Baltimore win.
Chris Hatcher, who had thrown 31 pitches the previous night, took the loss. He also had the burden of making the final out, with the bases loaded, long after the Dodgers ran out of pinch-hitters.
Painful as that is for Dodger fans to process, the Dodger bullpen deserves a collective bow. In the six games of this homestand — in the midst of what has really become a rebirth for the relief core — Dodger relievers have done the following.
The bullpen has averaged approximately five innings and 80 pitches per game for the past six games, yet had a 0.94 ERA on the homestand before the game-winning hit.
Dodger relievers are on pace to throw 524 innings this year, which believe it or not, would not be a record. In 2009, a National League Championship Series season, the Dodger bullpen racked up 553 innings.
Footnote: The Dodgers and Orioles combined to set a Dodger Stadium single-game strikeout record with 36. The previous Dodger Stadium strikeout record of 32 was originally set by the Padres and Dodgers in a 17-inning game June 27, 1989, and matched in an 18-inning Braves-Dodgers game August 3, 1996.
Also, Adam Liberatore, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning of relief, has made 23 consecutive scoreless appearances, tying the franchise record set by John Candelaria in 1991.
Ross Stripling, whose season began with 7 1/3 no-hit innings April 8 in San Francisco, pitched three shutout innings Sunday in his relief debut. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Regrouping after throwing 582 pitches in three games at San Diego — and losing one of their pitchers to the disabled list in the process — the Dodgers are bringing up two fresh arms for their pitching staff.
Adam Liberatore has struck out 11 in nine Cactus League innings this year.
By Jon Weisman
The Dodgers are down to two left-handers in their Major League bullpen after optioning Adam Liberatore to the minors following the team’s 5-4 victory Monday over Texas.
The question now is, will they go down to one?
Since we last checked in on the bullpen, it has been whittled in predictable fashion, leaving the following:
Adam Liberatore (center) joined Mike Bolsinger and Joc Pederson on a coffee run June 25 outside Wrigley Field, as Dave Strumpf filmed for SportsNet LA. (Jon SooHoo).
By Jon Weisman
Rookie reliever Adam Liberatore has been brought up to Los Angeles to give the Dodgers another lefty option out of the bullpen for the stretch run.
Liberatore had been with Triple-A Oklahoma City since shortly after the All-Star Break. This is the third time he has been recalled in 2015.
From April 17-May 30, Liberatore had allowed only three runs and 10 baserunners in 14 innings, with 14 strikeouts. Thereafter, he maintained his strikeout rate, but allowed 10 runs and 21 baserunners in 12 innings.
In Triple-A, the 28-year-old allowed 29 baserunners in 21 2/3 innings, striking out 18. He last pitched in a game September 11, when he threw his sixth consecutive scoreless inning.
In other bullpen news, with a baby due at any moment, right-hander Jim Johnson will be soon be away from the team on paternity leave, Don Mattingly said.
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