Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts reaffirmed his trust in relief pitcher Blake Treinen after the Dodgers’ 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Treinen entered the game for starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan — who threw seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts — in the eighth inning, and issued two walks while allowing three hits. The Giants scored all three of their runs off of Treinen in the eighth inning.
“At the end of the day, there are certain guys I’m going to go to in leverage, and certain guys I’m not going to go to, and my trust in him is unwavering — I still feel confident in him,” Roberts said of Treinen.
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Treinen is having a rough month of September, as Sunday’s outing gave him his fifth loss of the month and raised his ERA to 11.57. Sunday was the third time this month Treinen has allowed three runs in a game. While Roberts had Treinen’s back, he also stated he needs to take performances into account when choosing someone to come into the game in relief in high-leverage situations.
“I’ve got to trust what I’m seeing, and not solely bet on the person or track record,” Roberts added. “We all need to see a couple good outings but most importantly, I want to see his confidence up. And to be quite honest, I think that right now he’s just not as confident in himself as I am in him.
“The main thing is that we got to get that confidence back.”
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Treinen, as well as the rest of the Dodgers bullpen, have just six games remaining to straighten themselves out before the postseason. Their next opportunity to do so comes on the road after a rest day Monday. They will begin their penultimate series of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. PT.
The Dodgers already have a spot in the postseason locked down, and are close to locking up the division. Their magic number for a fourth consecutive NL West title is three.
Photo Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images
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