PHILADELPHIA — The National League Division Series will ramble westward with two bullpens in disarray.
One team has lost two games because of it. The other has gotten creative to minimize the damage.
The Phillies Monday night finally showed what they can do to a Dodgers bullpen that is the weak link in a gilded chain. But it came too late to save them from a 4-3 defeat and an 0-2 hole in the series.
That’s because the Dodgers again feasted on the opening offered by the Phillies bullpen. They turned a glimmer of a rally into a crooked number in the seventh inning, the runs scored with Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm on the mound enough to make the difference.
The teams entered the playoffs with pedestrian bullpen numbers: Matching ERAs of 4.27, ranking 20th and 21st in baseball. The Phillies have trust in closer Jhoan Duran, but little in middle relief.
The Dodgers had 12 different players record saves, one of the units most hit by losing the most man-games in baseball. Ostensible closer Tanner Scott, between injuries and a 4.74 ERA, lost that job. Not among the dozen is the man they’ve turned to in the postseason, 23-year-old Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki. In the Wild Card series, Dodgers relievers allowed three runs in Game 1 and two in Game 2.
Dodgers boss Dave Roberts has, despite himself, managed to not let that translate into losses yet. Of the myriad regrets the Phillies will pack for their voyage west, the biggest may be this: They only forced the faltering parts of the Dodgers bullpen to record three outs in two games.
The Phillies allowed both Dodgers starters, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell, to work six innings. On Saturday, Roberts needed six outs to bridge to Sasaki. Five came from Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow, lefty Alex Vesia entering to extinguish a fire in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded and Brandon Marsh due up. Vesia got pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa to fly out to center.
Phillies relief pitcher Matt Strahm throws during the seventh inning in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Monday, Roberts called on Emmet Sheehan, who made 12 of his 15 appearances as a starter this year, to follow Snell with a 4-0 lead in the seventh. Sheehan got six outs, allowing Max Kepler to triple and score on a Trea Turner base hit to make it 4-1 after eight.
It was only when Roberts turned to his regular relievers, trying not to overuse Sasaki, that the Phillies awakened. The most dependable of an undependable bunch, Blake Treinen and Vesia, got two outs with the lead barely intact.
“He hasn’t gone two out of three much at all,” Roberts said of Sasaki. “Just figuring the run right there. Blake’s pitched some of the biggest outs, innings, in the postseason for us. And felt really confident right there. And with Vesia behind him if needed. … I felt good with who we had, with our leverage relievers, a couple of our highest-leverage relievers.”
Treinen faced three batters. He retired none. Last year’s Game 5 World Series hero has an ERA of 11.74 since Sept. 6. Monday, the righty allowed Alec Bohm to single, J.T. Realmuto to double and Nick Castellanos to bloop a double that made it 4-3 and put the tying run 180 feet away with none out.
Vesia came in to face a bottom of the order stocked with lefties freed from the bench after Snell’s exit. The Dodgers out-executed Bryson Stott’s sacrifice attempt, with Max Muncy and Mookie Betts getting Castellanos at third. Vesia allowed a single to Harrison Bader and got a fielder’s choice out from Kepler, but still needed Sasaki to bail him out against Turner.
Where Roberts has used surplus starters to circumvent balky relievers, Rob Thomson held Ranger Suarez in reserve for Games 1 and 2, then opted not to start him in Game 3. He hasn’t gone to Duran until after they’ve trailed. Instead, he’s wheeled out David Robertson and Kerkering and Strahm with varying degrees of ineffectiveness, the latest October bullpen swoon.
The numbers under Thomson are brutal. Since the start of the 2024 postseason (six games), the Phillies bullpen has allowed 21 earned runs in 19 innings, an ERA of 9.95. Potentially worse, they’ve allowed 16 of 22 inherited runners to score.
Strahm started his Phillies career with seven straight scoreless playoff outings in 2023. He’s allowed runs in three of the last five, plus allowing an inherited runner to score Monday. Whether it was Jose Alvarado running out of gas in the 2022 postseason or Craig Kimbrel in 2023 or Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez last year, every option the Phillies have used has turned into a pumpkin at midnight.
That ineptitude is one game away from costing the Phillies a fourth straight postseason.