{"id":726078,"date":"2026-06-14T22:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/726078\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T22:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:45:26","slug":"once-dominant-dodgers-bullpen-unravels-again-in-loss-to-white-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/726078\/","title":{"rendered":"Once-dominant Dodgers bullpen unravels again in loss to White Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHICAGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers<\/a> left-hander Jack Dreyer<\/a> rubbed a new baseball between his hands as he walked back to the mound, a sold-out Rate Field coming alive around him.<\/p>\n

Fireworks crackled over the center-field scoreboard. Digital pinwheels spun. Dreyer had just surrendered his second home run of the inning, transforming a low-scoring battle into a lopsided White Sox advantage.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 recent bullpen problems persisted in a 6-4 loss<\/a> Sunday, overshadowing a bounce-back effort from Emmet Sheehan<\/a>. The Dodgers tried to come back in the ninth, but fell short.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten bit by the long ball, obviously in Pittsburgh, and here tonight,\u201d said bench coach Danny Lehmann, filling in Sunday for manager Dave Roberts while he attended his daughter\u2019s college graduation. \u201cBut overall, it\u2019s more the strike throwing and just getting ahead of guys and doing what they\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers dropped the series 2-1, marking their first series loss since May 8-10 against the Braves.<\/p>\n

Sheehan was charged with three runs in five-plus innings, a massive turnaround coming off the second-shortest start of his career, only rivaled by a planned one-inning outing at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Against the Angels last week<\/a>, Sheehan threw 49 pitches and recorded just four outs before being pulled.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he didn\u2019t give up a hit until the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got strike one and then understood when to leave the zone when he needed to,\u201d catcher Dalton Rushing said. \u201cHe did a great job of that. I think a couple of those guys picked up on tendencies, jumped on a pitch. I felt they were good pitches. I thought he did his job today and gave us a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheehan\u2019s velocity has been an indicator of how synced up his delivery has been on any given start this season.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, his 95.1-mph average fastball velocity was 0.7 mph above his season average, according to Statcast \u2014 a promising sign. Results followed.<\/p>\n

Sheehan retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced, just a hit batter away from perfection. With two outs in the fourth, he gave up a double to Colson Montgomery, on a low line drive up the first-base line, just out of reach of Freddie Freeman as he made a diving attempt.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers against the Chicago White Sox in the first inning Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Nam Y. Huh \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Then against Braden Montgomery, Sheehan worked back from a 2-1 count for an inning-ending strikeout.<\/p>\n

Out of Sheehan\u2019s hand, the pitch looked like it was going to cross the plate on the inside corner, about belt high. But as Montgomery started his swing, the firm changeup veered away from his bat at a sharp downward angle.<\/p>\n

Montgomery swung over the pitch. A fired-up Sheehan buried his fist in his glove and shouted. With that strikeout, he preserved the Dodgers\u2019 one-run lead.<\/p>\n

Freeman provided that run with a solo homer in the first inning. And Sheehan gave the Dodgers plenty of time to extend that lead. In the sixth inning, however, the White Sox finally got to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely felt better early,\u201d Sheehan said. \u201cAnd then more of the same towards the end. Just pretty frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheehan\u2019s fastball to Sam Antonacci wasn\u2019t in a bad spot. But in an 0-2 count, he could have put it a little higher or further inside. Antonacci drove it over the right-field fence.<\/p>\n

A single, a stolen base and an RBI double later, Sheehan walked off the mound, the Dodgers trailing 2-1.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks ago, turning the ball over to the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen was a promising move. They were still riding a franchise-record streak of 38 consecutive scoreless innings.<\/p>\n

Lately, however, it\u2019s been a rocky ride. The bullpen entered Sunday with a 6.71 ERA since ending that scoreless streak on May 25. Only the Giants and Rockies produced a worse mark over that stretch.<\/p>\n

None of the Dodgers\u2019 relievers have been dominant in recent games. Tanner Scott has been credited with three saves but also two losses. Kyle Hurt\u2019s ERA has risen from 0.60 to 4.22. Dreyer, who went 10 straight games without giving up a run before landing on the injured list with left shoulder discomfort, has surrendered five home runs in seven appearances since returning on May 31.<\/p>\n

Dreyer gave up three runs and three hits. Then Blake Treinen and Jonathan Hern\u00e1ndez held the White Sox the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers tacked on three more runs, on a sacrifice fly and an RBI double from Alex Freeland, and a solo homer from Mookie Betts. They stranded runners at the corners in the ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer rubbed a new baseball between his hands as he walked back to the mound,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,6080,138,49,2561,39,16922,7907,90664,815,1987,2493,20515,90663,4,85952,7879,3215,6096,396,2562],"class_list":["post-726078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-dodgers","tag-dodgers-bullpen","tag-emmet-sheehan","tag-franchise-record-streak","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-inning","tag-jack-dreyer","tag-last-season","tag-loss-sunday","tag-mlb","tag-one-run-lead","tag-pitch","tag-run","tag-solo-homer","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116750891425932133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}