Johnny Wholestaff Takes the Wheel as Dodgers Piece Together a Shutout in Anaheim

By the time Friday night was over, the Dodgers had used eight pitchers, blasted three home runs, shut out the Angels on two hits and somehow made complete organizational chaos look strangely coordinated.

In other words, it was a textbook Johnny Wholestaff game.

After Blake Snell was scratched before first pitch because of an elbow issue that later landed him back on the injured list, Dave Roberts was forced to abandon the concept of a traditional starting pitcher altogether. There would be no ace, no workhorse and no comforting promise of six dependable innings.

Instead, the Dodgers patched together all 27 outs the old-fashioned modern way: one reliever at a time.

And somehow, it worked beautifully.

Will Klein drew emergency opener duty and gave the Dodgers two scoreless innings to start the night before turning things over to a bullpen relay team that included Edgardo Henriquez, Blake Treinen, Wyatt Mills, Kyle Hurt, Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Charlie Barnes. Together, they held the Angels to just two hits in a crisp 6-0 victory that looked far cleaner than the pregame circumstances suggested it would.

That is the beauty of Johnny Wholestaff baseball. Hitters never settle in. Timing never develops. The opposing lineup spends the entire evening trying to adjust to a different arm angle, different velocity or different pitch mix every inning like a baseball version of speed dating.

The Dodgers, badly short on healthy starting pitching at the moment, turned what once would have been viewed as a desperation tactic into a highly organized weapon

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“The only guy that went multiples was Klein,” Roberts said afterward. “But coming out of tonight the offensive run production allowed us to do that and give us a little coverage.”

The offense certainly did its part.

Andy Pages cracked the game open in the fourth inning with a three-run homer off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz, punishing a fastball that wandered too far over the plate. Max Muncy followed immediately afterward with a home run of his own because baseball occasionally enjoys showing off its sense of timing.

Roberts afterward praised Pages not simply for the homer, but for the maturity he has shown working through slumps without allowing one bad week to snowball into three.

“A young player, when it starts to go south, you can’t stop it,” Roberts said. “The 0-for-4 turns into a one-for-20 pretty quickly. That’s what happened last year at the end of the year. Now, he had a little swoon and found a way to let it be.”

That ability to stop small slumps from becoming emotional hostage situations has quietly become one of the more important developments in Pages’ season.

Teoscar Hernández also continued showing signs that his bat might finally be waking back up. After going 23 days without a home run and recently sliding down in the lineup, Hernández launched a two-run homer to right field in the sixth inning before arriving in the dugout for the traditional sunflower seed shower.

“Just getting the confidence back there,” Hernández said. “Getting better pitches to hit, hitting the ball harder, getting on base, taking a lot more walks.”

Hernández later joked that Pages might soon steal his dugout role as the team’s unofficial sunflower seed shower coordinator.

“It’s getting better,” Hernández laughed. “He’s going to have my job when I’m not here.”

Shohei Ohtani also looked sharper offensively despite striking out twice, working quality at-bats that included a walk and a double.

Notably absent from the lineup was Freddie Freeman, who received a rare night off after Roberts informed him a few days earlier via text message. Freeman reportedly attempted to negotiate his way back into the lineup because apparently even scheduled rest days become labor disputes when Freddie Freeman is involved.

Roberts, wisely, declined the appeal.

“Kyle Tucker’s been trending for a while, Will Smith has been consistent, I think Teo’s on the way back too,” Roberts said. “We got a lot of guys that are swinging well, and to get Freddie off his feet tonight, I think it was a good thing in the midst of 13 in a row.”

Most importantly for the Dodgers, the night finally felt stable again.

No bullpen collapse. No offensive disappearance. No late-game unraveling followed by another round of uncomfortable questions about what exactly has gone wrong over the last two weeks.

Just a clean win assembled with duct tape, bullpen arms and three well-timed swings.

And perhaps most satisfying of all, the Dodgers finally managed to beat the Angels again after being thoroughly annoyed by them throughout last season.

“Couldn’t beat these guys last year,” Roberts said with a grin. “So it was nice to beat these guys.”