Sheehan Flips The Switch As Dodgers Sweep The Giants

There are certain things in baseball that are supposed to happen gradually. A pitcher is supposed to make adjustments, build confidence, find his mechanics and, over time, begin to look like a different pitcher. A team is supposed to improve as the season winds down, not suddenly discover the version of itself it was hoping to become all along. And yet here are the Dodgers, doing their best to make a mockery of all that conventional wisdom.

They completed a three-game sweep of the Giants on Sunday afternoon with a 3-1 victory at Dodger Stadium, their fourth consecutive win and 14th victory in their last 17 games. The Dodgers trailed 1-0 early, spent most of the afternoon looking like they might need to win another one of those games where three runs would somehow have to be enough, and then did exactly that. At this point in September, perhaps the best strategy is to stop asking how the switch got flipped and simply enjoy the fact that somebody finally found it.

The guy holding the switch on Sunday was Emmet Sheehan.

Sheehan did not get the win, but he probably got something more important. Working behind opener Jack Dreyer, Sheehan delivered 5⅓ innings of one-hit, scoreless baseball, walking one and striking out nine. The Giants managed only two hits all afternoon, and Sheehan retired 17 of the 18 batters he faced after taking over in the second inning. It was the latest in what has become a remarkably different stretch for a pitcher who spent much of the summer bouncing between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City.

Over his last three outings, Sheehan has now thrown 17 innings and allowed one run while striking out 24. That is not a small-sample statistical curiosity anymore. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, particularly with October approaching and the Dodgers having spent much of the season trying to figure out exactly how all of their pitching pieces might fit together.

“I feel like I'm in a much better spot now,” Sheehan said. “Whatever role they want me to do, going forward I'm ready to do it.”

That may be the most important part of this whole thing. Sheehan isn't asking for a particular job. He isn't trying to explain where he belongs. He is simply making the case that wherever the Dodgers need him, he is ready.

Dave Roberts likes what he is seeing.

“I like the way he's trusting his stuff,” Roberts said.

That trust was obvious Sunday. Sheehan attacked the Giants, generated swings and misses and kept the game within striking distance while the Dodgers' offense tried to solve a Giants pitching staff that had spent most of the afternoon making the process considerably more difficult than necessary.

Giants starter Matt Wilkinson held the Dodgers scoreless for five innings and struck out six before San Francisco finally turned the game over to its bullpen.

That was when the Dodgers finally decided to participate.

Tommy Edman tied the game in the sixth with his seventh home run of the season, and the Dodgers finally took the lead in the seventh when Max Muncy and Josue De Paula singled before Kiké Hernández ripped a double into the gap to score Muncy. Muncy then added the insurance run in the eighth, driving in the third and final Dodgers run after singles by Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman.

It was not exactly an offensive avalanche, but after five scoreless innings, three runs suddenly looked rather luxurious.

And then Tanner Scott handled the ninth.

Scott recorded his 23rd save, and the Dodgers finished off their first three-game sweep of the Giants at home since 2022.

They also improved to 96-60, with six regular-season games remaining.

The bigger story, however, may be what is happening with the pieces that weren't necessarily supposed to be carrying this team into October.

Sheehan is one of them.

A month ago, he was back in Oklahoma City trying to straighten things out. Now he has put together three consecutive outings that have made the postseason conversation considerably more interesting. The Dodgers have enough established names in their pitching staff to fill several October headlines, but postseason rosters have a funny way of making room for the guy who happens to be pitching better than everyone expected at precisely the right time.

Maybe that is the switch.

Maybe it isn't.

Baseball doesn't care much for explanations anyway.

The Dodgers have spent September steadily putting together the kind of baseball they will need when the games become considerably less forgiving. Sunday was another example: the pitching held the line, the offense eventually found enough, and the bullpen finished the job.

They didn't blow the Giants out.

They didn't need to.

They just kept winning.

And somewhere along the way, Emmet Sheehan apparently found the light switch.