Teoscar and the Bullpen Flip the Script in Milwaukee

Thirty-five pitches into Saturday night, it looked like the Dodgers were headed toward another long evening in Milwaukee and another bullpen scramble for a staff trying to preserve arms any way it can.

Roki Sasaki could barely land a pitch in the first inning. The Brewers jumped on him early for three runs, every at-bat felt extended, and the rookie right-hander looked very much like a pitcher trying to find the emergency exit.

Then something changed.

Over the next four innings, Sasaki quietly gathered himself and began looking far more like the pitcher the Dodgers have spent months insisting was still in there somewhere. The chaos disappeared. The fastball settled down. The innings moved quicker. Most importantly, Milwaukee never scored again against him.

The growing pains have been impossible to ignore this season but so has the Dodgers’ patience with Sasaki. Nights like Saturday are probably why.

It wasn’t perfect. It rarely is with him yet. But it was another step.

And by the end of an 11-3 victory over the Brewers, the Dodgers suddenly looked like a team rediscovering its balance after a long travel week bouncing from San Diego to Milwaukee.

“Just across the board, really good ballgame,” Dave Roberts said afterward.

That about covered it.

The Dodgers finally snapped their nine-game regular-season losing streak against Milwaukee, and they did it in the exact opposite fashion Friday’s opener unfolded. Instead of sleepwalking through the evening, the Dodgers spent the final six innings bludgeoning Brewers pitching while their bullpen continued its absurd run of dominance.

The relief corps added four more scoreless innings Saturday, stretching its streak to 36 consecutive innings without allowing a run — the longest scoreless bullpen streak in Dodgers history and the longest by any major league bullpen since Cleveland did it in 2017.

For a unit that spent the first month of the season getting blamed for practically every late-game headache, the turnaround has been dramatic.

“They’re on a heater,” Roberts said. “When it doesn’t go well, they get the blame, and when it does go well, they don’t get a lot of credit. But they are getting the credit now, and it’s earned.”

Alex Vesia, Kyle Hurt, Tanner Scott and Jonathan Hernández combined to completely suffocate Milwaukee over the final four innings. Only one Brewers hit came after the third inning, which felt especially cruel considering how confidently Milwaukee has handled the Dodgers during recent regular-season meetings.

The offensive star, however, was Teoscar Hernández.

The Dodgers outfielder continues to look increasingly dangerous after a slow stretch earlier this month, and Saturday may have been his sharpest game in weeks. Hernández went 3-for-4, scored twice and drove in six runs, matching a career high.

More importantly, he changed the entire direction of the game in the fourth inning.

Trailing 3-0, the Dodgers finally cracked Milwaukee starter Robert Gasser after Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages opened the inning with doubles. Kyle Tucker walked, Hernández stepped in behind in the count 0-2, and then deposited a fastball off the left-field foul pole for a three-run homer that abruptly woke up the Dodgers dugout.

“The Teo homer was a big hit to get us a lead,” Roberts said. “We were looking a little bit down and got behind early.”

The understatement there was appreciated.

Because before Hernández’s swing, the Dodgers still looked like a team carrying a little residual jet lag from San Diego. After it, they looked like themselves again.

Hernández wasn’t done either. He added an RBI single in the eighth and a two-run single in the ninth as the Dodgers buried Milwaukee under an avalanche of late offense. The Brewers helped by issuing 11 walks — including four to Freddie Freeman — which is generally not considered an ideal strategy against the Dodgers lineup.

Freeman, meanwhile, reached base all five times he came to the plate, scored three runs, stole a base and doubled again, moving into 30th place on the all-time doubles list with 561.

Not bad for a 36-year-old first baseman who still runs the bases like someone trying to prove he’s offended by the concept of aging.

And because baseball apparently insists on making every Dodgers story include him somewhere, Shohei Ohtani quietly finished 2-for-5 with an RBI of his own.

Of course he did.

The Dodgers have now won eight of their last ten games and will go for a third consecutive series win Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve got a chance to cap it off with three series wins tomorrow,” Freeman said afterward.

Given how Milwaukee has tormented the Dodgers in the regular season lately, even getting this split felt important.

Getting it while Sasaki showed signs of stabilizing may matter even more.