Dave Roberts Remains Confident in Dodgers Bullpen, Not Planning Any Drastic Changes

The Dodgers bullpen continued to struggle on Wednesday in the Dodgers’ 8-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. After Wednesday night’s starter Tony Gonsolin went out after 3.1 scoreless innings, Phil Bickford was able to get the last two outs of the 4th, and keep things knotted at zero. However, he wasn’t able to keep it there for long.

Bickford struggled in the 5th, and was followed by Justin Bruihl, Yency Almonte and Alex Vesia — who all dealt with struggles of their own.

When it was all said and done, the Dodgers bullpen went 4.2 innings, allowing eight earned runs, eight hits and two walks while striking out three.

The Dodgers raised their team bullpen ERA to 5.32, the worst in the National League and fourth-worst in all of baseball.

After the game, a frustrated Dave Roberts spoke to reporters, and made it clear that he still trusts his guys and their track records — and this isn’t the first time he’s said this during the 2023 seasom.

“The consistency of these guys hasn’t been there, for the most part,” Roberts said, “which, you know, you look at the track record and the track records are pretty good. So I’m going to keep running them out there and expecting good things when they go out there until ultimately something changes. But, when I run a guy out there, I still feel like that guy’s the best option in the moment. They got to do their part, too.”

Via SNLA

The Dodgers bullpen definitely hasn’t done their part this year. After a dominant last two appearances and 10 straight scoreless innings, the bullpen fell apart again on Wednesday.

After Almonte’s struggles in Wednesday’s loss, he raised his season ERA to a dreadful 9.28. However, his teammate, Alex Vesia, still has him beat with a 9.39 ERA.

Something is going to have to change, as the Dodgers can’t keep relying on guys who clearly just don’t have it early in the season. The Dodgers are known to use the injured list to their advantage to get their guys some rest — maybe they should use it to try to get some of their guys right.

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