Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts reaffirmed his trust in relief pitcher Blake Treinen after the Dodgers’ 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Treinen entered the game for starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan — who threw seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts — in the eighth inning, and issued two walks while allowing three hits. The Giants scored all three of their runs off of Treinen in the eighth inning.
“At the end of the day, there are certain guys I’m going to go to in leverage, and certain guys I’m not going to go to, and my trust in him is unwavering — I still feel confident in him,” Roberts said of Treinen.
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Treinen is having a rough month of September, as Sunday’s outing gave him his fifth loss of the month and raised his ERA to 11.57. Sunday was the third time this month Treinen has allowed three runs in a game. While Roberts had Treinen’s back, he also stated he needs to take performances into account when choosing someone to come into the game in relief in high-leverage situations.
“I’ve got to trust what I’m seeing, and not solely bet on the person or track record,” Roberts added. “We all need to see a couple good outings but most importantly, I want to see his confidence up. And to be quite honest, I think that right now he’s just not as confident in himself as I am in him.
“The main thing is that we got to get that confidence back.”
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Treinen, as well as the rest of the Dodgers bullpen, have just six games remaining to straighten themselves out before the postseason. Their next opportunity to do so comes on the road after a rest day Monday. They will begin their penultimate series of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. PT.
The Dodgers already have a spot in the postseason locked down, and are close to locking up the division. Their magic number for a fourth consecutive NL West title is three.
Photo Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images
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25 Responses
Is the manager that foolish that dodgers will go down with Treinen no matter wat? Then someone got to wake him up.
i’m certain this is the worst group of relief pitchers i have ever seen as a 55 year Dodger fan.Roberts has no idea who to insert or when so many,many,games the Dodgers SHOULD have won they ended up losing.this is the most frustrating pitching staff i have ever seen.
This whole season has been brutal for the pen, but just this month alone has been gut-wrenching. I can’t believe that four runs is no longer enough for the bullpen to get nine outs. We are seeing it time and time again and I can’t imagine things will magically get better in October
Gut-wrenching is the perfect word. This pattern must be hard to watch for the non bullpen players and the bullpen players. Seems like it could be a morale killer for the whole team.
I couldn’t agree with you more Lloyd. We are at just about equal years in longevity as Dodger fans and this situation really couldn’t be any worse. Dave Roberts has an Arson Squad that sets fires to so many remarkable starting efforts put forth by his six man rotation of starting pitchers. It seems as though opposing teams just wait it out with patience, knowing that once the LA bullpen is tagged with the responsibility of holding down a lead, the actual chances of that happening are slim to none. It’s an abysmal horror show of underachievement and embarrassment. This needs to get premium attention as soon as the season concludes IMHO. The team also squanders a lot of scoring opportunities while the overall at bats have been mediocre at best this season, way too many strikeouts to say the least.
Baseball can be CRUEL!! The Dodgers are in too PRECARIOUS a Position,— to TRY to REGENERATE the Confidence of Blake Treinen, by letting him continue to Pitch in important Games. They can re-build his Confidence NEXT Season. However, right now, he can NOT be relied upon in high Leverage Situations. His Statistics are ABYSMAL and he needs to RE-CREATE himself. But,– NOT Now, and NOT under the circumstances of the up-coming three Game Series. Whatever his Problem is– this is not the Time to NURTURE Him. If the Dodgers are to WIN, they must have someone who can DELIVER. And right now, Blake Treinen is UNABLE to do so.
Yeah, we are definitely passing the time during the season for working on confidence. You want to have faith in the players put out there, and not just be hoping they can find their groove one of these times they go in.
Blake Treinen seems like a very nice man, but an ERA of over 11 doesn’t justify a spot in the playoffs bullpen. It must be very difficult for him to go home after losing game after game on a team packed with winners. I like Isabel’s idea of keeping him off the mound in the playoffs and getting him some help in the offseason and next season. Go Dodgers!
For the playoffs no way would I let him pitch. Roberts better leave his starting pitching in longer. Enough with the bringing in bullpen in around the 5th or 6th inning. Starting pitchers are paid very well because they can pitch at least a 100 pitch count per game. The bullpen has blown way too
many games this year.
It was difficult to respond to any one particular of the responses, but you are all correct. Roberts is a nice guy and a players manager, but he does not know how to manage a bullpen. What happened to Bobby Miller? Earlier reports indicated that he was pitching pretty much lights out coming out of the bullpen. Where is he?
If Roberts does not wake up soon the Dodgers will not survive the first series and the way it is looking now, they may be in the wild card match up because the Padres are within 1-1/2 games of taking over the division lead and we still have to play a tough Arizona team twice more and then the Mariners who are about to clinch the AL West. They made a huge mistake by not going after Duran at the trade deadline and now we have to watch this continuous crap of the relievers destroying a stellar starting performance.
THIS TEAM CAN NOT WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP WITH THIS BULLPEN.
You definitely need a good bullpen to make it far in the playoffs. How are feeling about the potential strategy of having some startes move to the bullpen for the playoffs?
Dave Roberts may still have confidence in Blake Treinen but I sure don’t. In the last several Treinen outings, when it’s announced that he is coming into the game, I’ve thought, we’re going to lose. And lose we did, even though our great starting pitchers did an excellent job and the Dodgers were ahead. Doesn’t seem to matter, Treinen doesn’t have it and he’s caused too many Dodgers leads to crumble into losses. Bench him, send him down, tell him to retire, whatever it takes – that man should not be a Dodger reliever. From now on, if Treinen is called into the game, I will turn off the tv because I can’t stand watching another defeat caused by his pitching.
Do you think Treinen will make it on the postseason roster? How do you think that would effect the team?
My sentiments exactly.
Treinen? What about Scott? He blew his 10th save last night in yet another devastating loss. I’m glad he’s adopted a new “eff it” mindset, but that’s not working either. However, many fans have adopted a similar mindset when he comes into the game, albeit either dropping one of those words or replacing ‘it’ with something else. This is far more frustrating than Kimbrel – and that was horrific. If he only blew 5 saves, LAD would have long secured the NL West and would currently be the NL #2 seed.
And now Scott again last night losing the game in the 9th? How much longer can we stand Roberts putting in Yates, Treinen, and Scott in these critical situations? With the team on the verge of losing the Division title with a 1 1/2 game lead over the Friars with 5 games left, now IS NOT the time to trying to build confidence in that trio. Who cares at this point about the $37 million contract for Scott? – just raise the price of a Dodger Dog and beer a buck each and parking another $5 and eat the contract. You’re probably going to raise prices again next year for your 4 million-attendees anyway!
Treinen and Scott are entirely worthless at this point. At the end of this season (in the wild card round) Dodger management should fire Dave Roberts, who epitomizes stupidity by inserting these 2 pitchers into close games. It is TOO LATE to rebuild their confidence. What we saw in Scott last night is exactly who Scott is. Roberts has made it so difficult for the entire team by putting games in the hands of these 2 clowns. It would be better to bring up 2 guys from AAA. With our starters, we should have at least 10 more wins, they are lights-out. But he yanks them after 6 innings regardless of how they are doing. What an absolute disaster this season has turned out to be. And, by the way, do we have a pitching coach who can teach these guys how to throw strikes???
I posted this earlier but it apparently failed some policy. If Scott had blown only 5 saves instead of 10, LAD would have 93 wins, have secured the NL West, and would currently be the #2 seed in the NL. Hard to believe how awful this has been. In 2022, Kimbrel was 6 – 7 and only 5 blown save opportunities and we were losing our mind. We have the equivalent of two guys who are far less dependable right now the Kimbrel, and he was left off the post season roster. They should be on the roster, but only used to save starting pitchers arms when we are losing. So, low leverage instead of high leverage. Neither can be counted on to hold a lead.
As far as pulling after 6 innings, that is absolutely not true. Snell’s gone into or beyond 6 3 of last 5 starts, pulled in one on 9/04 vs Pitt after giving up 5 ERs), Glasnow (he’s gone beyond 6 3 of last 4 starts), as well as Yamamoto have all gone deeper than 6 innings recently (6th or later in 4 of last 5 starts). Shohei is on a firm innings pitched rehab schedule. Last night was the first game at 6 innings after 3 each of two, then three, then four, then five IPs (although one of the 5 IP games he was yanked in the 4th due to not having a good outing). I’m okay with them adhering to that rehab process for Shohei as they certainly could not take his bat out of the lineup for a few months to rehab in Triple A.
Have been a Dodger fan for nearly 6 decades but this is unacceptable. I was a fan during the days of Tommy Lasorda. I have never seen so many relievers give poor performances day after day. Something must change especially when the starters are working their behinds off to get us a win. How frustrating for them, for players, and us as fans!! This is definitely not sustainable and demotivating for all to watch. Time to make some big changes at many levels.
Have been a Dodger fan for nearly 6 decades but this is unacceptable. I was a fan during the days of Tommy Lasorda. I have never seen so many relievers give poor performances day after day. Something must change especially when the starters are working their behinds off to get us a win. How frustrating for them, for players, and us as fans!! This is definitely not sustainable and demotivating for all to watch. Time to make some big changes at many levels.
What do you think needs to change?
I agree, it can definitely feel like morale killer. I think it’s important to stay positive as fans to create some good energy for the playoffs.
Oh Walker, Walker, where are you now that your country, er, previous team, needs you? Oh, that’s right, you’re with the Phillies. The Dodgers felt they had enough of a bullpen. I was told that if Buehler returned to the team that it would be at the expense of another pitcher. Hmmm, looks like there are some to pick from though. However, given how this season has gone down in terms of management style, our illustrious manager with front office backing, may not understand the finer points of how to manage who they’ve got and who they haven’t got. I’m still trying to figure out how they finished first in the West. The playoffs scare me with the collection of misfits in the pen.
I think we all miss Buehler 🙁
I’m afraid we’ll miss him even more as the playoffs warm up.