In Game 3 of the World Series, an unlikely hero emerged for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After 13 innings of baseball, the defending champions had exhausted all of their options in the bullpen — except one.
Right-handed reliever Will Klein was the last man standing in the Dodgers bullpen, and LA would turn to him in a high-leverage situation against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Klein kept the Dodgers in the game, tossing four scoreless inning in a 72-pitch performance that featured five strikeouts. The right-hander had never thrown more than 40 pitches in a game before and has a career ERA of 5.16.
Moreover, the right-hander began his tenure with the Dodgers in the minors as a depth piece to an ailing bullpen, but on Monday night, Klein made himself an unforgettable character in Dodgers lore.
“Yeah, I don’t think I could have ever imagined that this would happen. At the start of this year I was still with the A’s, and then ended up with the Mariners, and here. Even that was crazy. And then we were at home, and then got to go to Toronto, get added, and I was excited for that,” Klein said. “And now, like, you don’t ever expect these things, but you got to stay in it mentally and physically just in case. And you never think it’s going to be, like, this crazy, but just being able to stay ready and help the guys that have worked their butts off for this.”
The original plan for Klein was not to push the right-hander past the 17th inning, according to manager Dave Roberts. However, Klein was willing to keep pitching as much as the Dodgers needed him and that happened to be until the 18th inning.
“I just said I was going to keep going. Each time I came back in they’re like, How many more? As many as you guys need. And Freddie hit that home run, so we didn’t have to find out,” Klein said of his conversation with Roberts. “Yamamoto throwing out of the pen on one day rest after nine innings would have been insane, but that’s the kind of guy he is. So he wants it too and — I mean, we all just wanted that so bad. But we did not have to find out.”
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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