Down 4-2 with two on and two outs in the ninth, Carlos Gonzalez stepped up to the plate and launched a low fastball from Yimi Garcia deep into the right field pavilion:
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That ended up being the ballgame.
The Dodgers’ bullpen has been better than it should be. In spring training they lost Kenley Jansen and Brandon League. Joel Peralta went down after the season started. Yet, despite all of the new and inexperienced faces, they’ve held their own. They have the second best bullpen ERA, second best batting average against and lead the league in bullpen strikeouts.
But all of the new faces may be messing with Don Mattingly and causing him to avoid some better choices. Like, say, putting in one of his many available lefties to face the left-handed Carlos Gonzalez last night rather than have a righty like Garcia face him.
As Mark Saxon of ESPN LA reported last night, Mattingly said after the game that the ninth is “Yimi’s inning.” Well, no. It’s Kenley Jansen’s inning maybe, and with him gone you should probably play more matchups rather than revert to such conventions as relievers owning an inning because of who they are.