Jesus David Castellano / @_JDCastellano
If there was a year in which Dave Roberts was able to exploit his “bullpen game” philosophy, it was in 2024, with the Dodgers decimated by injuries to their starting pitching, the relief corps took on a fundamental role and that even translated to the postseason.
And throughout the year – and including October – the Dodgers used a total of 19 different starters, which was the most for a World Series champion team.
The list includes:
In fact, only the 17 that opened in the regular season represent the most for a team that ultimately became world champions, followed by the 1922 New York Giants and the 1947, 1951 and 1952 Yankees; all with 14.
Now, these Dodgers were also characterized by being resilient in the face of that epidemic of starting pitchers, even in the postseason, where they only had three traditional starters and they were not always constant. It is there that the bullpen played a vital leading role.
However, the user Codify Baseball highlights that the “blues” became the first team to win at least four games in the postseason using seven pitchers or more in each of them.
Even, in the fifth game of the World Series, to Jack Flaherty; who only got four outs, was followed by seven other pitchers, who were the ones who kept the Yankees’ offense at bay to end up capturing the title.
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