The Dodgers bullpen shines as LA narrowly holds on for a Game 1 win at home

In a five-game series, it's imperative to come out strong no matter how you do it. While this is true for all candidates looking to advance in the Division Series, it is especially true for the Dodgers. Winning Game 1 of this shorter series was crucial, almost regardless of the means used to get there.

The Dodgers are a game up in this series against the Padres, but that comes more from overcoming adversity than anything else. Yoshinobu Yamamoto's less-than-stellar start meant a rested bullpen would be put to the test. That's what happened, and perhaps the Dodgers will pay the price down the line for relying so heavily on their pen, but perhaps a strong Jack Flaherty will alleviate that situation in Game 2. One way or another, however, you have a feeling for the Padres In this match, the Dodgers' strengths were shown and led to an opening win.

Saturday wasn't the prettiest game, and it's certainly not without risks, as the eighth inning showed, but the Dodgers' outstanding bullpen performance is something they'll likely need to repeat before all is said and done. Especially if this team lives up to expectations and makes a good run into the playoffs.

In many ways, this is a glass half full, half empty situation. Yes, you would have liked to see Yamamoto get deeper into the game and not have to empty the balls in the bullpen. On the other hand, this performance was only significant because of an offensive improvement compared to the previous year.

The 2023 bullpen could have been as dominant as possible and it would have amounted to very little, after a difficult rotation and an offense that didn't score three runs in any of the NLDS losses to the Diamondbacks.

In 2024, at least in the first game of this series, the bullpen's work was effective from start to finish, as the offense still did as much damage in catchup against Dylan Cease as it allowed through Yamamoto.

Sure, you can be disappointed if you essentially force your bullpen to throw six innings of high-leverage ball in the opening game of the postseason. More than any concern, however, there is a sense of relief and general praise that his bullpen has not only survived this but thrived in it.

Things got dicey there in the late innings when Michael Kopech struck out one of three batters against the heart of the Padres' line, but depth played a crucial role in maintaining the lead. How many teams can use an arm as dominant as Blake Treinen to relieve the attacker at the first sign of trouble? Yes, Kopech was more dominant in the regular season, but Treinen has the pedigree and current production to provide the reliability you need from a late-inning team.

But even late in the game, much of the damage was self-inflicted, as four of the five baserunners who reached for the Padres after seven innings did so via walk. In six innings of stressful baseball, the Dodgers bullpen allowed just two hits, and one cannot overstate the importance and difficulty of that, especially when they had to use five different relievers.

Looking ahead to Game 2, Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips have not reached 15 pitches and should be good to go again. Even Ryan Brasier (20 pitches) and Kopech (22 pitches) could get in the game if circumstances warrant. Treinen is certainly the one down after taking an insane 39 pitches to end this game.

Maybe it wasn't ideal, but just as you might argue, Yamamoto needed a dominant performance to gain confidence in that situation – which didn't happen – the same could be true of the bullpen as well. We've seen in the past that bullpens that had pretty good regular seasons for the Dodgers faltered at the first sign of trouble in October. This time that wasn't the case at all in Game 1.