The Dodgers have won their last two World Series in sharply different fashions, first surviving on bullpen innings in 2024 and then leaning on a powerful rotation through their 2025 title defense. With another October run approaching, Sunday’s 3-1 win over the Giants offered a useful reminder: Los Angeles may have more than one way to build a postseason pitching staff.
A bullpen game closed a three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium, and right-hander Emmet Sheehan made the loudest case for a larger role. Working as the bulk arm, Sheehan blanked San Francisco for 5 1/3 innings and struck out nine. It was the kind of clean, extended relief work that can change the shape of an October roster, particularly for a club that expects to begin any series with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.
That quartet carried the Dodgers through last fall, when all four starters were used in the winner-take-all Game 7. The season before, necessity pushed Los Angeles toward its bullpen. This group is now trying to find a more comfortable middle ground, with a rotation capable of setting the pace and a relief corps that appears less unsettled than it did a year ago.
Sheehan was not the only reliever making a late bid. Kris Bubic, acquired at the Trade Deadline, delivered another scoreless appearance, his third in three outings since joining the Dodgers. In the final days of the regular season, those zeroes matter. October decisions often come down to whether a manager trusts a pitcher for one dangerous matchup, one inning, or the kind of multi-inning bridge Sheehan supplied against the Giants.
The victory was Los Angeles’ fourth straight and kept the club four games ahead of the Braves for the National League’s second-best record. With six games remaining, that position carries a first-round bye—and a little extra time to decide which bullpen arms will join the starters when the games tighten up.
For now, the Dodgers have the luxury every contender wants: their front-line starters can still headline the plan, while the bullpen continues to produce options rather than questions.
