A welcome spring in their step

Dodgers' bullpen finds way to get victory and provide positive sign for postseason push.

- BY JACK HARRIS

ALEX VESIA reacts to inducing the game-ending flyout in a win Thursday in which the Dodgers' relievers preserved a one-run lead.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was not at his most efficient Thursday night.

Which meant, even though he pitched 5⅓ scoreless innings against the San Francisco Giants, he left the fate of the game to the Dodgers' shaky bullpen.

So often on nights like these recently, such a scenario would be a recipe for disaster. Given the way things have been going for the Dodgers' unreliable relief corps — which entered the night with a 5.65 ERA in September — anything more than a few innings has felt like a big ask.

This time, however, the Dodgers' relievers found a way to grind things out.

No, Michael Kopech still didn't have his command. And no, Blake Treinen still didn't look like himself.

But when they needed to most, the Dodgers' relievers executed pitches. In a 2-1 win at Dodger Stadium, they did enough to stretch the team's National League West division lead to three games.

SHOHEI OHTANI hits a double in a two-run sixth inning against the Giants.

"It feels like these are the ones we've been coming up short in lately, so to win these one-run ball games, that's big for us," first baseman Freddie Freeman said. "Hopefully we can feed off that in the bullpen. They're a huge part of what we're gonna be able to do in October. So we got all the confidence in the world in them. And it was nice to see them have a good night."

Yamamoto did not make their life easy.