LOS ANGELES — Dodger fans, you’ve been wanting the bullpen to come through and they did tonight in a big way. But it wasn’t just the bullpen, as Emmett Sheehan was once again great throwing 6 innings of 2 run baseball in the first win of his career. Last start was a magical debut for the young right-hander, but tonight he finally surrendered his first runs in the big league, giving up back-to-back home runs to Kyle Tucker and Mauricio Dubon to tie the game.

That wasn’t before the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead however. Mookie Betts blasted a leadoff home run (18) and the very next inning, he hit a sac fly after loading the bases to extend the lead to 2-0. After tying the game at 2, the Astros were silenced for the rest of the game. Emmett Sheehan settled down after the 4th inning and ended up going 6 with 2 scoreless innings, which lead to the bullpen. Coming in, the bullpen had been used in many innings  in the last 2 games, throwing up 2 straight shutouts against the Angels in the process. This game continued that success, as they threw 3 scoreless innings against a very good Astros lineup with an easy 9th by Brusdar Graterol to close this one out.

Here are a couple takeaways from the game:

The Bullpen is Getting It Together

Like I mentioned earlier, the Dodgers bullpen has been doing extremely well as of late. After posting the worst ERA since the move to Los Angeles, the pen has been putting up zeroes across the board. Michael Grove came on in a relief role and threw 2 shutout innings, and Brusdar Graterol dominated a core part of the Astros lineup ending the game. If the bullpen can get it together, this offense may not need to be a juggernaut after all.

Bottom of the Lineup Dominates

James Outman is heating up again. He went 3-4 tonight, with a couple of stolen bases, and is looking like the player we saw in the first 2 months of the season. Miguel Rojas went 2-2 with a run scored, and Michael Busch had an rbi double that gave the Dodgers the lead, and eventually the game winner. That means the 7-8-9 spots in the lineup went 6-9 tonight. If the Dodgers can get production like that from the latter half of their lineup, it will be a problem to face in tough games down the stretch. 

The Dodgers will send Bobby Miller out to bounce back against Ronel Blanco for the Astros Saturday. The first pitch is set for 4:15 PM PST.