Dodgers' relief fails again as tie game becomes Game 1 rout - ESPN

TORONTO — The bases were loaded with none out, Game 1 of the World Series was still tied, and a sold-out Rogers Centre crowd was going berserk when Emmet Sheehan came out of the bullpen in Friday's sixth inning.

Sheehan is a 25-year-old with less than 150 career innings in the major leagues. Before that moment, he had checked into the middle of an inning only once before, while following an opener on Sept. 15. What followed — a nine-run barrage that propelled the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-4 rout in their first World Series game in 32 years — highlighted a glaring weakness the Los Angeles Dodgers carry into this final round:

If their starters don't pitch deep into games, they're in trouble.

«Just a tough game,» Dodgers ace Blake Snell said after recording just 15 outs, «but a lot to learn.»

On the eve of this World Series, the Dodgers learned Alex Vesia, one of their best relievers, was dealing with what the team described as a «deeply personal family matter» that would force his removal from the roster. Vesia's absence essentially whittled the list of trusted high-leverage relievers down to four: Sheehan, Anthony Banda, Blake Treinen and Roki Sasaki. Two of them, Sheehan and Sasaki, are converted starting pitchers.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hoped to give Sheehan only clean innings in these playoffs. But when Snell's 100th pitch plunked Daulton Varsho in the upper back to load the bases in a 2-2 game, it was Sheehan, far better against lefties than Treinen this season, who was called on to clean up the mess. When he proceeded to put the next three hitters on base, it was Banda's turn. And by the end of Banda's outing — featuring the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history, courtesy of Addison Barger, and a