LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers' relief corps has been among the best in baseball this season. But once the Angels sprung a leak in the bullpen on Sunday afternoon, there was no plugging it.
After an elevated pitch count led to Emmet Sheehan's exit with one out in the second inning, an L.A. bullpen tasked with recording 23 outs allowed a season-high 11 runs in a 13-5 loss in the Freeway Series finale at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers took five out of six games against the Angels this season after being swept in the 2025 season series, but the lone loss was a resounding dud.
Sheehan was grinded out in the second inning in no small part due to a 14-pitch plate appearance from Nick Madrigal, in which he fouled off nine pitches and successfully overturned two called strikes for a hard-fought walk. Sheehan's afternoon came to an end two batters later, when he had thrown 49 pitches, after nine-hole hitter Sebastián Rivero singled with the bases loaded to drive in a pair.
"Just [tried] to get him out of the box as quick as I possibly can," Sheehan said. "Make him put the ball in play, which, yeah, he fouled off a lot of pitches and had a really good at-bat."
Said manager Dave Roberts: "It had a huge impact."
One batter later, catcher Dalton Rushing seemed adamant that ball four on José Siri was actually a foul tip, which is not reviewable. That walk loaded the bases for Sebastián Rivero, who kicked off his five-hit, six-RBI afternoon with a two-run single.
"Just frustrating," Sheehan said. "Definitely couldn't put guys away. Not efficient. Not good all around."
When the order turned over, Roberts decided to pull Sheehan, who had thrown 49 pitches, and 35 in the second inning alone.
"I just felt right there – to what end? – that I'm not going to put this guy in harm's way with stress," Roberts said. "Obviously, the bullpen had to take the toll today, the brunt of it, but with the off-day [Monday], I felt like we could reset. … I love the way that Emmet felt that there was more in the tank, but I wouldn't do that to any of our guys."
Edgardo Henriquez stranded the runners Sheehan left on the corners, putting up a zero across 1 2/3 innings. That turned out to be an outlier performance for Dodgers relievers on Sunday.
Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia gave up two runs apiece. The Dodgers made it a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth inning when Rushing launched a three-run blast -- his first homer since April 20 -- and Ryan Ward went back to back.
But it wasn't a close game for long. Jonathan Hernández, who was scoreless through his first 1 1/3 innings, came back out for the top of the seventh and gave up six runs, capped by a three-run homer from Zach Neto.
The Dodgers' bullpen hasn't allowed more than 11 runs in a game since last year, when it happened three times (most recently July 4, 2025).
Last year's bullpen shouldered the heaviest workload in the Majors at 657 2/3 innings, and the strain arguably contributed to the unit's poor performance. This year, L.A. relievers have benefited from the starters regularly going deeper into games. The Dodgers' bullpen has pitched 206 2/3 innings, the fewest in the Majors, while the starters have thrown 375 2/3, the most, even after Sheehan's abbreviated start.
"Obviously, if you get length out of your starters, that's always a good thing," Roberts said. "For me, yeah, if we can kind of manage [the bullpen] innings, put them in their rightful lanes, I think that that's a benefit now and longer term, and it's all kind of contingent on the starters doing what they've been doing."
The 'pen has been a strength, even without closer Edwin Díaz, but no pitcher is immune to having an off day. It just so happened that several relievers had one at the same time.