LOS ANGLES — Edwin Díaz likely won’t be available to pitch for the remainder of the weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers, after pitching on each of the last two nights, with extended outings both nights. He walked a tightrope on Friday night, loading the bases in the ninth inning, but somehow survived to earn the save. It wasn’t a good outing by any means, but all parties believe Díaz is at least heading in the right direction.
Díaz since returning from the injured list has one clean outing in six tries, with seven runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings. One night after allowing three runs in a blown save to the Brewers, he walked two batters and hit another, loading the bases in the ninth inning. This time he escaped without damage, helped by a fantastic play by second baseman Tommy Edman for the second out of the frame. A grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts ended it.
“It was good for him to work his way out of it, and obviously he was a hitter away,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Even with that last hitter, I wanted to see him try to fight through it and get through it. I was happy that he finished what he started.
Díaz said his posture on the mound was something he was working on, that his misses were more off the plate than in the middle of the strike zone to get punished.
“I’m leaning too much toward the right-handed hitter. Instead of straight down the plate, today was way better,” Díaz said. “My fastball ride was way batter than yesterday. I’m going in a good direction, so keep getting better and keep getting better.”
There’s still a lot to work on for Díaz, who threw only 11 strikes in his 26 pitches on Friday.
“It wasn’t pretty, I watched the inning too,” Roberts said.
“The strength department and the pitching side of things, he’s kind of detected some things I think we could clean up, so that’s encouraging,” Roberts added. “We started that process today. Hopefully with a couple days off to kind of work through that, we’ll see an even better version going forward.”
Recent Dodgers relief usage
Díaz and Tanner Scott have each pitched five times in the last eight days, something that happened only four times this season in the Dodgers bullpen before this stretch — by Scott (April 21-28, May 23-30), Alex Vesia (June 10-17), and Evan Phillips (August 2-9). If Vesia, Phillips or Jack Dreyer pitch on Saturday, they will have also pitched five times in eight days.
It’s been a busy time for the Dodgers bullpen.
“That’s the hard part, that a lot of people don’t have the information on availability and workload, and redlining guys, trying to keep guys healthy. I don’t have everyone available every single night, and what’s the cost of that night versus the next two or three games and looking also at the rest of the season,” Roberts said. “Those things I gotta think through, and when you peel that layer back, then your options get a little bit smaller. Then you’re talking about lanes and what’s the best for a particular pitcher. All those things matter.”
To Roberts’ point, it’s likely that Scott wouldn’t be available on Saturday either, in addition to Díaz, as no Dodgers reliever has pitched on three consecutive days this season. And if Vesia pitches Saturday, he’d be the first Dodger in 2026 to pitch four times in five days.
That’s a long way of saying Saturday is a day for Justin Wrobleski to eat as many innings as possible, whether he turns around his recent funk or not.
Saturday game info
- Teams: Dodgers vs. Brewers
- Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
- Start time: 4:15 p.m.
- TV: Fox
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)