Bullpen of the Week: LA relievers deliver title

On the night of June 26, when Clayton Kershaw made his final start before hitting the disabled list, the Dodgers trailed the Giants by eight games in the National League West.

Few would have predicted that night that Los Angeles would be celebrating its fourth consecutive National League West title just 13 weeks later. Injuries and inconsistency have ravaged the Dodgers’ rotation all season long, but they are still division champs.

Much of the credit goes to the team’s bullpen for keeping L.A. afloat. The Dodgers have won an incredible 38 games this season when their starting pitchers have gone five innings or less, which is already a single-season Major League record. Through Sunday, Los Angeles relievers had thrown a franchise-record 565 2/3 innings this season. So it is only fitting that the unit stepped up once again this past week in the team’s biggest games of the year.

BULLPEN OF THE WEEK WINNERS Week Team April 3-10 A’s April 11-17 Twins April 18-24 Nationals April 25-May 1 Phillies May 2-8 Angels May 9-15 Yankees May 16-22 Cubs May 23-29 Astros May 30-June 5 Dodgers June 6-12 Yankees June 13-19 Marlins June 20-26 Tigers June 27-July 3 Pirates July 4-10 Dodgers July 18-24 Yankees July 25-31 Brewers Aug. 1-7 Blue Jays Aug. 8-14 Mariners Aug. 15-21 Royals Aug. 22-28 Pirates Aug. 29-Sept. 4 Cubs Sept. 5-11 Astros Sept. 12-18 Pirates Sept. 19-25 Dodgers

The Dodgers’ relievers put up a performance that helped propel their team to the playoffs. It also earned them the Bullpen of the Week Award presented by The Hartford.

As part of the MLB Prevailing Moments program, each Monday throughout the 2016 season, MLB.com is honoring the “Bullpen of the Week presented by The Hartford.” An industry-wide panel of MLB experts, including legendary stats guru Bill James, constructed a metric based on James’ widely renowned game-score …

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