Matt Sauer saves the Dodgers' bullpen in rout of Marlins

The Dodgers’ early season bullpen usage had become so much of a concern, even minor-league pitcher Matt Sauer was keeping tabs on it from the team’s triple-A Oklahoma City affiliate.

Which is why when he took the mound following a call-up to the majors Tuesday night, he was determined to give the Dodgers some badly needed innings.

“Even when we’re down in OKC, you still follow the big league club,” Sauer said. “And I knew the bullpen has been used a lot.”

Indeed, entering Tuesday, no other team had relied upon its relievers more heavily than the Dodgers. Thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness from the starting rotation, their bullpen’s 126 innings were far and away the most in the majors.

Despite that the Dodgers had no choice but to deploy their second bullpen game of the opening month. Only this time they were able to stay away from their most important arms.

Instead, in a 15-2 win over the Miami Marlins, Sauer came to the rescue with five innings of relief, providing the type of length that too often has eluded Dodgers starters.

“I had a goal of at least five innings,” said Sauer, a 26-year-old right-hander who earned his first major league victory. “[To] help the boys down in the ‘pen a little bit.”

Shohei Ohtani reacts toward the bullpen after homering in the first inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

As pitching injuries have piled up, the bullpen has been strained in order to compensate.

Entering Tuesday only 10 teams had topped 110 innings from relievers The Dodgers had six relievers with more than 13 innings pitched. No other club had more than four.

“The thing that’s probably most disconcerting is the bullpen leading Major League Baseball in bullpen innings,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday, after Tyler Glasnow became the latest member of the starting staff to land on the injured list.

“That’s where my head is at,” Roberts added, “as far as making sure we don’t red-line these guys.”

That will be no easy task over the next couple of weeks. Starting Friday the Dodgers will play 19 games in 20 days. And with Glasnow and Blake Snell on the IL, they will begin it with just four healthy starters on their active roster.

“We thought our starters would be a position of strength for us from a workload standpoint, and unfortunately we lead all of baseball in innings for relievers,” pitching coach Mark Prior said Tuesday. “Sometimes that’s a good thing. But this early in the year, it’s probably not.”

Especially not after what the relievers did last October, combining for 82 innings in a grueling World Series run.

“Guys did some really heavy lifting,” Prior said.

And a short offseason only gave them so much time to recover. Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech both started the season on the IL, nursing injuries they sustained in the playoffs. While Phillips has returned, another key reliever, Blake Treinen, has gone down because of a forearm strain.

It made Tuesday a seemingly daunting task, with the Dodgers opting for the type of bullpen-game strategy they used so often last October.

But then in an unexpected twist, Sauer was able to provide a well-timed reprieve.

After rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer took down the first two innings, giving up a lone run after Teoscar Hernández misplayed a ball in right field, Sauer found a groove in his 78-pitch outing. He gave up just one run on five hits. He recorded four strikeouts. And most importantly, he achieved his goal of five innings.

“I can’t say enough about his performance,” Roberts said. “We needed every bit of it, considering where our ‘pen is at.”

It also allowed the Dodgers (20-10) to go to work at the plate, where they set season highs in runs, hits (18) and walks (eight) en route to their most lopsided victory.

Shohei Ohtani led off with a home run, his seventh of the season and first since returning from the paternity list last week.

Hernández atoned for his defensive miscue with two run-scoring doubles, tying the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge for the most RBIs in the majors with 29.

Mookie Betts had a two-run single as part of a two-hit performance, raising his batting average to .240 as he continues to try to snap out of his opening-month slump.

And Cy Young-winning Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara never found his footing, exiting in the third inning with the Dodgers ahead 7-1.

“Recently it just seems like team-wise we’re beating a starter, creating stressful innings, taking walks, [and] situationally we’ve been good,” Roberts said. “This is what we potentially can do. You just give yourself a fighting chance when you can kind of take those at-bats.”

The game got so out of hand, the Dodgers didn’t even need to use a real pitcher in the ninth inning. Instead, after low-leverage right-hander Luis García pitched the eighth, utility man Kiké Hernández took the mound for the final three outs, a plastic “pitching helmet” covering his cap.

“To stay away from some other leverage guys was big,” Roberts said, “and puts us in a good spot.”

Not only for Wednesday’s series finale but also the taxing stretch of schedule to follow.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Matt Sauer saves the Dodgers’ bullpen in rout of Marlins

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