SAN DIEGO -- With the rotation decimated, the lineup wounded and the season hanging in the balance, a group of close to 12 Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers walked toward Petco Park's center-field bullpen late Wednesday afternoon to attempt what at that point seemed improbable -- tame a vaunted San Diego Padres offense, quiet an effervescent opposing crowd and send this National League Division Series back to L.A.
Their only hope was to do what they always do -- band together, follow the plan laid out for them and prepare for it all to unravel.
"Obviously stuff can change," said Daniel Hudson, the most senior member of that group. "I mean everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth, right?"
On this night, in a must-win Game 4, it was the Dodgers who did the punching, deploying eight relievers to shut out the Padres and capture an 8-0 win, setting up a winner-take-all Game 5 from Dodger Stadium on Friday.
Along the way, Ryan Brasier, Anthony Banda, Michael Kopech, Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, Hudson, Blake Treinen and Landon Knack, pitching in that order, accomplished history. Behind their arms, the Dodgers became the second team ever to throw a nine-inning shutout using at least eight pitchers.
Before Wednesday, no team had ever thrown a postseason shutout in a game in which the starter recorded four or fewer outs. Then the Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers -- another team exceedingly short on starting pitching -- did it almost simultaneously.
"Proud," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his group. "I think that when you go through a regular season, a lot of things are sort of calculated and there's a lot of variables because you're playing for the longer view. But when you get into the postseason, it's a street fight. It's about people, players, and your desire has got to be more than your opponent. And for me to see our guys go through what they've been through and respond the way they have really makes me excited about Game 5."
During a team breakfast Wednesday morning, the Dodgers decided they would have to be without Freddie Freeman, who continues to be bothered by a sprained right ankle and soreness throughout his body -- though they initially placed him in the lineup, then scratched him less than two hours before first pitch.
"A little gamesmanship," Freeman said.
The prior night, they also knew they'd be without their regular shortstop, Miguel Rojas, who has spent the better part of a month playing through a tear near his groin.
And for several weeks now -- months, even -- the Dodgers figured they wouldn't have enough starting pitching to field a traditional four-man rotation in the playoffs. Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Clayton Kershaw and Emmet Sheehan have all relented to season-ending injuries. When the Dodgers fell to the brink of elimination by losing Game 3 on Tuesday night, their staff decided on a bullpen game in Game 4. The following morning, Brasier, a 37-year-old right-hander who was used three times as an opener in September, was told he would start.
Brasier moved his usual pregame routine up by a couple of hours, then took the mound in the bottom of the first with a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Mookie Betts home run and breezed through the top of the Padres' lineup. The Dodgers' lead had increased to 3-0 on RBI singles by Betts and Shohei Ohtani when Brasier began the bottom of the second. He induced a groundout of Manny Machado, then gave way to one of the Dodgers' lefties, Banda, who a month ago suffered a hairline fracture after banging his left fist against a paper-towel dispenser out of frustration.
After Banda worked around a two-on, one-out jam in the second, Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit a 432-foot two-run homer to center field, the longest home run of this postseason. Kopech then pitched a scoreless bottom of the third, and Vesia followed by recording five outs and allowing just two baserunners. Phillips retired four batters in order thereafter, getting his team through the sixth.
The Dodgers basically ran away with it the next half-inning, getting a three-run homer by Gavin Lux. But Roberts used Hudson and Treinen for an inning anyway, then brought in Knack, the only other starting-pitching option heading into Game 4, to finish the game.
It marked the first time the Padres had been shut out since July 19.
"The chemistry in this clubhouse, the guys that we have -- there's a lot of grit," Hudson said. "There's no quit in this team. Obviously backs against the wall, we knew we were going to have to come in here and fight these guys to try to get it back to L.A."
Now that the series will return to Los Angeles, a Dodgers team that is in many ways hanging on by a proverbial thread might suddenly have an edge. At home in Game 5, the Dodgers will have their two best starting pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty, lined up to start. Both are options, Roberts said, but so is another bullpen game.
A group he knew he'd have to rely on heavily in this postseason continues to instill confidence.
"They were all fantastic -- attacking the zone, putting guys away, putting up zeroes," Smith said of the Dodgers' relievers. "We needed that tonight."