Dodgers Relieved to Be in This Spot

There are no names on the Dodgers’ uniforms this year, and that’s just as well when it comes to a bullpen that for the season’s first month has featured a collection of no-namers.

Eric Gagne may be as big as it gets among the game’s elite closers, but a sprained elbow that continues to sideline him has confined to the clubhouse the Guns N’ Roses tune that usually accompanies his “Game Over” routine.

Nevertheless, the Dodgers got off to a better-than-expected start and trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by a half-game in the National League West heading into a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies beginning tonight at Dodger Stadium in part because of the stellar work of Gagne’s replacements, not in spite of them.

The current skid in which the Dodgers have lost six of seven? You can’t pin that on the relievers, considering it’s the starters who have dropped the team into a hole and been assigned the defeat in each of the six losses.

The absence of Gagne has not cost the Dodgers a single loss through 21 games, a remarkable achievement when you realize that Yhency Brazoban, the pitcher entrusted with ninth-inning leads, is a 24-year-old rookie who had no major league saves before this season.

Brazoban has converted five of six save opportunities, his only failure coming April 9 against the Diamondbacks in a game the Dodgers rallied to win in 11 innings.

As impressive as he has been, Brazoban is only one component of a bullpen that has collected a National League-best six victories to go with a solid 3.29 earned-run average. Duaner Sanchez, Giovanni Carrara and Kelly Wunsch have been steady late relievers. And rookie Steve Schmoll and Rule 5 draft pick D.J. Houlton have emerged as surprise contributors.

“We all know we’ve got to do a little bit more than what we’re supposed to do since we don’t have Gagne,” Sanchez said. “We all know that we can do the job.”

Gagne has been a factor behind the scenes, serving as a mentor to Brazoban in the same way that relievers Jesse Orosco and Paul Quantrill helped guide him several years ago as a budding closer. Manager Jim Tracy said he often sees Gagne make his way from the dugout to the bullpen late in games when Brazoban might pitch to offer some last-minute advice.

“He talks to him a lot,” Sanchez said of Gagne’s relationship with Brazoban. “He always tells him what to do and in what situation to do it. Just go up there and pitch like you’re pitching in the sixth and seventh inning and get three outs.”

Said Tracy of Gagne: “He has now taken the baton and is passing it to Yhency and being a very helpful commodity to him to help to develop another special entity of our club.”

Sanchez, who last season set a Dodger rookie record with 67 appearances, continues to be a workhorse, amassing 11 appearances to tie Wunsch for the team lead.

Tracy said he has been particularly pleased with Sanchez’s ability to throw “a lot more quality strikes” than last year.

“He’s not falling behind in the count,” Tracy said, “which makes him a very viable option for you in the latter part of the game because the last thing you like to see in the latter part of a one-run game or a tie game is for the base on balls to occur quickly.”

Carrara, one of the more versatile members of the bullpen, is tied among major league relievers with three victories, though his 4.82 ERA is on the high side.

Houlton has pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings in his last five appearances, and Schmoll struck out Quinton McCracken with the bases loaded in the seventh inning Wednesday to extend his scoreless streak to nine innings.

“In the short period of time he’s been here,” Tracy said of Schmoll, a sidearm specialist, “he’s sent a very strong message that not only is he not afraid of those late-inning type of situations, but he’s a strike-thrower and he’s very difficult to hit against.”

Only Buddy Carlyle, who has a 6.52 ERA in seven appearances, has been somewhat of a disappointment among the relievers.

Carlyle figures to be the odd man out when reliever Wilson Alvarez returns from the tendinitis in his left shoulder.

The Dodgers can only imagine how formidable the bullpen might be once Gagne, who last season extended his major league-record consecutive saves streak to 84 before it ended in July, returns sometime in the next couple of weeks.

“Your bullpen looks pretty good right now the way it is, and yet you know in your mind that it’s going to get measurably better just by influxing quite possibly the best closer in the history of the game as we go along here over the next several years,” Tracy said. “You’re very encouraged by all that.”

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‘Pen hasn’t leaked

How the Dodger bullpen has performed while closer Eric Gagne has been on the mend:

*--* G Hld Sv OBA ERA D.J. Houlton 6 0 0 375 1.13 Duaner Sanchez 11 4 0 191 2.31 Kelly Wunsch 11 3 0 222 2.35 Steve Schmoll 10 1 1 167 2.45 Yhency Brazoban 8 0 5 242 3.24 Giovanni Carrara 9 2 0 333 4.82 Buddy Carlyle 7 0 0 229 6.56 Categories -- G: Games; Hld: Holds; Sv: Saves; OBA: Opponents’ batting average; ERA: earned-run average

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