Jack Dreyer opened the Dodgers' bullpen game Wednesday against the Athletics after Shohei Ohtani was pushed back from his scheduled start. Los Angeles entered the night looking to finish its nine-game road trip 8-1, and the pitching switch kept that plan moving without waiting for Ohtani to take the ball.
Jack Dreyer Takes the First Out
Dreyer, a left-handed pitcher, worked as the opener while the Dodgers reshuffled their pitching plan for the night. He carried a 3.51 ERA across 33.1 innings this season when he took that role, a short-start assignment built to get the game into the bullpen early.
The Dodgers had spent the previous two games piling up 18-7 advantage against the Athletics, with 17 hits on Monday and 14 hits on Tuesday. They also brought a five-game winning streak into Wednesday, while the Athletics arrived on a four-game losing skid. That run of form gave the Dodgers room to make the switch without changing the competitive target: keep the trip moving toward an 8-1 finish.
Shohei Ohtani Moves Back
Shohei Ohtani was the pitcher moved back, and Dave Roberts said the club was trying to take advantage of extra rest during a stretch of 13 straight games. Roberts said, "The thought behind it is we’re in the middle of 13 in a row. So if there’s any opportunity to give him some extra rest we’re going to try to take advantage of it," and added, "So pushing him to Friday allows us to have him still take two starts before the break and get on two division opponents."
The change did more than shuffle one night’s order. It kept Ohtani on a delayed track while preserving the larger workload plan that had him lined up for two starts before the break. For the Dodgers, Wednesday became a bullpen night built around that reset rather than a standard start-and-finish game from the scheduled pitcher.
Tommy Edman and Robinson Start
The lineup around the pitching move shifted as well. Dalton Rushing and Teoscar Hernández were out, with Tommy Edman and Robinson starting in their places. Ahead of the game, the Dodgers recalled left-handed pitcher Charlie Barnes and optioned right-hander Wyatt Mills, another sign that the roster was being adjusted to fit the bullpen-game approach.
That left Wednesday as a clean test of depth: Jack Dreyer as the opener, the bullpen behind him, and Ohtani moved to Friday after a workload decision made in the middle of a long run of games. The immediate question for the Dodgers became whether the adjustment would hold the line on the road trip while still keeping Ohtani on schedule for two starts before the break.
