September 29th, 2018 at 8:15 am 
by Ron Cervenka With exactly two games remaining in the 2018 regular season and with the Dodgers postseason role still uncertain, one thing is not – who their 2018 version of Brandon Morrow will be.
The verdict is finally in – It will be none other than once oft-criticized right-hander Pedro Báez.
You heard right, the 30-year-old Bani, Dominican Republic native who, heretofore, Dodger fans wanted to run out of town on a rail – or worse – has been absolutely outstanding down the stretch.
Check this out:
Since blowing his second (and last) save of the season back on August 9, Báez has appeared in 18 games, during which he has allowed a grand total of one earned run on six hits, while walking four and striking out 19 over his combined 18.2 innings pitched. Along the way, he picked up one win and added his sixth and seventh holds to his 2018 résumé.
It wasn’t always so for Báez. In fact, on June 6, the 6′-0″ / 230-pound hard-throwing right-hander was actually demoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City to make room on the Dodgers 25-man roster for extremely efficient left-handed starter-turned-reliever (for now) Caleb Ferguson. However, Báez was called back up one day later and, in all likelihood, probably never left town.
During Friday night’s extremely crucial 3-1 win over the hated San Francisco Giants to reduce their postseason Magic Number to one (via a potential Wild Card spot), Báez entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with no outs and an inherited runner on first base after Dodgers so-called ground ball specialist Scott Alexander walked Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford on seven pitches. Báez immediately gave up a single to Giants first baseman Aramis Garcia but then struck out Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez, and Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood struck out Giants pinch-hitter Chase d’Arnaud to escape the inning without allowing a run.
With no outs and the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the bottom of the seventh inning on Friday night, Báez struck out Aramís García and Gregor Blanco to preserve the Dodgers precarious 3-1 lead. Left-hander Alex Wood then came in and struck out Gorkys Hernández to end the inning and the threat.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)
To his credit and despite Báez’s early (and frequent) struggles, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts never gave up on his extremely quiet right-hander, perhaps being the only guy on the planet who had not. Sure enough, somewhere along the way Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and bullpen coach Mark Prior discovered a mechanical glitch in Báez’s delivery. He has also added an absolutely filthy change-up to his pitching repertoire. Since then, Petey (as he is known by his teammates) has been the proverbial ‘lights out’.
…and not a fraction of a second too soon.
Welcome to the team, Brandon Báez!
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So far, for a about a week, or so, everything I expected to happen, unfortunately happened, until last night when the Dodgers beat Madison Bumgarner and the Giants. There’s still time for the Rockies to lose before the season ends and a very good chance to get into the wild card game if it doesn’t turn out our way by Sunday.
It’s good to see Baez succeed. He always had the “stuff”, just had to get his mind right.
Seems like he is now “trusting it” and has even picked up the pace between pitches.
Way to go Petey!
It is all in his head, even if he had mechanical issues. I think if he learns NOT to think and just throw he will be fine. If he learns to speed up his pace a little and find a rhythm… he could be what Brandon Morrow was last season.
As for Ross Stripling, I think he’s the new Baez. He seems to take his sweet ol’ time on the mound.