It was one of those things we heard often as youngsters on the schoolyard playground and even more so when we got into organized sports: “You win as a team and you lose as a team.” But even though the Dodgers have ‘won as a team’ more than they have ‘lost as a team’ this season with their current record of 41-33 through their first 75 games, they have ‘won as a team’ fewer times than have the Arizona Diamondbacks (45-30) and the San Francisco Giants (41-33) and find themselves in third place in the National League West 3.5 games behind Arizona and 1.0 behind San Francisco.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the Dodgers just completed a two-game sweep on their oft-called ‘crosstown rivals,’ the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (even though Anaheim isn’t even in Los Angeles County), with consecutive 2-0 shutouts.

The great news is that, although Dave Roberts‘ team got the expected outstanding Kershaw-like performance from future first-ballot Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw in his 7.0-inning start on Tuesday, he also got a stellar nine innings from his beleaguered bullpen in Wednesday’s ‘bullpen game,’ as they are now called.

“It was really a clinic from our ‘pen,” Roberts told reporters after Wednesday’s nailbiter 2-0 win over Phil Nevin‘s Halos. “You know, you look at this series, I think there was 11 shutout innings from the ‘pen, and they all did what they needed to do tonight. You know, you look at that first couple of innings, Brusdar (Graterol) taking down two innings was huge to open.”

But ‘You win as a team and you lose as a team,’ and Roberts’ Dodgers ‘won as a team’ because of some outstanding defense, most notably because of an insanely great play by Dodgers left fielder David Peralta who, with one out in the bottom of the third inning and Angels third baseman Luis Rengifo on third base, caught a short fly ball hit to him by Angels right fielder Mickey Moniak and made a prefect throw to Dodgers catcher Will Smith to nail the tagging Rengifo at the plate to complete the rare inning-ending 7-2 double play to keep the ‘pen’s (then) 1-0 shutout intact.

“You can’t dismiss that play, that tag play from Peralta out there in left field, and I think that set the tone to get Victor (González) out of that (bottom of the third) inning,” added the Dodgers skipper.

That tone-setting play earned González his second win of the season (with two losses) and trimmed his season ERA to a more respectable 3.43 in a bullpen with a combine MLB second worst ERA of 4.88 behind only the Oakland A’s bullpen ERA of 5.51.

The Dodgers used seven of their eight rostered relievers in Wednesday’s bullpen game:

• Brusdar Graterol
• Victor González
• Yency Almonte
• Alex Vesia
• Ryan Brasier
• Caleb Ferguson
• Evan Phillips

Ironically, The Dodgers acquired Ryan Brasier earlier in the day on Wednesday and he needed only four pitches to retire the Angels in order in the bottom of the seventh.

Certainly worth noting, Vesia was very good in his one inning of work, getting Angels superstar right-hander (and designated hitter) Shohei Ohtani to pop out harmlessly to Dodgers third baseman Michael Busch to lead off the bottom of the sixth, followed by striking out always dangerous Angels centerfielder Mike Trout swinging.

As for those two Dodgers runs, they were the result of a clutch solo home run by Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman off of Ohtani in the top of the fourth inning, and a solo blast by Dodgers second baseman Miguel Vargas off of Angels left-hander Aaron Loup in the top of the ninth.

It was every bit a team win.

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *