Jack Dreyer opened for the Dodgers on Wednesday night against the Athletics, taking the ball in a bullpen game after Shohei Ohtani was pushed back from his scheduled start. The move gave the Dodgers a different look in the final game of a nine-game road trip, with a sweep on the line and the chance to finish 8-1 still in front of them.
Dreyer entered with a 3.51 ERA across 33.1 innings this season, a solid enough line to make him a workable choice for the first inning or two before the rest of the bullpen took over. The Dodgers also trimmed and reshaped the group around him before first pitch, recalling Charlie Barnes and optioning Wyatt Mills while Dalton Rushing and Teoscar Hernández sat out. Tommy Edman and Robinson started in their places.
The timing mattered because the Dodgers were not making the switch in a vacuum. They had already won the first two games of the series by a combined 18-7, backed by 17 hits on Monday and 14 more on Tuesday, and they were trying to extend a winning streak to five games. The Athletics came in trying to stop a four-game losing skid, which made the matchup feel less like a routine finale than a test of how far the Dodgers were willing to stretch their pitching plan to keep the run going.
Manager Dave Roberts said the club was in the middle of 13 consecutive games and wanted to use any chance to give Ohtani extra rest. Pushing him to Friday, Roberts said, still gives him two starts before the break and keeps him lined up against two division opponents. That is the tradeoff in a bullpen game: the Dodgers protect one arm now, but they also hand the night to a relay that has to hold long enough for the rest of the lineup to make the decision look smart.
That is why Dreyer mattered on Wednesday. He was not just opening a game; he was opening a plan that showed how quickly the Dodgers were willing to change course when the schedule, the workload and the finish line all landed on the same night. If the bullpen could carry them through, Ohtani would still get the start on Friday and the Dodgers would have bought themselves a little more control at the end of a road trip that has already asked plenty of them.
