KNOWING THE BOLD TRUTH ABOUT BULLPENS, MARK PRIOR CULTIVATES HISTORY
After he was overused by Dusty Baker, which led to arm problems that ended his career, Prior is the pitching coach of the Dodgers and helped create a staff that assaults a postseason scoreless record
The years have brought gray to his whiskers. By now, we figured, Mark Prior should have been a Hall of Fame pitcher, recalling how he was media-smeared like a phenom throughout his Chicago upbringing. It remains a ghastly story of strategic misfortune that he remained on the mound too long — and too late — in moments when relievers could have preserved his right arm.
That was the work of Cubs manager Dusty Baker. Prior’s father, Jerry, wasn’t happy with an overuse-the-stud scheme during the 2003 National League championship series. And that was before he took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning, against the Marlins, when a fly ball soared to left field at Wrigley Field. Moises Alou didn’t catch it along the wall.
Steve Bartman did.
With staggering misery, Prior’s elbow and shoulder fell apart, along with his labrum. A line drive from Brad Hawpe mangled his arm. He was out of the major leagues at 27. No one would have blamed him for disappearing from the sport, yet here he is, more than two decades after Bartman, reminding Baker and baseball’s intelligentsia about the vitality of modern-day rationale.
When in doubt, use another reliever and make history.
He is the pitching coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will break the postseason record of 33 consecutive scoreless innings with a single zero Monday against the New York Mets. A massive-stakes club built on Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts is relying on a blowout bullpen in mid-October. The visitors should change their “OMG” signage to “My God.” Prior sat calmly with manager Dave Roberts as Jack Flaherty delivered seven outstanding innings in Game 1 of the NLCS, another huge shot from a maligned, battered starting staff that sets up relievers for more damage. Weeks ago, concerned folks asked if the Dodgers were killing pitchers by banishing them to surgeries and injured lists.
Now they have an advanced plan that could win a World Series. “It's just been picking up where the last guy left off,” said Flaherty, another machine churner. “You know that the guy coming in after you has got your back. And that's why this whole team has felt like everybody is just feeding off of each other right now.”
Who are they? Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and … who? As it is, the Dodgers completed a perfect game, so to speak, retiring 28 straight batters in a streak starting in Game 5 of the NLDS. Someone named Ben Casparius completed the ninth inning of a 9-0 rout, just another fresh arm trotting through the outfield. Prior doesn’t have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow or Gavin Stone. He doesn’t have Ohtani, the pitcher. He has Walker Buehler in some wretched form after two Tommy John surgeries. It doesn’t matter when they matched the 1966 Baltimore Orioles — who beat the Dodgers in the Series — with three straight shutouts in compiling the original 33.
“They just went out there and dominated,” catcher Will Smith said. “I'm back there calling the pitches, but it's all those guys executing what we're deciding. We’re just trying to keep it going.”
No one is more thrilled than Roberts, who relies on Prior and his staff to break down opponents when the Dodgers seemed to be broken down. “The game has certainly changed, and I think that from our perspective, it's just a collective effort,” he said. “Certainly, the players that were involved in all those scoreless innings have been fantastic. I think defensively we've been very good. The coaches have done a great job of relaying the information and making it tangible and allowing for our pitchers and catchers to do a great job of sequencing … and the front office, just the information we get. I think how we're preventing runs, it's a complete team effort.”
We knew the organization throws mammoth money at the payroll and the ballpark. Of course, technology is essential. How else do relievers carry a contender? The Dodgers should win another championship if Flaherty and Yamamoto excel. Everyone blamed front-office boss Andrew Friedman for failing to acquire pitchers at the trade deadline, whiffing on attempts for Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet. But he did land Flaherty, who grew up in Burbank pitching for an all-time high school rotation — joining Max Fried and Lucas Giolito — and overcame a rough 2023 season. All he needed was to bring familiar faces to Dodger Stadium, the place he smothered as a teenager.
“I saw some family out there when I was warming up and I had gone to games here with them before, so it just kind of lets you relax a little bit,” Flaherty said. “This game is a lot of fun and I’ve been lucky to do it since I was a little kid. As high pressure as they get, I just tell the guys it’s going to be fun. We’ve got to remember that sometimes.”
They know with the Series three victories away. “Our energy started with Jack,” Betts said. “Jack really gave it to us.”
“He’s got an aura about him,” Smith said. “He’s super competitive, super focused. He’s had a great year, obviously had great years in the past, and we’re fortunate he’s pitching for us in the postseason and giving us shutties.”
“It was just a pitching clinic,” Roberts said. “He did a great job of filling up the strike zone with his complete mix. Once we caught a lead, he did a great job of just going after those guys and attacking. For us to get seven innings in a long series was huge.”
His performance gave a brief break to a bullpen that should be swarmed by fans. In left field, people usually watch games and ignore happenings on the practice mound. Who cares about Ohtani when the bullpen is your TBA clinic in Game 2? “We came out of it with a lot of guys that are rested and raring to go,” Roberts said. “I felt good about that. Jack being able to do that opens up a lot of things.”
It might open a 2-0 lead as the Dodgers head to Citi Field, where the sight of Grimace the purple fast-food mascot won’t bother them. Just send out another relief pitcher to deal with him. With Flaherty, who was thrilled to receive a hug from Kershaw, a team that looked graceless days ago has returned to a favorite’s role to win a second title since 1988.
“I mean, he’s been pitching at Dodger Stadium since he was in high school. It’s nothing new to him,” Freddie Freeman said. “He’s got a nice demeanor about him. Doesn’t seem too big for him. With his mom in the stands, I think he wanted to go out there and be great.”
The bullpen is the saving grace of Mark Prior. He develops arms and makes sure they’re ready for 53,503 fans. Once upon a time, imagine if Dusty Baker used relievers. What a classic story, turning a sad ending into a wild, systematic progress.
Give us that Ben Casparius, who wears No. 78.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.