Dodgers: Blake Treinen looks awesome in Los Angeles debut

Blake Treinen made an impression in his Dodgers debut.

When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Blake Treinen in the offseason to a one-year, $10 million contract, it was seen as a low-risk, high-reward move. And while it is only one appearance over one inning, the early returns are pretty impressive.

With the Dodgers losing 5-1 to the San Francisco Giants in the seventh inning on Saturday, manager Dave Roberts brought in Treinen for his first outing in Dodger Blue.

He looked amazing!

Throwing a 96 MPH sinker and 88 MPH slider, he only needed 8 pitches to retire the side. Facing Donovan Solano, he threw a 97 MPH sinker for strike one, followed by another sinker that was fouled off, and then induced a ground out on his slider. One pitch later, Wilmer Flores grounded out on a 96 MPH sinker. Finally, Darin Ruf faced four pitches, only one outside of the strike zone, and was called out looking on a nasty 88 MPH slider.

That’s seven strikes out of eight pitches.

Blake Treinen is a bounce-back candidate for the Dodgers.

The 32-year-old, Treinen, was one of the best relievers in baseball just two years ago while pitching in the Bay Area for the Oakland Athletics. Over 68 appearances, his ERA was a minuscule 0.78, bolstered by an impressive 11.2 K/9 compared to 2.3 BB/9 rates.

Things took a sudden left turn in 2019 when the right-hander saw his ERA balloon to 4.91.

The Dodgers are hoping that even if he doesn’t return to his 2018 form, he can at least regress to the pitcher he was for the majority of his career with the Nationals where he consistently kept his ERA around three runs.

While starter Alex Wood struggled in Saturday’s start against the Giants, both Treinen and reliever Joe Kelly were highlights out of the bullpen. Kelly threw 15 consecutive curveballs in the sixth inning on way to striking out two of the four batters he faced (the final out was recorded on a caught stealing).