Andrew Friedman has humane response to Dodgers' handling of Alex Vesia during absence

During the Dodgers' epic, exhausting, 18-inning Game 3 against the Blue Jays on Monday night, LA's relievers took the mound with No. 51 written on the side of their caps. It was a tribute to teammate Alex Vesia, who is away from the team during the World Series to attend to a "deeply personal family matter."

Understandably, neither the Dodgers nor Vesia have offered updates since the announcement, a day before the start of the World Series. He and Ben Casparius were replaced between the NLCS and Fall Classic rosters by Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein.

Andrew Friedman said of Vesia's absence, "We just didn’t want to have any potential for any kind of pressure. This is so much bigger than baseball. For us, it was doing whatever small part we could to just 100 percent be supportive."

The Dodgers bullpen, appropriately, put on a performance for the ages while honoring Vesia (except Blake Treinen, who gave up Toronto's go-ahead run in the seventh, later matched by a second homer from Shohei Ohtani). Otherwise, they pitched 13 innings of scoreless baseball.

Andrew Friedman expresses support for Alex Vesia during family-related absence from Dodgers

Losing Vesia, one of just four relief arms the Dodgers used in the NLCS, left the Dodgers' bullpen even more exposed than it already was. Treinen giving up a go-ahead run in late innings was absolutely classic, but the rest was completely unexpected and totally flipped the script on any expectations for what has been, by far, the weakest part of the Dodgers' roster.

Will Klein, who was DFA'ed twice in this calendar year, wasn't on the Dodgers' postseason rosters before Vesia's absence, and was the last arm available in the bullpen, was the hero of Game 3. He pitched a scoreless four innings, the 15th through 18th, and threw 72 pitches, a major league career high.

Dave Roberts said, "It's certainly on our hearts, and we miss him. We'll be thinking about him and certainly he's a part of this."

The Dodgers bullpen was literally carrying Vesia with them through that game. Dodgers' fans hearts go out to him and his wife Kayla during this time.