That bullpen math cuts two ways for the Dodgers specifically — they're still down closer Edwin Diaz, who only started a rehab assignment this week, and Roki Sasaki hasn't been activated either. It's part of why the sharpest money tracked on this one has piled onto Los Angeles early, even as the market's had to work around a taxed relief corps.
For the Reds, this trip is what's left of the season. Cincinnati sits 6.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, but rookie Sal Stewart has been a bright spot in an otherwise sunk year, and the club's closing schedule is stacked with contenders it could still play spoiler against. A series like this one — an offense that just dropped 12 runs on Milwaukee walking into a Dodgers team that hasn't lost since before Labor Day — is exactly the kind of measuring stick Cincinnati needs if the young core is going to mean anything in 2027.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, is just trying to get through September with its pitching depth intact. The injured list is stacked with arms — Diaz, Sasaki, Gavin Stone, Jake Cousins, Will Klein, Ben Casparius, Kris Bubic, Brusdar Graterol — and now Lauer, which is how a struggling Sheehan ends up starting a game with real Wild Card implications on the other side.
None of that has stopped the Dodgers from winning. They've taken 4 straight and are 4-1 over their last 5, and a lineup that's missing Andy Pages and Dalton Rushing has kept scoring anyway. Cincinnati has matched that form stride for stride, going 4-1 in its own last 5 — this is a hot team catching a hotter one, at the worst possible time for the visitors' margin for error.