Dodgers bullpen reaches 38 straight scoreless innings without Edwin Diaz

The Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen has thrown 38 consecutive scoreless innings, a franchise record in the modern era — and they have done it without their closer.

What happened

Will Klein and Tanner Scott combined for two perfect innings and four strikeouts on Sunday, finishing off a game that starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had largely handled himself across seven frames. That outing extended the Dodgers' bullpen scoreless streak to 38 innings, a mark that Sarah Langs of MLB.com identified as the longest leaguewide since the Cleveland bullpen held opponents scoreless across 38 2/3 innings in 2017.

The context that makes the streak worth pausing on: Edwin Diaz, the Dodgers' star closer, reportedly underwent elbow surgery in April and remains out, per MLB Trade Rumors. The bullpen has built this record without the pitcher typically entrusted with the final out.

Why it matters

Bullpen construction is one of the more anxious exercises in roster management, and losing a closer to elbow surgery before the calendar turns to May is the kind of development that tends to haunt a pitching staff for months. The Dodgers, at least through this stretch, have not let it show.

A 38-inning scoreless run is not a product of soft matchups alone — it requires depth, sequencing, and the ability to deploy multiple relievers in high-leverage situations without a single crack. Klein and Scott handled Sunday's assignment cleanly, but the streak is a collective achievement that reflects how the organization has filled the gap left by Diaz's absence.

It is also worth noting what Sunday's workload distribution meant for the streak's survival. Yamamoto covering seven innings left Klein and Scott needing to protect only two frames — fewer innings means fewer opportunities for a scoreless run to end, and a starter going deep is as much a part of bullpen management as anything that happens in the seventh inning and beyond. The two are not separate stories; they are the same one.

Under general league rules, a pitcher placed on the 15-day injured list — the standard designation for pitchers — can be transferred to the 60-day IL, which removes the player from the 40-man roster count and creates additional roster flexibility. Whether the Dodgers have used any such mechanism in connection with Diaz is not detailed in the reporting, but the structural options exist, and clubs managing a long-term absence routinely weigh them as they configure a bullpen around the gap. The 60-day IL, in particular, is a tool that allows a roster to breathe — freeing a 40-man spot to add depth without forcing an immediate decision about the player who is out.

The broader organizational implication is that the Dodgers are, for now, running a closer-by-committee arrangement without having formally announced one. Klein and Scott have been the visible faces of the streak's final innings, but a 38-inning run involves more than two arms, and the depth required to sustain it speaks to how the roster has been constructed around Diaz's absence rather than simply waiting for his return.

What we don't know yet

### Is there a timetable for Diaz's return?

The reporting does not include one. MLB Trade Rumors notes that Diaz reportedly underwent elbow surgery in April and remains out; no recovery window, rehab assignment timeline, or expected activation date accompanies that information. Under general league rules, a pitcher on a rehab assignment has up to 30 days before a club must activate him or make another roster decision — but that clock does not start until a rehab assignment begins, and nothing in the reporting indicates one has.

The nature of the surgery is also not specified. Elbow procedures vary considerably in recovery length and outcome, and without a diagnosis or a formal club announcement, the reporting establishes only that Diaz had surgery in April and is currently unavailable. That uncertainty is worth preserving: what reads as a bullpen success story in one month can look quite different depending on what the rest of the season brings for Diaz's recovery.

What the streak itself does not answer is whether this level of performance is sustainable. Thirty-eight scoreless innings is a remarkable run; it is also, by definition, a streak, and streaks end. The question of who closes games for the Dodgers when that happens — and whether the answer changes once Diaz is healthy — remains open.

What to watch

The immediate operational question is how long the bullpen can sustain this without Diaz. Klein and Scott have been central to the run, and Sunday's four-strikeout, two-inning effort from that pair is the kind of performance that keeps a streak alive. But the workload implications of a long scoreless run are real — relievers used frequently in clean innings are still relievers being used, and the cumulative effect on availability is worth monitoring as the schedule continues.

The broader watch item is Diaz himself. Elbow surgery in April with no reported timetable means the Dodgers are, for now, building their late-inning structure around his absence rather than around his return. When the club does provide an update — whether that takes the form of a rehab assignment, a roster move, or a more formal announcement — it will reshape how the bullpen is constructed and how Klein, Scott, and others are deployed in the back of games.

The league-history marker is also worth keeping an eye on. At 38 innings, the Dodgers' relievers are one scoreless frame away from surpassing the Cleveland benchmark of 38 2/3 innings that Sarah Langs of MLB.com cited as the modern leaguewide standard. Whether that record falls depends entirely on what happens the next time a Dodgers reliever takes the mound — which is, as always with bullpens, the part nobody can predict.

For now, the Dodgers' relievers own a franchise record in the modern era and a share of the longest leaguewide scoreless streak since 2017, per MLB.com. That is the kind of footnote that tends to get quietly retired once a closer comes back healthy. It probably should not be.