When Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen walked to the mound for the ninth inning of Sunday's game against the Atlanta Braves, his team owned a 4-1 lead and he hadn't blown a single one of his 24 save opportunities this season.
You can now make that 24 of 25, but the Dodgers being the Dodgers and the Braves being the Braves, Atlanta still lost 5-4 in the 10th to fall to 47-50.
Still, the Braves did force a 10th inning. And they did split the four-game series with baseball's most formidable team to date in 2017, the Dodgers standing an MLB-best 68-31 at the moment.
"Their bullpen is so deep," Braves skipper Brian Snitker said during his postgame news conference. "And then they get a three-run lead with that guy on the mound, it says a lot about our character to come back and tie the game."
If only the Braves' bullpen appeared to be half as deep as L.A.'s, Atlanta might have realistic reason to view itself as a playoff team instead of a gritty, gutty bunch that teases more than it pleases in the biggest moments, its offense good enough to threaten in almost every game but usually dangerous enough to triumph only against baseball's non-elite teams.
Yes, Atlanta took the first two against the Dodgers before coming up short in Saturday's and Sunday's losses. Yes, the Braves swept the Arizona Diamondbacks - whom they'll face tonight in the desert - a little more than a week ago in Atlanta.
As Matt Adams - traded to the Big Peach from St. Louis in late May - told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after his 15th homer of the season in a Braves uniform tied Sunday's game in the ninth: "Like I said when I first got over here, it's just fun to be a part of a club like this. I think it shows that no matter who's out on the mound, what team we're going up against, we never give up until that last out's recorded. Today was a good example of that."
But Sunday was also a good example of why the Braves so desperately need a better bullpen, despite Jim Johnson's 22 saves this year. Because while that's not a bad number given than Jansen has but 24, Johnson has also blown seven saves. Less than two-thirds through the regular season, that's too many less if you expect to see the postseason.
Or as Braves announcer Chip Caray said afterward: "It's the story of the season - the inability of the Braves bullpen to shut the door."
Then again, is there any reliever out there worth trading away some of Atlanta's young talent to acquire, given that it's hard to see this team doing anything more than possibly reaching the playoffs at this point? Given their talent down on the farm and the obvious energy and chemistry on the big club, perhaps the smart thing to do as the trade deadline approaches is to sit pat, hold tight to assets, send a message that Braves brass believes it has what it takes to become a contender a year from now.
It's tricky, for it's tough to see the Braves ever returning to their 1990s form without a far stronger bullpen. The game has changed. It's almost as if you need a deep enough and versatile enough bullpen to cover four innings instead of two. Lefties. Righties. Control pitchers. Speed merchants. The more and more varied the better.
Merely consider this: former big league starter Brandon Morrow got Sunday's win for the Dodgers to improve to 3-0. The 32-year-old is averaging 97 mph on his fastball. But he didn't even see the mound until Jansen blew his first save of the season. Talk about a deep bullpen.
But the Braves appear to have a deep, talented roster overall, one built for the future. Could they use one of the top relievers believed to be on the trading block, anyone from San Diego lefty Brad Hand to the Philly's 36-year-old workhorse, Pat Neshek, to Tony Watson of Pittsburgh?
Sure they could. And if Braves general manager John Coppolella decides on such a move, no one should blame him as long as that reliever is safely on board for 2018.
But also ask yourself if anyone in that group appears to be the kind of bullpen ace for 2018 who can not only help this team get into the playoffs but help them win once there
And you wonder why former Braves GM John Schuerholz is being inducted into the Hall of Fame next weekend.
As he was wrapping up his postgame comments on Sunday, Snitker said of the Dodgers, "(They're) a good club, but we feel we're a good club, too. We're a second-place team (in the NL East). It goes right down to the very end with this group."
Yet unless the bullpen can start becoming an asset rather than a liability, the ending for this Braves group will look a whole lot like Sunday against the Dodgers - a blown chance to accomplish something big. At least until next year.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.