It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Dodgers Stadium. The temperatures are a little cooler, but obviously in the upper nineties, and Alex Vesia is always hot when he comes into the game no matter what the temperatures are outside. Thanks a lot for the time, VESSI appreciate it.
What an introduction. Wow, yeah, baby, an introduction.
Yeah, it's gonna be a hot one to day.
Yeah.
Speaking of that, you know, relievers are humans too. Relievers are people. They have lives too, and they matter as far as what is going on in the bullpen as far as these the heat wave here in Los Angeles, What are the conditions down there in the bullpen, because I know for many years that shelter you guys have out there did not give you much shelter.
Yeah, thank you for putting that out there. I appreciate all the love. But yeah, I mean they've given us a fan with some like mister on it and then in the bullpen room.
And stuff we have ac so'll be all right for today. It's gonna be really easy to get hot today. That's that's for sure. We're you know, another day, another day.
We're looking forward to another good ballgame, Bessia.
When I was coming to ballgames, and sometimes I would have seats along that Chain League fence next to the Dodger bullpen and the visitors bullpen on a hot Sunday afternoon. I remember one Sunday one of the relievers from the Cincinnati Reds picked up the water hose and started spraying the fans to help cool them off. Does any of that still happen.
I've never heard of that. So you're the first one to tell me that, And it.
Might be a good idea for today that the fans might appreciate that out of me.
So we'll see. We'll see if we've got a hose down there. Yeah, no doubt.
Last night the Dodgers use seven different pitchers in a bullpen game. Can you describe what a game like that is like for the bullpen and just the mindset to get ready for a situation like that.
Uh? Yeah.
So, I mean, obviously we have our game kind of meeting and we talk and and so we kind of understand what the game, you know, might bring us, you know, and pretty much after the third or fourth inning, it's you know, all bets are off, and you know, we we've got to be ready, you know, and that's whenever our name is called upon, you know, we we do a really good job of going out there executing our pitches and you know, putting up a zero, you know,
one inning after another. You know, so got to give it to you got to give it to the guys because it was a grind yesterday. And thankfully, you know, the the offense set the set the tone really early. So you know, six runs in the first that's.
It's a good day for the Dodgers.
All bets were off when you score six runs in that first inning, right.
Yeah, absolutely, it was great. It was that was that was a fun inning.
And uh, you know, we just wanted to keep putting up zeros to get the offense back into the into the dugout, get them hydrated, and having them stay cool, not to you know, you know, everyone helps everyone in that in that situation.
See, that's an interesting part of bullpen games because a lot of us still don't understand how works for relievers. When you say all bets are off, we always presume that you know, when you're coming in what inning, do you have some sort of idea.
That there's a we call it our lane right, and you know, whether you're facing five, six, seven, eight, nine or one two, three, four five, right, like, it's kind of broken up two for like myself or Blake or Buddy Evan.
Kope right like, all it's broken up differently.
And you know we're talked about that and told, but still the game, right.
You know, there's certain situations where if.
I'm coming in, I can come in the fourth inning to face a certain amount of hitters. I can come in the eighth inning to face those same hit hitters.
So you know, and that's that's a DOCS call.
And you know we're we're ready for you've been able to come in, whether it's the fourth, the eighth, the ninth. Is there something different about the innings even if you have that certain lane you described.
Uh, no, we try to keep it.
You know, the score is irrelevant, the inning is irrelevant. Uh you know, we go out there and do our job right, And that's where you don't you don't put more pressure or less pressure on yourself depending on the situation. You want to kind of eliminate all of that and focus on the you know, one, two or three hitters
that you know you're the task at hand. Basically and you know that's it helps kind of eliminate riding the highs too high and the lows too low, right, And that's trying to stay consistent, is you know, just knowing what to do when you go out there for you know, preparation, all that stuff that you can do before the game before you.
Know your name gets called.
And once you out there, your job is to get three outs, put up a zero, get the game going.
Yeah.
What a mindset and what a bullpen for the Dodgers this year. It's the dog days of August. You guys have been leaned on a lot best. Yeah, how are you feeling good?
Yeah? I mean my routine has been really good this year.
I like the certain things I've I've implemented, some things I've taken out, you know.
But it's also the knowledge.
That I've gained with you know, talking to the bullpen guys about certain routine stuff over the years. You know, I've had some pretty good mentors over the years with you know, Kenley Jensen, with Joe Kelly, you know, with Daniel Hudson to name a few, right, And it's just you know, I give them a lot of credit and I'm glad that they were able to, you know, help me out and tell me how it is, you know, because tough conversations are are what make you better, you know.
The ones that are that are easy like that doesn't help me out in the long run. So it's it's been.
It's been good, and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks, you know, get you know, staying strong and uh, you know, playoffs is.
What was what we want. It's the best baseball in the world.
Love it. I know you relish it, I know you embrace it. Can't wait to see you in October again, Bessia.
Absolutely, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the time.
Really appreciated. And the water hose will be a welcomed feature in the bullpen today.
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see about that. We'll see about that.
You'll see you'll see me on social media if I do have water hills out there, that's for sure.
There.
He is the man, Alex Vetsia. The Dodgers are very lucky to have him.