After flying from Oklahoma City earlier that morning, Will Klein arrived in the Cincinnati visitors’ clubhouse on April 16, ready to give the Mariners’ beleaguered bullpen a lift.
He said his wife was flying to Cincinnati to meet him, and he sounded eager and optimistic about a chance to make his debut with the Mariners.
That opportunity never came.
Klein, a 6-foot-5 right-handed reliever, was optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma the following day, flying back to Oklahoma City to rejoin the Rainiers on the road, having never thrown a pitch for the Mariners.
By the end of May, the Mariners traded Klein to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a minor deal for left-handed reliever Joe Jacques.
The Mariners had acquired Klein from the Athletics in another minor deal in January, hopeful that their pitching infrastructure could help Klein corral his upper-90s fastball and command issues.
That never happened with the Mariners. Klein appeared in 22 games for the Rainiers early in the season, posting a 7.17 ERA with 32 strikeouts, 19 walks and a 1.97 WHIP in 21.1 innings.
Klein was only slightly better pitching for the Dodgers’ Triple-A team – based, coincidentally, in Oklahoma City – posting a 5.16 ERA with 44 strikeouts and 17 walks in 20 appearances.
He wasn’t included on the Dodgers’ roster for any of their first three rounds of the playoffs earlier this month.
All of which makes Klein’s heroics in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night even more improbable.
The last pitcher available out of the Dodgers bullpen, Klein threw four scoreless innings in extra innings to earn the Game 3 victory, a 6-5 win over the Blue Jays at Dodgers Stadium, won on Freddie Freeman’s walkoff homer in the bottom of the 18th inning.
In a game that featured one of the greatest World Series performances of all-time from Shohei Ohtani – he homered twice and reached base in all nine of his plate appearances, and he’s the scheduled starting pitcher for Game 4 – it’s Klein who will go down as one of the unsung heroes of Game 3.
After celebrating Freeman’s homer at home plate, teammates quickly huddled around Klein near the on-deck circle, bouncing and hugging their little-known reliever.
“I never dreamed that anything like this would happen,” Klein said.
Klein had spent the past month in Arizona, working out and keeping his arm in shape at the Dodgers’ spring-training facility.
He was added to the World Series roster as a just-in-case option against the Blue Jays’ right-handed-heavy lineup.
He was called on in the 15th inning and held the Blue Jays to one hit with two walks and five strikeouts in his four scoreless innings on 72 pitches. Before Game 3, he had never thrown more than two innings or 36 pitches in his professional career.
“There were times when you’re starting to feel down and you feel your legs aren’t there or your arm’s not there,” Klein said. “And you’ve just got to be like, ‘Well, who else is going to come save me, you know?’ ”
According to the True Blue LA fan blog, Klein’s win probability added of .553 – meaning he improved the Dodgers’ chances of winning by 55.3% – was “by far” the best relief appearance in Dodgers’ postseason history.
“You don’t ever plan on playing 18 innings, and you just kind of ask more from the player,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He delivered. He threw probably three times as much as he’s ever thrown before and – certainly with the adrenaline on this stage – what he did was incredible.”
A little before 1 a.m., Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax appeared in the Dodgers clubhouse, sought out Klein and shook his hand, ESPN reported.
“Nice going,” Koufax told him.