LOS ANGELES — When Friday’s ninth inning arrived and the bass drums kicked in, Teoscar Hernandez waited in the dugout.
He needed to take his position in left field, but first he wanted to watch closer Edwin Diaz make his first walk from Dodger Stadium’s bullpen to its mound. Hernandez wanted to take in the strain of Timmy Trumpet, who turned Diaz into an icon 3,000 miles away. Hernandez wanted to watch Dodgers fans experience Diaz’s electric entrance for the first time. And he wasn’t alone.
Said Hernandez: “Everybody was waiting for that.”
Moments after Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ big-name offseason acquisition, put his new team ahead with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the eighth, Diaz, their other big offseason addition, closed it out in the top of the ninth, retiring three of the four Arizona Diamondbacks hitters he faced to notch his first save and give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory.
Diaz spent the past seven years in New York and became a star, accumulating 144 saves for the Mets while turning into a fan favorite at Citi Field. Then he opted out, watched as the Mets brought in a potential replacement in Devin Williams and jumped at the opportunity to join the Dodgers, who signed him to a three-year, $69 million contract that was pretty close to what the Mets offered to bring him back.
“I was in New York, but now I’m here,” Diaz said, downplaying the oddity of hearing his entrance music on another coast. “I’m enjoying the time with this team. We have a really good team. I got to keep doing my job. And I’m hearing the trumpets here at Dodger Stadium now.”
Diaz pounded his glove twice as he reached the left-field warning track, just as the lights shut off. He settled into a jog, and the bass drums began. As he got about midway through the outfield, a Long Beach-based trumpeter named Tatiana Tate sat just beyond the left-field wall and began to mimic Timmy Trumpet’s portion of the song “Narco.”
“I was surprised a little bit,” Diaz said of the live performance. “I heard a trumpet sounding before I was coming out. I said, ‘No way they got a live trumpet.’ It was pretty fun.”
Twelve pitchers recorded saves for the Dodgers last year. When the playoffs began, Roki Sasaki was converted to a closer to solidify a weary bullpen. And when the stakes were highest, in Game 7 of the World Series, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts trusted only his starting pitchers to hold down the mighty Toronto Blue Jays.
It was clear that the Dodgers needed to address the ninth inning, and yet, Roberts didn’t think they had any shot of landing Diaz. He seemed too entrenched with the Mets. Then, while Roberts was on vacation in early December, one of the Dodgers’ front office members asked him to get on a videoconference call and help recruit Diaz. They spoke for roughly 45 minutes, selling Diaz on their culture and their city.
“Afterwards, I told my wife, ‘We’re going to get him,'” Roberts recalled. “I felt really good about it.”
Now, Diaz gives the Dodgers their first established, bona fide closer since Kenley Jansen departed after the 2021 season. It shores up their only glaring weakness. And on just the second day of their season, it was already on display.
“I think this is a really good team,” said Diaz, who kept the ball from his first Dodgers save. “I think we’ve got a lot of good players here. I think if everyone stays healthy, this team has the chance to win, three-peat. Let’s cross our fingers that everyone stays healthy and keeps winning baseball games like we did today and yesterday.”
