PHOENIX - The nightmares keep coming, and Dave Roberts is running out of buttons to push. Each successive option in the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen appears to be overwhelmed with the same kerosene that threatens to combust the team's entire season.

A pair of new characters entered on Wednesday night. This time, it was Clayton Kershaw, trotting in from the bullpen into a tie game in the ninth inning. His first relief appearances since being blasted out of the 2019 postseason reflected the level of desperation the Dodgers have right now. The man dubbed "The Last of His Kind" might be the Dodgers' last option to try out - and he delivered a scoreless frame to force extra innings.

Two innings earlier, Roki Sasaki took the mound to try something he's never done. Less than a month ago, he seemed to be out of the Dodgers' 2025 plans entirely. Given their bullpen, they have no choice but to be willing to dive into the deep end of variance and hope that Sasaki's triple-digits fastball and special splitter can help lift them out of it. A scoreless inning provided a glimmer of hope that they've found something.

The Dodgers blew another late lead anyway. That's how it's gone with this group, creating a ride bumpy enough to make your stomach turn. At least for one night, they'll get to enjoy the end result of the thrill. Justin Wrobleski - the struggling depth starter turned potential important reliever - held down the Dodgers' final lead in the 11th inning for a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, roaring when Alek Thomas waved over one final slider.

It took one last rally on a two-strike, two-out base hit from Tommy Edman to give the Dodgers another lead. With another win on Thursday, they'll clinch their 12th division title in 13 years.

Who knows what kind of twists and turns await on the other side. They hardly figured even a week ago that they'd be relying on either the 37-year-old Kershaw or 23-year-old Sasaki quite like they did on Wednesday night.

Sasaki entered the cauldron in the seventh inning of a 3-1 game, pitched as a last-ditch potential savior for a team running out of options in the bullpen. Sasaki's first action in a major league game since May 9 also represented his first time pitching out of the bullpen at the highest stage. He hadn't thrown in relief at all in his professional career until last week. The stakes are immense for a rookie that looked to be out of the team's 2025 plans altogether just a few weeks ago.

Then Sasaki's first pitch popped into Ben Rortvedt's glove at 99.1 mph for a strike. James McCann caught a Sasaki splitter off the end of the bat on the next pitch, hooking a ground ball that Max Muncy had to range back for and to the foul line, backpedaling as he threw to first for an out.

He hit 99.1 mph again a batter later, freezing Tim Tawa with a pitch that caught the lower inside corner of Marvin Hudson's iteration of the strike zone for strike three. A splitter that knuckled towards the plate got Ildemaro Vargas to lurch forward with anticipation, which Sasaki followed up with a 99.5 mph fastball he blew past him two pitches later.

"One hundred, with a nasty split?" Blake Snell said with a grin. "OK, Roki."

The most promising 13 pitches of Sasaki's brief big league career might have come at just the right time. This was not the Sasaki the Dodgers last saw. This was not the version of Sasaki who was pitching in minor league games just last month, sitting in the mid-90s with his very hittable fastball even after his shoulder was no longer giving him trouble. Sasaki forced himself back into the picture as much as the Dodgers' lagging bullpen forced them to turn over every possible stone for options.

Sasaki's season might have been saved with a visit to Arizona. Inside the Dodgers' reclusive pitching lab at their spring complex, director of pitching Rob Hill dissected video of Sasaki's delivery, hoping to tap back into the triple-digits velocity that had made him the most sought-after cost-controlled international signing since his teammate, Shohei Ohtani, jumped to Major League Baseball.

Hill pointed out some adjustments to Sasaki's lower half, suggesting that Sasaki's steady decline in velocity over the past couple seasons was a byproduct of compensating for a shoulder that ached. That shoulder is healthier now. His delivery seems to be in a better place.

"Just making sure my shoulder was moving the way I want it to be," Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. "And also working on my lower half mechanics."

Sasaki even began to implement a new cutter to replace his slider (which he said contributed to his shoulder discomfort), giving an option that better played off a fastball that struggled to get swings and misses during his first eight starts in the majors.

That fastball played in a short burst on Wednesday night. The two fastballs the Diamondbacks swung at in the inning each drew a swing and miss. The mechanical tweaks didn't fix the issues in the pitch's shape, but the velocity helped make up for it.

"He looks like a different person," Roberts said.

Still, it was unthinkable not that long ago that Sasaki would be in this spot. This bullpen forced the organization's hand. The group's 5.69 ERA this month entering Wednesday ranked 26th in the majors. Kirby Yates' difficult season effectively ended when he was placed on the injured list to make room for Sasaki on the roster. Brock Stewart's right shoulder is still bothering him, which has delayed the Dodgers' lone deadline reliever acquisition's return.

"This guy has pitched in huge ballgames his entire life in front of his entire country," Roberts said of Sasaki. "So I wasn't worried about that. Just wanted to see how the stuff played. He gave us a big boost."

Alex Vesia and Edgardo Henriquez still combined to cough up a three-run lead in the eighth. The cardiac test continued and forced Kershaw to enter into a tie game. Wednesday represented Kershaw's usual bullpen session between starts, and with the extra rest coming into his scheduled start Sunday, Kershaw volunteered.

He got three quick outs, including getting a familiar and troublesome foe in Ketel Marte to fly out to get out of the ninth. This might be something the Dodgers go to again this coming month.

"Relieving is just a different animal altogether," Kershaw said. "I can do the math. So if I want to be a part of it in any way, I'll do whatever they want."

Sasaki and Kershaw put together the lone scoreless innings for the Dodger bullpen before extras. Jack Dreyer and Blake Treinen, who each have recently added timber to the flame engulfing this bullpen, both got pop-ups to escape a bases loaded situation in the 10th. When Wrobleski entered in the 11th after the Dodgers had regained the lead, he was about the last guy the Dodgers had left to use.

Even after the guys they never thought they would use. A pair of strikeouts helped punctuate a save the Dodgers desperately had to complete.

Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki, surprise new characters, enter the Dodgers' bullpen puzzle