For one night in the middle of a pennant race, an East Tennessee State alumnus was exactly what the Los Angeles Dodgers needed.
Landon Knack, the former ETSU right-hander, was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City last week to give a heavily taxed Dodgers bullpen some breathing room during a series against the Kansas City Royals. He responded with an 8-out save — pitching nearly three full innings to close out a sweep — a rare and notable feat in modern baseball that had eluded the Dodgers entirely through the 2026 season to that point.
The timing was no accident. Los Angeles had been burning through relievers, and Knack was summoned specifically to eat innings and reset a worn-out 'pen. He filled that role with precision, retiring hitters deep into the game and handing LA a clean finish in a 4-2 win.
The Save That Got Away — And the Context Around It
The 8-out save is a quirk of baseball's save rule: a pitcher can earn one by entering with a lead of three or fewer runs and recording the final out, regardless of when they enter. Knack's version, spanning from the seventh inning through the ninth, put him in genuinely rare company. The Dodgers, as a franchise chasing a repeat championship, had not logged a single three-inning save in 2026 before Knack's outing — a fact that made his performance stand out beyond just the box score.
It also drew historical comparisons to Brian Holton, a Dodgers reliever from the late 1980s known for long multi-inning relief appearances, adding a layer of organizational lore to what might otherwise have been a footnote.
The Inevitable Other Shoe
The glow didn't last long. The day after the save, the Dodgers optioned Knack back to Triple-A Oklahoma City, calling up Jonathan Hernández as the next fresh arm in the shuttle system LA has been running all season. It's a familiar rhythm for Knack: perform, return, wait for the next call.
His season ERA sits at 7.94 across his MLB appearances in 2026, a number that reflects the boom-or-bust volatility of a depth arm navigating big-league hitters. But the 8-out save complicates any simple read on his value — when the Dodgers needed someone to go long and protect a lead, Knack delivered.
For ETSU fans, the moment offers a window into what life looks like on the fringes of a championship-caliber roster. Knack isn't in the Dodgers' postseason plans in any guaranteed sense, but he's proven he can handle the moment when summoned. In a playoff push where roster flexibility matters as much as star power, that's not nothing.
Whether he gets another call before October remains to be seen. For now, Johnson City's most prominent MLB export heads back to Oklahoma City with one more memorable line on his résumé.
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