LOS ANGELES — This is a new experience to guys like Landon Knack and Brent Honeywell. The excitement, the noise, the stress and tension of postseason baseball at the highest level does take some getting used to. Sometimes it’s a positive, as Knack discovered when he pitched the ninth inning of the Dodgers’ bullpen shutout last Wednesday night in San Diego. And sometimes, as was the case Monday afternoon, it’s much rockier. Knack entered Game 2 of the National League Championship Series in the second inning, after opener Ryan Brasier had given up a leadoff homer to the New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor in the first to end the Dodger pitching staff’s scoreless innings streak at 33. It did not go well. Knack gave up a single, a double, two walks (one intentional) and a grand slam to Mark Vientos, for a 6-0 lead. Knack “wasn’t sharp overall,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, and the Vientos at-bat was a situation where Knack started 0-and-2, let it get to 3-2 and then made a mistake with the fastball. That would be decisive, in a series-tying 7-3 victory for New York. But Knack’s job wasn’t done, even after the big blow. His task, when the game turned sour, was to take down as many outs as he could and keep the bullpen and particularly the high-leverage guys from getting overextended. “Guys were just coming up and trying to give me some positives, have my back a little bit,” Knack said. “Like, ‘We’ll move forward. Let’s keep going.’ “In all of these games, every out is so important. So it’s trying to bear down, do my job and try to get as many outs as I can, and just try to keep it there so that we can have a good chance of coming back.” “I think in that situation you still have to be able to finish the game,” Roberts said when asked about leaving Knack in. “You’re talking about the second inning right there. So you have a guy on the mound that has to eat up innings. Yeah, you go to anyone else, we’re not going to be able to finish the game. “I think as far as kind of where we’re at, it never feels good losing. But to feel you’ve got your leverage guys ready to go for the next three games, I feel really good about that.” In other words, sometimes you have to take one for the team. And sometimes, you’re asked to hold the fort, in a sense. Honeywell, who was claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates in July, designated for assignment on Aug. 18, outrighted to Triple-A on Aug. 20 and recalled 11 days later, was also charged with sucking up innings and outs, which he did from the fifth through the seventh. His role: Keep the game close and keep the leverage guys from being used unless absolutely necessary. The wide variance of his role should be familiar by now. Honeywell pitched in 18 games during the season, a lot of them in similar mid-game situations when the Dodgers needed multiple innings from him. He did have one “start” – his first game as a Dodger, July 14 in Detroit, as an opener who pitched three innings – and also had one save in two opportunities. He wasn’t on the Division Series roster against the Padres, but he was ready when called on here. “These guys put me in every situation I can possibly be in,” he said. “I just have to kind of Swiss Army my way through there. “It’s my first taste of playoff baseball, and I’m going to do everything I can to win a baseball game regardless of it being playoffs, regardless of it being regular season, spring training. It is what it is. “But,” he added, “the fans were into it, and they were right there with us the whole way through, mounting some momentum, and they felt that and so did we. … It’s a seven-game stretch and I’ll take this club (against) anybody. Five, seven, 14, it don’t matter.” These are part of the small competitions that make up the larger game. Over a seven-game series, especially one in which bullpen usage is so critical, the unsung heroes are pitchers who can wear it in a bad outing, or can keep the game close enough to give their teammates a chance. And, indeed, the Dodgers were within 6-3 and had the tying run at the plate in the sixth, before Kiké Hernández hit into an inning-ending double play. They had runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth, though Starling Marte’s RBI single in the ninth made it a four-run margin. Using a bullpen game on Monday sets Walker Buehler up to start Game 3 on Wednesday night in New York. Presumably, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be available for Thursday’s Game 4 with five days of rest, and the assumption then would be Jack Flaherty in Game 5 on Friday in New York, a bullpen game in a potential Game 6 here next Sunday and Buehler (and lots of others) available for a Game 7, if necessary, next Monday. That is, of course, assuming a lot. Things can change dramatically in a seven-game series. But it’s reasonable to assume that Knack – 3-5 with a 3.65 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 15 regular-season appearances, 12 of them starts – could be seen again this series. Then again, that’s a long way away. 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