LOS ANGELES -- Eight days earlier, everything would have gone haywire.

Zack Greinke was cruising right along Tuesday night before his right ankle started getting caught in the dirt of the Dodger Stadium mound, causing a little bit of pain and a little bit more fatigue as he labored to finish off another dominant start. The San Francisco Giants were taking healthy cuts after swinging feebly for seven innings, hitting one line drive after another into the outfield grass. The entire stadium started feeling tense.

Finally, after Matt Duffy smacked Greinke's 114th pitch into center field, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly didn't really have much choice. He had to get the ball from Greinke and give it to somebody walking, jogging or sprinting out of the bullpen.

That, if you've been watching this season, is rarely a good thing.

Only, lately, things haven't gone from bad to worse when Dodgers relievers are summoned. In came lefty Luis Avilan, and, after a brilliant snag and glove flip by rookie second baseman Jose Peraza, the problem went away. Brandon Belt hit into the inning-ending double play, and Kenley Jansen pitched a tidy ninth inning for his 28th save as the Dodgers beat the Giants 2-1 and built what looks like a pretty stout 5 1/2 game lead in the National League West.

In Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers have one of the greatest one-two starting pitching duos in a generation. You can say what you want about the offense. Sometimes, it is explosive. Sometimes, it sits there for days doing nothing. But the Dodgers are only going to go as far as their bullpen allows them to go. Last season, it led them to an early exit in the playoffs, with Mattingly terrified to take the ball from Kershaw, no matter how tired the ace got.

For a couple of months this season, a young group of relievers was surprisingly strong. Then, they drifted aimlessly through the middle third of the season and the alarms grew more shrill after a newcomer, Jim Johnson, added his struggles to those of the relievers already here.

Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for the Dodgers who improved to a season-best 17 games above .500. Getty Images/Stephen Dunn

The Dodgers' front office, as active as it has become, fixed the problem by doing nothing, which frankly doesn't look like such an awful plan at the moment. Now, when a few pitches, or even one, late in a game can turn a team's fate, what does this bullpen have in store? Good things, if you listen to Jansen.

"People just, I'm sorry, talk s--- about us," Jansen said. "They just don't understand this game sometimes. You can ask the hitters. They're going to go through bad streaks. You're going to go through bad streaks. Since the beginning, I told everybody that I like this bullpen. The guys that we have are pretty special."

It's no secret why the Dodgers have suddenly taken command of their division. In the last eight games, in which they have gone 7-1, their bullpen has a 0.66 ERA, has allowed 20 hits in 27 1/3 innings, struck out 27 and walked 10. It was the final piece, putting this Dodgers' pitching staff over the top, from good to unrelenting.

If the nadir of this Dodgers season was the bullpen blowing a brilliant Kershaw start in Houston on Aug. 23, the relievers have been equally integral to this renaissance, which has put the division firmly in the Dodgers' grasp. If Kershaw stays as hot as he has been and the relievers do what they have been doing, the Giants could leave town tomorrow night with barely a shred of hope of making the postseason, their favorite time of year.

A sweep would put San Francisco 6 1/2 games back with only 29 games left -- miracle territory.

Madison Bumgarner gave up just two runs Tuesday night, but Greinke was a little better. And this time, the guys who came after him didn't let him down.

"This win, especially against Bumgarner, I think is pretty huge and now we're going to have the best pitcher in the game tomorrow going for us," Jansen said. "That's going to be good for us."

This time of year is always tense for a manager, worried his team will squander its lead and make its manager famous for standing at the deck of a sinking ship. Mattingly has seen enough volatility from his bullpen to not know what he can trust, but he's ever so gradually learning to trust relievers other than Jansen. Avilan, Juan Nicasio and Chris Hatcher seem to be shouldering their way into his circle of trust.

"It's like anything else, it's just momentum," Mattingly said. "Guys have been getting outs and you want guys to hopefully catch fire out there and for guys to get some confidence."

The Dodgers are 17 games over .500, their high water mark for 2015. Greinke (15-3) might have locked up the Cy Young Award after he lowered his ERA to an absurd-for-September 1.59. As usual, he makes it sound like this dominant season is just as easy as throwing darts.

"I don't know. There have been not many games where I don't throw the ball where I want," Greinke said. "Tonight, I was throwing the ball where I want, and it's been pretty consistent."

It's probably worth pointing out at this juncture that Greinke, brilliant as he has been, has pitched just one complete game this season. He can't do it alone. He hasn't been doing it alone.