Dave Roberts masters the Dodgers’ bullpen game flawlessly and secures the decisive victory

The Dodgers earned a fairly comfortable 8-0 elimination game victory in Game 4 of the NLDS on Wednesday night in San Diego. Due to the nature of this win, history probably won’t remember it as a great game managed by Dave Roberts, but his work in getting the team to this point deserves a lot of credit.

Before we get into why this was such an impressive leadership challenge, there is one aspect to consider when praising a manager. It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran Joe Torre or Stephen Vogt working in your first postseason. Every manager must first enable his team to succeed and then do so by making the right decisions for that case. What could Roberts have done to avoid the 10-1 loss in Game 2? Basically nothing.

This time, the Dodgers’ lineup responded well with their backs against the wall, and LA was ahead from the first pitch to the last. However, there were often times when things got very tricky if not handled properly.

Between the two left-handed hitters playing for the Dodgers (Anthony Banda had two outs and Vesia had five), you had a very unusual early appearance as you were the closer at times in the third inning. Despite a 5-0 lead, Roberts sent Michael Kopech to lead the Padres with a lot left to play.

This move took me back to Game 4 in 2022, when LA lost the series without using their top player at the time (Evan Phillips) before the lead was blown.

Kopech pitched a scoreless frame, allowing the Dodgers to maintain a five-run lead in a difficult situation. The danger was highlighted by the performance of Fernando Tatis Jr., possibly the hottest hitter of the entire postseason. Kopech made a pretty good pitch, throwing a fastball to the outside corner, but Tatis smashed it deep into right-center for a double. Tatis is 7-of-16 with three home runs and three doubles so far in the series.

The key to this situation was that there were two outs and nobody out, Kopech caught Jurickson Profar on the next at-bat and no damage was done. Maybe Tatis was too hot for that any At this point, the Dodgers were pitching, but the level of danger he could cause was minimal since no one was on base. Who knows how this game will turn out if SD scores one, maybe two early runs.

Speaking of Tatis, the next time he appeared, the Padres had one of their best chances of the game, and Roberts entrusted Phillips to clean up Vesia’s little mess in the fifth. Phillips hit five sweeps in a row and had more luck than skill on the last one, while Tatis narrowly missed one in the middle of the zone that could have hit a three-run home run. No matter how great a team and manager are throughout a game, it is likely that you will reach a point where a bit of luck is required.

Apparently there wasn’t a single play that deserved much praise, and LA was able to gain confidence with a three-pointer in the seventh to take an 8-0 lead. In baseball, however, it is often the case that a lot of little things matter rather than a single outstanding performance. Roberts simply pushed all the right buttons from start to finish. A figure who has been so heavily criticized for this team’s recent failures in October, this time Roberts made the most of what he had and LA now has a chance to decide its fate in Game 5 at home.