For Dodgers, micromanaging backfires at the worst possible time - Game 2 of World Series
LOS ANGELES - A distinct smell of smoke wafted over Dodger Stadium in the 10th inning of Wednesday’s Game 2 of the World Series.
Local police confirmed the source as two small fires nearby, not the Los Angeles Dodgers’ best-laid plans going down in flames.
The Dodgers had been flouting baseball’s customary practices all night, pulling their starting pitcher after four effective innings, replacing two relievers after facing just one batter, asking their closer to get six outs, bringing him in with a runner in scoring position.
It finally caught up to them when the Houston Astros banged out four home runs in the final three innings, coming from behind for a 7-6 victory in an 11-inning thriller that tied the series at a win apiece before it moves to Texas for the middle three games.
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Marwin Gonzalez’s leadoff homer in the ninth off closer extraordinaire Kenley Jansen sent the game into extras, where the clubs combined for an astonishing five home runs in two innings.
But it was the decision-making before the late offensive barrage that left the Dodgers and skipper Dave Roberts exposed to second-guessing and charges of over-managing.
Having run through all seven of their regular relievers in a six-inning stretch, the Dodgers had only one viable option to take the ball in the 11th. That was longtime starter Brandon McCarthy, who had not pitched since Oct. 1 and was making his postseason debut. He served up a leadoff single to Cameron Maybin followed by George Springer’s winning two-run shot, which put Houston ahead 7-5.
McCarthy acknowledged it took him some time to settle in coming out of the bullpen.
“It’s a different animal than starting, but it’s also the World Series,’’ McCarthy said. “You have to be ready to go when you’re ready to go. I have to do a better job there of being sharp when I come in.’’
His comments reflected the tenor of the clubhouse, where players took responsibility for their actions and declined to publicly blame any managerial moves for squandering the opportunity to take a 2-0 series lead, which would have guaranteed at worst a Game 6 at home.
Instead, they’re facing the possibility the Dodger Stadium portion of their season might be over. The Astros are 6-0 at Minute Maid Park in the postseason.
It’s true Roberts and the Dodgers’ high-powered front office have been pulling all the right strings in a year in which the club put up the best record in the majors and won eight of its first nine postseason games.
But they might have played with fire one too many times.
Ahead 3-1 in the eighth, Roberts brought back setup man Brandon Morrow for a second inning instead of summoning Jansen with a clean slate. Alex Bregman’s leadoff double ended Morrow’s night, but Jansen allowed an RBI single to Carlos Correa that sliced the lead to one. It was the first run allowed by the Los Angeles bullpen after a 28 consecutive scoreless innings.
Jansen, who converted 12 saves of more than an inning but none of six outs during the season, then gave up Marwin Gonzalez’s leadoff homer in the ninth, which tied the game.
“He's been virtually unhittable,’’ Roberts said of Jansen, who blew just one out of 42 save chances in the season and had thrown nine shutout innings since then. “Gonzalez put a good swing on an 0-2 pitch. And it was center cut. You tip your hat to him. And again, where Kenley's workload was at, that part of the order (bottom), it's a great spot for him. And it just doesn't always go as planned.’’
Starter Rich Hill would know about that. He struck out seven batters through the first four innings while allowing just a run and three hits, so he figured on going out for the fifth. After all, he had thrown a mere 60 pitches and his turn at the plate wasn’t due up for a while.
Instead, with the Astros lineup ready to take a third look at him in the top of the fifth – a time of trouble for some pitchers – Roberts went to Kenta Maeda, who had not yielded a hit in his five playoff innings.
Sure enough, Maeda retired four of the five batters he faced, but instead of sticking with the converted starter to give them some length, the Dodgers started playing matchups and ran through three more relievers – Tony Watson and Ross Stripling faced just one batter – before getting to Jansen in the eighth.
They could have avoided that issue if they had shown a bit more faith in Hill.
“The competitive side of me obviously wants to stay in the game and keep going,’’ Hill said, choosing his words carefully. “I felt good. The ball came out of my hand the way I wanted it to. Curveball was good tonight.’’
But the bullpen wasn’t, yielding six runs to the Astros between the eighth and the 11th innings, five of them on home runs. No team had ever gone deep three times in extra innings of a postseason game before Houston’s Jose Altuve, Correa and Springer connected between the 10th and 11th.
Springer’s decisive blast handed the Dodgers their first loss all year in games they led going into the ninth. At 98-0, they had the only perfect record in baseball in those situations.
But as Roberts can attest, nobody’s perfect.
“Honestly, it was an exciting baseball game. It's two teams that competed for 27 outs,’’ he said. “And, yeah, it was an emotional roller-coaster. There were some big plays defensively. Some big pitches made. Obviously some big hits and big homers. And the focus was there. Guys were playing hard on both sides. And unfortunately we came up short.’’
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