{"id":496831,"date":"2026-10-15T10:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496831\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:08:10","slug":"heres-how-dave-roberts-explained-all-the-dodgers-moves-that-backfired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496831\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s how Dave Roberts explained all the Dodgers’ moves that backfired"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You don\u2019t want to hear from me. You want to hear from Dave Roberts<\/a>, the Dodgers\u2019 manager.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are one loss<\/a> from an abrupt ending to their season, and from a National League Championship Series<\/a> sweep by the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take you through the critical decisions Roberts made Wednesday night, the ones you second-guessed at home. They all pretty much backfired<\/a> on him.<\/p>\n

Situation: In the third inning, and again in the fifth inning, Tommy Edman comes to bat with Miguel Rojas on first base, none out, and the Dodgers<\/a> trailing, 1-0. By the end of the fifth, the Dodgers had gone nine consecutive innings without scoring, and with a game plan of getting ahead before the Brewers\u2019 vaunted bullpen could take over. Roberts does not ask Edman, one of the team\u2019s most accomplished bunters, to sacrifice the runner into scoring position.<\/p>\n

Roberts: \u201cI just didn\u2019t feel like giving up an out right there. \u2026 We could have bunted, but I felt I wanted to give Tommy an opportunity to drive in a run. \u2026 We haven\u2019t been getting hits with runners in scoring position (3 for 32 in the postseason). To give up an out, to bank on getting a hit with runners in scoring position, I\u2019d rather just try to maybe slug, hit a double.\u201d<\/p>\n

Result: Edman flied out both times. The Dodgers did not score in either inning.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Situation: In the sixth inning, with the Dodgers still trailing, 1-0, the Brewers turn to Abner Uribe, who had faced 26 batters and walked two in the postseason. Uribe walks the first two batters, and Roberts deploys his primary left-handed bench threat, Max Muncy. That takes right-handed Andy Pages out of the game; the only Dodgers with more hits than Pages this October are Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts.<\/p>\n

Roberts: \u201cAbner is death on righties. You\u2019re trying to guard against \u2014 you want to keep the inning going, and you don\u2019t want a double play ball. Muncy\u2019s not starting, and you want to fire that bullet in a leverage spot. First and second base, nobody out, it gives us the best chance to keep the inning going, in my opinion, and it gets Shohei up, and you have a chance to build an inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Result: Muncy struck out.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

\"Josue <\/p>\n

Josue DePaula\u2019s presence was wasted in Game 3.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Situation: After Muncy, Ohtani walks to load the bases, and Will Smith follows with a two-run double to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. With the right-handed Rojas due up, Roberts opts for the left-handed Josue De Paula as a pinch-hitter. Brewers manager Pat Murphy promptly replaces Uribe with left-hander DL Hall, who had been warming up. Roberts counters with the right-handed Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

Roberts: \u201cIt\u2019s a decision: Do I want Uribe facing Rojas? Then I chose De Paula, and they made the move. At that point in time, I felt we had the matchup advantage with Kik\u00e9. \u2026 For me, all the experience that Kik\u00e9\u2019s had, I feel very confident with Kik\u00e9 taking a bat with a guy on second and third, infield in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Result: Hernandez struck out, and so did Edman. The inning was over, and the Dodgers would not advance another man past first base the rest of the evening. The Dodgers could have used De Paula to bat against right-handed closer Trevor Megill in the ninth inning, but Roberts had already burned him.<\/p>\n

Murphy said Uribe was coming out after Smith\u2019s double no matter what \u2014 at that point, Uribe had thrown six strikes and 14 balls \u2014 so Roberts could have saved De Paula had he waited to see what Murphy would do.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Situation: Blake Snell has retired 14 consecutive batters entering the seventh inning, with the Dodgers leading, 2-1. It\u2019s the first time the left-handed Snell has pitched beyond the sixth inning this season, with the right-handed Andrew Vaughn leading off and the left-handed Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell to follow. Evan Phillips is warming up in the Dodgers bullpen.<\/p>\n

Roberts: \u201cHis stuff was really good. I don\u2019t think they were seeing him well. I was trying to get him three more hitters. We had Evan for that fourth hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Result: Vaughn walks, on six pitches. Bauers homers, on 11 pitches. The Brewers have the lead, 3-2.<\/p>\n

Roberts: \u201cHasn\u2019t given up a homer all year, but it just \u2014 it\u2019s baseball. For me, I felt good with where Blake\u2019s stuff was at. You\u2019ve got to give Bauers credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Situation: By that time, Snell is at 99 pitches, two shy of his season high, after the exhausting battles with Vaughn and Bauers. Roberts sticks to his plan: Snell for Mitchell, then Phillips for the right-handed Cooper Pratt.<\/p>\n

Result: Mitchell homers, giving the Brewers a 4-2 lead. Hall and Megill combine for 3 1\/3 innings of scoreless relief, and the Dodgers are one defeat from winter vacation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t want to hear from me. You want to hear from Dave Roberts, the Dodgers\u2019 manager. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4396,426,92622,1049,48,52,51,5814,193012,193013,47,50,49,4123,13824,8654,22838,42176,315,6133,107142],"class_list":["post-496831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dave-roberts","tag-dodgers","tag-fifth-inning","tag-hit","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lead","tag-left-handed-josue-de-paula","tag-left-handed-snell","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-max-muncy","tag-result","tag-runner","tag-scoring-position","tag-situation","tag-time","tag-tommy-edman","tag-uribe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}