"I wanted to beat them like crazy." Roberts, you've shown your true intentions, but you've punished him desperately
Oct 13, 2024
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The Dodgers trailed by 1-2 and reached the NLCS for the first time in three years with a series of games 4 and 5 and a series reversal at a time when they were likely to be eliminated from the division series. The last two games were a perfect victory for the Dodgers. Roberts' pitching management shone.
Roberts, who took the helm of the Dodgers in 2016, had 45 wins and 39 losses (0.536) in the postseason until last year, far short of the overall regular season winning rate (0.627). Excluding the 2020 postseason (13 wins and 5 losses), which won the World Series in a shortened season, he will fall below 50% with 32 wins and 34 losses.
In particular, he won the West Division title in 2022 and 2023 and went straight to the Division Series, but was humiliated to be eliminated immediately. Every year in mid-October or at the end of October, there were calls for Roberts to be replaced.
But this year was different. While San Diego's ace Dylan Sheese came out, in Game 4, Roberts, who did not have a suitable starting pitcher, activated eight bullpen pitchers to complete an 8-0 victory and set the game to 2 wins and 2 losses. Of course, it was thanks to Mookie Betts and Will Smith's solo and two-run homers, respectively, taking advantage of Siz's early turmoil, to take a 3-0 lead, but the timing and results of putting eight pitchers, from opener Ryan Brazier to closer Landon Ngak, were just like cogs.
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Immediately after confirming his advance to the NLCS, Roberts openly expressed his feelings while enjoying the joy of victory.
He said, `I trusted this team the most this year out of all the teams I've ever played"I really wanted to beat them. We all wanted to beat those guys really bad. It means he wanted to kneel down in San Diego.
There was a good reason for Roberts to express his feelings about winning like this. First of all, San Diego is an emerging rival to the Dodgers. When the Dodgers won the district with 111 wins in 2022, San Diego advanced to the postseason with 89-73 wins and second place in the wild-card series, beating the New York Mets in the wild-card series and coming up to face the Dodgers. The Dodgers were eliminated after winning Game 1 and losing three games. In particular, bullpen management was criticized in the second and fourth games, and Roberts' replacement was raised.
In this year's regular season, the Dodgers were inferior to San Diego with five wins and eight losses. It is true that he struggled throughout the season by winning two consecutive games after losing one in the last three consecutive games of the season against San Diego at Dodger Stadium. In fact, even ahead of this division series, experts predicted San Diego's dominance. San Diego, which has been on the rise since the second half of the season, looked strong in height of the starting lineup, the completeness of the bullpen and the structure of the lineup.
Until Game 3, San Diego was in the mood of beating the Dodgers and going up to the NLCS. Shohei Ohtani said, `You just have to win two games in a row,' but all the statistics pointed to the elimination of the Dodgers. The historical probability that a team leading by 2-1 until Game 3 will win the series was over 73%. San Diego was in high spirits.
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Machado, who was not happy that Dodgers starter Jack Fleherty hit the thigh of lead Fernando Tatis Jr. in the top of the sixth inning, was handed the ball that Darvish Yu was warming up pitching in the middle of the inning ahead of the defense in the bottom of the sixth inning and threw it as if throwing it away to the Dodgers dugout on the third base, and Roberts was in the direction. Roberts bowed his head and looked into something at the time, so he couldn't see Machado's pitch. After hearing about it later, he pointed out that "disrespectful".
Then Machado "Always throws the ball to first base or third base after practice in the middle of the inning. "I didn't mean to," San Diego coach Mike Shildt shot Roberts, saying, "I don't denigrate other team players, especially those who have been with me in the past."
Machado also shook the Dodgers defense with a controversial base run in Game 3. Machado, who had a heavy hit in the bottom of the second inning, trailing 0-1, slightly turned the main toward the turf to interfere with Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman's throw to second base, which was aiming for a forceout when Jackson Merrill grounded out, inducing an error by hitting the ball on his back and leading the chance to the first and third bases with no outs. It was not a breach of the rules. Starting with this, San Diego won 6-5, scoring six points in the second inning alone.
Roberts admitted after the game that it was a smart play, but of course, the medicine was on the rise. Coincidentally, San Diego scored six points in the second inning of Game 3 and then went scoreless in 24 consecutive innings from the third inning to the ninth inning of Game 5, ultimately suffering the series elimination. In other words, Roberts punished him desperately.
The FanGraphs have the highest probability of the Dodgers winning the World Series at 36.7%. The next is the New York Yankees (31.2%), followed by the Cleveland Guardians (16.9%), and the Mets (15.2%). The Dodgers have a golden opportunity to win a proper championship for the first time in 36 years since 1988.
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jhno@sportschosun.com
