The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, in large part to a blow-up performance by Landon Knack and the offense squandering opportunities.
Entering the game in the top of the second inning, Knack immediately got himself in some trouble. Being unable to put hitters away or have a feel for his stuff, Knack allowed a grand slam to Mark Vientos with two otus.
Knack was unable to land any of his secondary pitches, leaving a ton of offerings in the heart of the strike zone in his two innings of work.
“I just felt today he wasn’t sharp overall, specifically the secondary,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I thought in that second inning there was a bad walk in there to (Francisco) Alvarez.
“You get (Tyrone) Taylor 0-2, and you hang a breaking ball for the double. And then right there, you know we had an opportunity to minimize damage, and you get count leverage, you’ve got Vientos 1-2, and then he gets it to 3-2 and then you make a mistake with your heater. And that was a big hit, clearly.”
The Dodgers couldn’t mount a comeback effort to take a significant series advantage, and Knack put the bulk of the blame on himself.
“Just obviously disappointing to not exactly do my job,” he said. “Not put us in a good spot to win and I kind of let these guys down a little bit, but just continue to move forward and work on what we got to do to make the adjustment.”
Even with the letdown game at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers are still in a good position in the NLCS. Heading to Citi Field for three games, the Dodgers had hoped Knack could eat some innings in an alternate script for a bullpen game.
“It is a long series, yes, you have times to be able to make up for a game like this,” Knack said. “But still, every game is so important. You’re just kind of taking it a pitch at a time, one game at a time, and just continue to keep the same mindset on attacking.”
Landon Knack not affected by role change
Even with the rough outing against the Mets, Knack explained that his overall preparation wasn’t affected by coming out of the bullpen rather than making a traditional start. Both of his appearances in the postseason thus far have come as a reliever.
“It’s not been difficult,” Knack said. “I think over the course of the year, I’ve been used in a bunch of different scenarios, in a bunch of different ways. And so we’ve learned to be flexible with things. So that part, at this point, we’re just used to that.”
The biggest change for him was on the mental side, as starters and relievers have to carry a different view on their role. Airing it out for a few innings, opposed to providing length, is an alternate route for navigating an outing.
“It’s different, but it’s still the same thought process,” Knack added. “For me, I feel like it’s so much about being consistent. Continue to go out there and do the same thing every day and just continue to try to keep the same mindset every outing, no matter if it’s one inning or five. And so it’s just trying to be consistent as I can with things.”
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