While the Los Angeles Dodgers struggled to generate much consistency at the plate during the postseason, plenty of focus went to pitching decisions, and specifically manager Dave Roberts using starters out of the bullpen.
The Dodgers used Max Scherzer to convert a save in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, Julio Urias in relief during Game 2 of NL Championship Series. Both moves ended up backfiring, either at the time or in the long run.
Many blamed the use of analytics and called Roberts merely an extension of the front office, but Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman reiterated such strategy moves are solely carried out by the dugout.
“They are Dave’s decisions with Danny Lehmann, Mark Prior, Bob Geren and guys in the dugout. We do a lot of work to prepare ahead of time, to understand how certain relievers match up against certain hitters, and they go through and figure out runs,” Friedman explained during his end-of-season press conference.
“Games play out in so many different ways that it’s impossible to anticipate it beforehand. So those decisions are made in the dugout, as they should be. Because so many things have changed in the two, two and a half, three hours from when we kind of go through it.
“To compliment Dave and our coaching staff, their focus is on doing everything they can to put our players in the best position to succeed. By doing that, obviously we win a lot more games than we lose if we do that and have the requisite talent to do it. The answer isn’t any different than it’s been. In-game, in those moments, it’s 100% their decision.
“And as I’ve said in the past, there are a lot of things that happen in the course of a game that personally I disagree with, and oftentimes they work out.”
Friedman understood Dodgers leaning on starters
L.A. boasted arguably the best bullpen they’ve ever had, so it was a curious decision to avoid using them in place of starting pitchers with only three healthy members of the rotation on the postseason roster.
Roberts was aware there would be a cost to using them, but noted he could not have predicted it would be so high.
“I think you have to kind of break that up into different chunks. Game 5, winner take all, all hands on deck, is one thing. In the middle of a series is a different thing,” Friedman said. “I think the winner take all, the way things got sped up, had Kenley’s spot not come up in the top of the ninth, my guess is he pitches the bottom of the ninth.
“But I think part of it also was Max’s level of conviction. ‘Hey, I’ve done this before. I did this in ’19 and I responded. It had no affect on me.’ Which is great, because everything in this game is individualized. We can’t treat everyone the exact same way. Different bodies respond differently, different guys handle situations differently.
“So knowing that bit of information, I think it gave Mark and Doc even more conviction to hit for Kenley and try to tack on, then be able to go to Max.
“So now in retrospect the way it ended up playing out, I think it’s easy to say, ‘Oh yeah, we would’ve done something differently.’ But I think at that time, it made a lot of sense, personally. And then Game 2, I totally get both sides of the argument.
“Again, it gets back to the things that are kind of in that middle. But that one I totally get the question to. I think it’s obviously a better question for Doc and Mark.”
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