Rather than make a post for each of these games, I am doing a summary after every game of this series. I have other stories lining up, but this is an important series and should be discussed game by game. Some roster moves coming as Wrobleski is now expected to pitch game 3 on Sunday, plus the roster expands to 28.
The Dodgers, who have never lost a regular season game to Merrill Kelly, started the game with three consecutive homers on three consecutive pitches. First time in Dodger history that they have begun a game with three homers in a row. Ohtani, over the center field wall, Betts into the left field bleachers, and Freeman over the pool in right center. Teo then popped out. Smith singled and Lux lined into a double play.
Gavin Stone, the Dodgers most reliable pitcher this year, took the mound in the bottom of the first up 3-0. Carroll, leading off, hit a ball high off of the center field wall that Kiermaier tried to catch, it was just above his glove and when it caromed off of the wall, Carroll circled the bases for an inside the park homer. McCarthy singled, Pederson singled, and then Gurriel doubled on a ball that Teo misplayed, and McCarthy and Pederson scored. Smith grounded out, Gurriel taking third. Del Castillo walked and then Suarez hit a sac-fly and Gurriel scored the 4th run for the D-Backs. Guilleorme grounded out to end the inning with Az in front 4-3. Here we go again!
Dodgers wasted no time answering back. Muncy singled, Rojas singled. Kiermaier hit a ball that Kelly fielded but threw wildly to third for an error loading the bases. Ohtani hit a sac-fly scoring Muncy. Betts struck out. Freeman then singled driving in Rojas. Teo grounded out to third to end the inning. 5-4 LA. Stone set the D-Backs down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the second.
The Dodgers got a Muncy walk and a Rojas double in the third but did not score. Stone gave up a homer to Gurriel to tie the game in the bottom of the third. It would be Arizona’s last hit of the game. Kelly got the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the 4th. Stone did the same in the bottom of the 4th. In the top of the 5th with 2 outs, Lux doubled and Muncy singled him in. LA 6 Az 5. Rojas grounded out to end the inning. Stone went out and set Az down 1-2-3 in the 5th.
Edman replaced Kiermaier as a pinch hitter. He grounded out, Shohei grounded out and Betts struck out. Honeywell came in to relieve Stone. Gurriel grounded out, Smith walked, and Honeywell threw a wild pitch sending him to second. He got the next two hitters to end the inning.
Freeman flied out to open the 7th. Ginkel replaced Mantiply. Teo doubled, Smith and Lux walked loading the bases with one out. Kike pinch hit for Muncy as Puk replaced Ginkel. Kike struck out and Rojas grounded out to end the inning stranding three runners. Honeywell walked Guilleorme, and Perdomo got him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Guilleorme went to third on a wild pitch. Carroll hit a sac-fly to tie the game. McCarthy struck out.
In the top of the 8th, Edman singled. Ohtani struck out. Thompson replaced Puk. Edman stole second, Mookie then hit a slow roller to the left of the pitcher, Thompson went to third and they got Edman in a rundown. He was tagged out by Guilleorme. Betts was on first. Freeman singled for his 3rd hit, and Teo struck out on 3 pitches to end the inning.
Ben Casparius, just called up from AAA along with Honeywell when Kershaw and Kelly were both placed on the IL, came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th for his MLB debut. He set down Arizona on three fly ball outs. In the top of the 9th, Smith singled, and Taylor ran for him. Lux singled, runners on 1st and 2nd. Kike sacrificed them to 2nd and 3rd. Martinez replaced Thomson for Arizona. With the infield in, Rojas hit a line drive that Guilleorme had to jump to catch. 2 outs. With 2 strikes, Edman singled to right, Taylor and Lux scored. 8-6 LA. Edman went to second on a wild pitch. Ohtani hit a sharp liner to right that Carroll snagged.
Evan Phillips, the last man standing in the pen, came in to pitch the 9th. Del Castillo flied out; Suarez grounded out to Rojas, and pinch hitter Josh Bell flew out to Chris Taylor in center to end the game. Phillips got his 18th save, and Casparius got his first MLB win. LA had 16 hits to Arizona’s 5. They were 3-13 with RISP and left 11 runners on base. The Dodgers are 82-54, with a 6-game lead over both SD and Az. They have 26 games left to play. San Diego has only 24.
The Dodger offense has woken up in Arizona scoring 18 runs in 2 games. The pitching has allowed 15. Wrobleski is in Arizona and will no doubt make a spot start tomorrow with Flaherty scheduled to pitch Monday’s finale.
Minor League Scores
OKC 6 Round Rock 5 10 innings: OKC scored 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning to beat Round Rock. Outman returned to the lineup and was 0-4 with 3 Ks. Andy Pages did not play. Freeland was 2-4 with a homer. 3 of the OKC runs were unearned. Gamboa started the game and went 4 innings giving up 6 hits and 4 runs. Brogdon went a scoreless inning despite giving up 3 hits. He struck out 2. Dodson, Little and Feyereisen each went an inning without giving up anything. Dreyer gave up one run and got the save with Feyereisen getting the win.
Tulsa dropped a 6-2 decision to Corpus Christi. The Drillers scored 1 in the top of the first, the Hooks answered with 3 in the bottom of the inning. Tulsa scored again in the top of the second, but they were shut out after that. They managed only 4 hits. The Hooks also managed only 4 hits. Keith hit his 14th homer in the first. Ferris took the loss going only 1/3rd of an inning. He gave up just 1 hit but walked 4.
South Bend beat Great Lakes 7-4. The Loons collected only 5 hits in the loss. Thompson and Biddison homered. Biddisons was a 3-run shot. Romero took the loss; he went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs.
Rancho beat San Jose, 7-4. The Quakes had 7 hits, but 5 of their 7 runs came in on homers from Hope, 2-run shot and Decker, 3-run shot. Both were # 9 of the year for the hitters. Makarewich got the win.
Around the League
The rosters expand to 28 tomorrow and some teams have already announced some players they plan on activating from the IL. Rockies are calling up Ty Blach. The Padres are expected to bring Elias Diaz up. Phillies activated Jose Alvarado. Cubs expected to activate Jordan Hicks from the 60-day IL tomorrow. Yankees doing the same for Anthony Rizzo. Cardinals are activating Steven Matz. And for you college football fans, UCLA squeaked by Hawaii, 16-13. USC plays tomorrow. College football needs to end the travesty of Top 25 teams playing the likes of Akron. There were three games today that the opposition was shut out by 52 points or more. Not a good look for football.
Born June 14th, 1948, in Los Angeles California. AKA The Bear
At least the Ducks struggled.
Joe Kelly, placed on the 15-day Injured List due to right shoulder inflammation.
I hope we have seen the last of Kelly..
Doubt it. Players like him, front office likes him.
Yup the front office loves him. Despite him putting up below average results and being horribly inconsistent. And blowing game 5 of the 2019 NLDS.
Yeah, he did, but it was another case of why did they send him back out to pitch a second inning? Sorry, that is as much on Roberts as it is on Kelly.
👍 I never liked him.
Me either.
Funny, he never liked you either. 🖕
🖕
Dodgers have better options than Kelly on the roster IMHO.
If Henriquez for example keeps up what he doing at OKC since being called up he would probably be a better option. Same or even better stuff than Kelly.
And I read somewhere that over his last 14 postseason innings for the Dodgers Kelly gave up something like 10 runs. Not the results you like to see in postseason play.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since he was not called up today, the only way Henriquez can be added to the roster is if he replaces a player who is injured or on the IL. He is not on the 40-man roster. Kelly is who he is. The Dodgers like who he is, we fans might not trust him, but they do. Besides, Kelly is one of the most uncomfortable at bats there is. Also, in order for Henriquez to be added, the Dodgers would need to petition the commissioner’s office to make the move.
“Kelly is who he is.”
He’s a bum.
Unfortunately, our opinions of the guy do not matter to those in charge.
But it’s no coincidence he is all of a sudden on the IL. That was predictable after how bad he has been. I predict he will stay “hurt” unless others falter to the point he is the best option. But we might have seen thd last of mariachi joe.
The guy had not thrown that many pitches in over 5 years. He should not have even been sent out for a second inning. And when he got into trouble, Roberts should have put Vesia in. He was already gassed by the second hitter in the inning.
I think it’s more than his shoulder that might be inflamed. He’s either dominate or an outing where he looks like he was signed off the street that day. Now, another visit to the IL. All this for a mere $9M. Awesome!
A really entertaining win today, from the epic MV3 beginning to the all-hands-on-deck finish, with Casparius making his debut. And after the rough first inning. Stone was solid.
There was some good defense on both sides… and a bit of bad from Teo. Andt the offense delivered 16 hits, with Edman’s single the biggest.
Roberts seemed to make all the right moves. Every position player contributed to win.
Dodgers clinched their 14th consecutive winning season. Something they have never done before. The most they had in Brooklyn was 13, 1945-57.
I’m curious about the good teams I grew up with the 1977 – 1988 Dodgers?
There’s a good idea you can write about, but it’s up to you, the run they had from 1977 – 1988 that included 3 trips to the World Series against the Yankees (1977, 1978, 1981).
That era had 4 Dodgers teams finish under .500. 1979, 79-83, 1984, 79-83, In 86 and 87, both those teams went 73-89. In 89, the year after they beat the A’s, they were again sub .500 at 77-83. Those teams were not that good.
I remember 86 and 87 and then 89 being bad. That’s why 88 was a surprise to me. But I didn’t remember 79 and 84 being bad. I thought it was non stop good from 1977 – 1985. I remember “we are family” Pirates 1979. I had a friend I played whiffle ball with when I was a kid at the end of the 70’s and also the early 80’s, he was a big Cincinnati Reds “big red machine” fan.
As Orel said on the telecast: A great team victory!
If we can somehow split the last 2 games of this series we would be in excellent shape. If we win both we would bury the D-Back right there.
Roberts managed a good game however I did not like when he pinch hit for Muncy with Kike and the bases loaded. I would never ever pinch hit for MM in that situation. Never! Kike made up for his three swing and miss at bat when he laid down a perfect bunt in the 9th setting up Edman for the game winner eventually.
Shout out to both Honeywell and Casparius. Much needed innings with Casparius pitching a flawless 1-2-3 to get his first victory. Doing it in such a pressure cooker spot says a lot about the young man!
Wrobleski today and Pages coming up too.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great take! I too thought it was a bad call to pinch hit for Max in that situation.
I thought PH Kike was a bad move.
Props to Stone for maintaining his composure after a tough first inning. I thought Carrol’s drive should have caught and certainly Teo’s misplay hurt Stone. If you would have told me coming into the series that Arizona would score 15 runs in the first 2 games, that we’d be celebrating. Bats have stepped up. Two more wins and this race is over. Another banner August!
Carrolls drive hit six inches at least above Kiermaier’s glove. He made a great effort, but there was no chance he was catching that thing. The replay clearly showed that.
He might have caught it but he jumped too soon. Go watch the replay again.
I did, I would like to see anyone of us do better. Hard to judge stuff like that. He would have been wiser to play it off of the wall and hold Carroll to a double. I am not going to fault a guy who has been playing that position for over a decade for jumping too soon.
It’s not like a life sentence, Bear. Players make boo boos, it’s just how many during a season does this guy make? Not many.
I understand that, but like I said, hard to judge balls out there. Have you even been there? I went to several games when I lived in Phoenix. I sat in the left field stands one time, and watching pitches hit to dead center, I had to watch the fielder to see if they were hit well.
I didn’t say I could do better. Heck, I can’t even jump that high! All I said was he jumped to soon. I’d bet he’d tell you the same.
Well, write to him and ask.
It really looked like he misjudged it.
I agree bear. I don’t think kk could catch that ball. My biggest take is where were the other outfielders. It looks like they could have and should have backed up the play. Teoscars play on the ball hit to left mb could have been caught with a good read off the bat. Either way Teo is not a left fielder. He is just doing what is needed to keep his bat in there.
Freeman looks like a different player with a few days off. I imagine the swelling was causing him to take his hand off the bat on follow thru(at least twice) but his swing looks normal. Plus a mental rest was needed if I understand his quotes.
btw on kk he did mistime his jump I just don’t think he would have caught it.
That field is huge. Like Coors, center field is massive. From Where Teo was playing, he could never have retrieved that ball in time.
Great win last night. I was somewhat pessimistic going into AZ thinking we might lay down and play poorly. Would love a series sweep but 3 out 4 is a good thing and we would leave AZ with a 6 game lead with 24 games to play and zero head-to-head games against the D-Backs remaining.
Bats have come alive and will need to remain so. Love the back-to-back-to back HR’s to start the game, but didn’t like the four runs Stone gave right back in the first inning. He did settle down and give the staff five innings, although I think he could have pitched the 6th inning.
Wrobo today and I hope he can have a good outing. Needs to throw strikes, keep the ball in the ballpark and avoid walks. Imagine we’ll see Barnes and either Kike or CT3 in the starting line-up today.
Edman is a player.
Ditto with your comments norcaldodgerfan. Edman is a lot of fun to watch and has fit in nicely with the team. With him signed for next year and one more year of Taylor the utility roles should be covered. This most likely the last we see of Kiki.
Hopefully, Kiki can make it a memorable exit to his Dodger career.
Stone had some help with giving up four runs in the first inning. Teoscar made a horrible play that cost Stone three runs, an out, and many more pitches which might have allowed him to pitch another inning or two. But, Stone over came all of that and kept the Dodgers in the game. Right now he’s the only reliable starter the team has for the postseason. Maybe, Flaherty?
With Wrobleski’s tendency to give up the long ball, today’s game could be another slugfest. I like his stuff and he doesn’t seem to be afraid of the moment.
If he can contain the Snakes today he could move himself into the playoff picture.
Hard to believe this game is on Roku only. Who came up with that decision?
MLB when they decided to expand their audience. It is like the games they show on Apple+. But I have Roku, so I won’t miss the game. Orel also said last night that Edman had been playing for the Dodgers, but last night was his first Dodger moment.
Not expand the audience as much as expand their revenue stream.
But I’m jaded.
Hey, it is all about the money with them. That is why they expanded the playoffs.
Lookingat todays game: Only on ROKU. Not even MLB.TV has it live. So I will wait until tomorrow to watch it there in the archive section.
Can Honeywell and Casparius back up Wrobleski ? Can both be up again today ?
Could be huge if Wrobleski struggles early and the Dodgers in need of innings.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!
If you have Amazon’s Firestick, you can download the Roku channel for free.
Actually, I could watch on my MLB.TV. It was the Roku broadcast, but it was live.
Ironic: If Freddie Freeman just went on the IL like he probably should have when the hairline fracture happened, the Dodgers wouldn’t have had to DFA Heyward…
If Freeman had gone on the IL. he would have missed this series and not hit a homer in consecutive games. Heyward is 1-6 since he joined the Astros.
Regardless, I was not commenting on what each has done since. Just that it is ironic.
This is incorrect, I think.
The team DFA’d Heyward to allow him to sign with a playoff club. They would have DFA’d him anyway, especially if the only variable was Freeman going on the 10 day.
One last time….
TOMMY, TOMMY, TOMMY, TOMMY!!!
I’ll say this — When Marte and Walker get back from the IL, the Snakes will have quite a fearsome line-up. So regardless of this series, Arizona will be a team to be reckoned with in the post-season.
I said when they got him that Dodger fans are going to love this guy. Plays hard.
ultra clutch hit in the 9th sold me.
Michael, I know Roku has this next Dodgers game, but will MLB.TV archive it to be seen later?
Usually about 2 hours after the game, the replay should be on MLB.TV
Thanks Michael.
Wayne, I wouldn’t bother. It’s 8-0 Arizona after two innings.
As far as I’m concerned the series is already a success. Those two
games are demoralizing for Arizona
I give Stone a lot of credit for hanging in there. Sometimes our defense makes a hard situation much more difficult. Stone got postseason experience last night.
Why in the world would you pinch hit for Muncy? Literally no other team would do that IMO. Unbelievable.
Thank goodness Phillips is back in his groove. Great win.
Totally agree with that, Muncy should have hit. Guy is only 9 points lower on his BA against left-handers than right. He has 53 career homers off of lefties. Two of those this year. Just sweep them and don’t worry about the rest of the division.
And of course Kike’ sits after 3 pitches. That was painful to watch.
If anyone doesn’t know Roku, I moved a few weeks ago and bought a few TVs from the seller. The living room has an LG TV. I had to get Spectrum here and guess what? LG and Spectrum do not have a streaming agreement. Of course. So I needed Roku to make this work. But I cannot DVR anything. It’s a pain in the rear.
But apparently I can watch our Dodgers tonight LOL.
Roku is built in to my 65 inch.
To say that no other team would pinch hit Hernandez for Muncy in that situation is ridiculous. For the last two seasons Muncy has hit .150 against left handed pitching. AJ Puk is particularly tough on left handers, holding them to an average of .180 with a .512 OPS. Hernandez hits left handed pitching better than Muncy. I understand saying that you would not have pinch hit Kike for Muncy. It is not based on the numbers but more of a hunch or a feeling but I get it. But to call out Roberts for deciding to do that and to call the decision unbelievable is over the top.
Glad the game is on early enough so I can watch USC-LSU.
I’ll be there, bruv. Geaux Tigers!
Should be a fun game. Allegient Stadium is really nice too. I got to check it out last year when Manchester United had a friendly there.
Go Trojans! I was born in LA, sorry.
I’m a Trojan as well Bear but I don’t think we have enough in the trenches to hold up against the Tigers or the Big Ten. We’ll see if all the offseason strength and conditioning has improved this group. But I think Miller will be running for his life
They rebuilt the defense. That was the main recruiting focus. Not sure how the offensive line will fare.
Moss is the starting QB? Ok, not sure which one of the six they have on the roster had won that spot.
Interesting game. Not particularly well played by either team. 2 unearned given up by Arizona, an error by Muncy, a misplay by Teo that wasn’t ruled an error but most certainly was, Dodgers 3 for 13 WRISP, and Stone with 5 earned in 5. What I will remember most is the incredible 3 straight home runs on 3 pitches to start the game, never happened before and will never happen again Then a few minutes later the Dodgers were behind 4-3. Weird.
Yes, this Arizona team is going to look even better when they get their starters back. Nobody knows for sure what might be next for the Dodgers. But I figure if they score 8 every day they should be ok.
Louisiana? No. I went there once. Once. I have no idea what the outcome might be but I’m a SoCal sports rooter so …. Go Trojans. LSU is favored but only by 4. I don’t know why but I find that surprising. UCLA and Oregon didn’t exactly impress last night. Wonder how good the Rams will be.
Dbacks favored today. I got nothing on here until the SC game. Maybe I’ll try to finish that book I haven’t started yet.
Dodgers have not yet announced the two additions to the roster.
Just did:
The Dodgers added LHP Justin Wrobleski and OF Andy Pages to roster, recalled RHP Michael Grove and optioned RHP Ben Casparius.
All for naught . Snakes scored 8 in the second inning. Wrobleski 60 pitches through two. Roku wasted several million dollars for a quick blowout.
My goodness. Who are these guys?
Well, this was a total butt kicking. Can Flaherty slow these guys down tomorrow?
The Roku guys? Ex-Netflix people.
What or who is Roku, please?
Wrobleski and Grove both sucked.
Pages is looking like a permanent platoon player, but it’s still early in his career and I might be wrong. I wonder why Doc is giving Pages a long runway but platooned Outman right off the bat this year. Pages has a worse slashline right now against RHP than Outman ended up with last year against LHP. Either way I’m glad Pages got called up.
I’m surprised in a good way about Edman, but he’s all about contact and very little power. When guys like that go into an extended slump, they have nothing unlike a power guy that goes into an extended slump. The power guy will at least hit however many home runs during that slump and home runs are automatic runs for the team.
Kiermaier sucked again. 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. 15 strikeouts in 45 at bats since being a Dodger. That should please the strikeout haters.
Probably because Outman was pretty bad right from the start. He was hitting .150 against RHP. He had only 20 hits in 135 at bats and he was striking out at almost a 40% clip. Kiermaier is here for his glove, anything they get with his bat is a plus, Ohtani struck out 3 times in 4 at bats. Ohtani has struck out 135 times this year. Hernandez, 160. I hate strikeouts as much as the next guy, but Kiermaier is a sub. So Edman is not a power hitter, neither is Rojas, but Edman has hit as many as 11 in a season. It is his versatility, speed and the fact that he is a contact hitter that makes him desired by the Dodgers. Power isn’t everything.
Doc still mishandled Outman, even sitting him sometimes against RHP very early in the season. This team was a loaded team when the season began before the injuries started happening. Shows the love Doc has for veterans. Speaking about Outman, he went 4 for 5 today with a triple.
We just have to agree to disagree about Kiermaier because there won’t be anything from his bat. I can’t believe you or anyone thinks he’s an asset on the team, that’s why I say “obsessed with defense”. Edman is just as good defensively as Kiermaier, except maybe flawed defense stats say Kiermaier is a tiny bit better.
I don’t have anything against Edman as long as he’s not a starter next year. Just utility only.
I figured going in if we won 2 of 4 we should be happy. Of course everyone wants more but 2 of 4 holds serve. The dbacks have exposed our biggest weakness our starting pitching. They are scoring more runs than anybody and playing at home. Kershaw injury put the whole staff in a hole. Even though wrobleski got shelled he still went over 5. I would not have sent last nights guy Casparius down for Grove. Grove doesn’t belong on the roster. Bring Henriquez up for a look. He has has 5 straight scoreless appearances at Oklahoma City. I believe Arizona is peaking right now and I don’t think we are peaking offensively or pitching wise. A win tomorrow would be great but if not we got the same 4 game lead with 4days off the calendar. In 2 weeks we might have a full rotation. Will we have enough time for Glasnow n Yamamoto? If not this series didn’t mean much anyway.
There was a topic if Dodgers falther in first round and get bounced out of the playoffs is Dave Robert’s job safe. Here’s some managers that I thought eoukd be good choices to replace Roberts. Dave Martiniz Nationals manager, Skip Shumaker Marlins Manager, Joey Cora Red Sox manager, former manager Mike Matharty of Cardinsls and Royals, or Terry Lovello of tge Diamondbacks. If Didgers could get any of these guys tgen they would have a better chance at a world series then with Roberts. My choice woukd be Dave Martinez because he won a world series knows how to control a locker room and manages a game very well and he seems to alway get rookies to play very well in washington just think if he has a franchise that gets him players every year. That would be my choice.
A. No way Cora becomes the manager of the Dodgers. He was part of the 17 Astros who cheated. Lovullo is not going anywhere. He is under contract until 2026. Matheny has not managed in the majors since 2022 with the Royals, and he sucked in KC. The last team he led to anything was the 2015 Cardinals. Martinez has never won anything except in 2019. He has a sub .500 career record. He also is under contract through 26. Schumaker will most likely be available. He was unhappy with all the trades and the fact that they let Kim Ng go. She was the one who hired him. As for Roberts, he has one year left on his contract. It is extremely doubtful that he would be fired if the team gets bounced from the playoffs. And the reason is simple. He has done probably the best job he ever has negotiating the rough spots and all the injuries. His team still has the best record in the league. The World Series is just like any other playoff series, it is a crapshoot. You run into a hot team; you can lose. Martinez has a room full of kids. He has very few high paid stars. And it is not about controlling the locker room. It is about managing egos and keeping all those guys informed and happy. He is not that great of a manager. He won once, and the one time he won, he had maybe some of the best players DC had ever had. He had Soto, Scherzer, Strasberg, Rendon, Trea Turner, Howie Kendrick hit .344 for that team. He also had Corbin when he was good. Doolittle was hit closer, and he saved 29 games. He hasn’t won anything since. He is nowhere near as good a manager as Roberts.
Wow okay so look around who woild be a better manager then. Since your the all great powered Wizard lets hear what managers would be better then Dave Roberts. Since so many posters complain about his managing who would be better. You want Nomar Garciaparra to manage this team or Orel Hershiser or go get Mike Scoscia or Phil Nevin all guys that played as Dodgers here is one Brett Butler manager at AAA Reno for the Diamonbacks.
I don’t recall Bear ever advocating for Roberts to be replaced.
Never have. I understand he is not the best on field tactician, but he plays who he has. That he has no control over.
Winning or losing is 90% on the players executing. JMO.
Managers decisions might directly affect maybe 5% of the games they manage. Performance is always on the players. You have a guy like Hudson, who was lights out for close to a month, and all of a sudden, he loses it. Guys like Ohtani striking out with less than 2 outs and the bases loaded, that is all on the player. Ohtani chased too many bad pitches today. Hernandez did that yesterday.
Posters complain, you nailed it. His players do not. Nomar has no desire to manage. Scioscia hasn’t managed in a decade. Hershiser would be a lousy manager. Better? There isn’t a manager in the game with as high a winning percentage as Roberts. He knows how to manage. I do not know where you get your information, but Brett Butler is NOT the manager at Reno. Blake Lalli is their manager. Butler hasn’t managed there since the mid 2010’s. I don’t have a problem with Roberts managing, is he right all the time, hell no, no one is. What I have a problem with is fans thinking they know better what goes on in the dugout and the clubhouse than the people who play the game. Bradley, your problem is that you do not understand the inner workings of the game. You are a passionate fan. I appreciate that. But you really need to understand that the front office hired this guy because he adheres to the plan they have. And he believes in it too.
Great powered Wizard? Sorry, I never said I knew it all. But I do know that he has the best winning percentage as a manager of any manager in the modern era, and that includes the great Bruce Bochy, who’s winning percentage as of today is .498. His team is playing at a .474 clip this year. Roberts percentage is .626. The team is at .599 this year. Does winning bother you? He actually is 5th on the all-time list. Two Hall of Fame managers, Joe McCarthy and Charlie Comiskey, are below him on the list. The closest active manager to Roberts, Aaron Boone, with a .584 career winning percentage. Many fans dislike Roberts, but unfortunately for them, they do not get to pick who they want.
It would be interesting to find out what Doc’s record in 1 run games is through his manager years with the Dodgers. Last year Skip Shumaker 33-14 and Doc 16-15.
177-159. This year the Marlins are 21-17. Last year was an anomaly. In 22 they were 22-40. 21-29 in 2021. How many 1 run games you win is usually decided by how good your bullpen is. Last year, when the Rangers won the World Series, they were only 14-22 in one run games, this year, they have a losing record, and they are 23-16. Winning one run games does not a winner make.
Mary Hart gets my vote!
My choice Skip Shumaker. The Marlins had the best record in 1 run games last year and that’s what a manager is there to do, call the right shots. He won NL manager of the year last year as he should have.
I keep hearing it’s on the players if there are failures in situations even if the stats go against what the manager did. Stupid.
Roberts almost always goes with what the numbers/analytics say.
I’ve seen him not do that many times. For a long time I had my IPhone right next to me when I was watching Dodger games checking if his bullpen decisions go with what the stats said. I go by splits stats in that situation. I’ve seen Pages sit against LHP this year in favor of Kiermaier. In 2023 Kike who Doc platooned right off the bat with Outman this year had a worse slashline against LHP than Outman and Kike had falling stats against LHP 6 years in a row except 1 year. Kike is in a downfall in his career Outman has upside. Yes Outman sucked this year but I can’t blame him after a good rookie year and being platooned right off the bat with none other than Kike. A clearly better hitter against LHP would have been fine with me, but not Kike. I can give you more examples.
I like you OhioDodger, so I didn’t mean my post to be anything bad towards you.
We’re cool. So Doc does deviate from the numbers at times. Probably throws out the numbers when it comes down to veteran vs rookie.