Dave Roberts Lets Game 4 Get Away With an Eye on World Series Trophy

If the Dodgers were going to lose to the Yankees on Tuesday, their manager is content it played out the way it did.

Roberts let the back end of the Dodgers bullpen handle the majority of Game 4. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

What the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted to do on Tuesday was beat the New York Yankees and sweep the World Series. That did not happen. So they did what they believed to be the next best thing. They certainly did not win. But they found the most advantageous way to lose Game 4 while improving their chances for Game 5. 

They got trounced. The final score was New York 11, Los Angeles 4, with a scheduled bullpen day unraveling into a messy affair for the Dodgers. This group has required bullpen games for every round of the playoffs: They entered October with a tattered rotation, just three healthy starters, and so they had no other choice. The strategy has worked in their favor several times. (If any relief corps is up to that task, it’s the Dodgers’, which is not just one of the best in the game but also one of the deepest.) But it did not go their way on Tuesday. 

A third-inning grand slam by Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe put New York up 5–2. Although the Dodgers managed to cut into that lead, they never fully closed the gap, and they eventually let things fall apart entirely. Which they hope will ultimately work in their favor. It meant they could save their best relievers.

They would have preferred to win. But if they were going to lose their bullpen game? They knew that letting it go early was the ideal way to do it. 

“The big thing was just to try to save the dawgs out there,” said Dodgers righthander Landon Knack, who pitched four innings, his longest outing of the month. “To be able to make sure that they're at full go ready for tomorrow, and ready for the rest of the series, is absolutely a huge, huge thing for us.”

Most of the dawgs in question did not even have to consider warming up Tuesday. (The group is made up of Alex Vesia, Ryan Brasier, Anthony Banda, Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol.) All of them now have at least one day of rest heading into Game 5.

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Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts knew that he did not want to turn to any of those pitchers early in the night. When veteran reliever Daniel Hudson loaded the bases with a one-run lead in the third inning, bringing up the Yankees’ No. 7 hitter, Volpe, the manager did not consider asking for one of his best relievers. The plan was to stick with Hudson: “That was his inning,” Roberts said. “I'm not going to go get somebody in the third inning to get Volpe.” The decision resulted in a costly grand slam. It also clarified the strategy for the rest of the night for Roberts. 

The game was still close. But the manager had chosen his path. Though it remained a two-run game as late as the eighth inning, Roberts was committed to letting the B-team finish out Game 4, rather than calling for any of his stronger relievers. That approach was certainly not without risk. But it seemed to be one that Roberts was comfortable taking. 

Knack pitched four valuable innings of relief for the Dodgers in Game 4. / John Jones-Imagn Images

There were two advantages to saving the high-leverage relievers. In addition to the obvious benefit of rest—every additional day off can help at this point in the postseason—there was the fact that it should limit the number of looks the Yankees have at the Dodgers’ top guys. Unless a win looked very, very likely, Roberts did not want to risk burning those pitchers in a loss. 

“If there's a silver lining to that, you know, those big guns at the back of the bullpen got a night off,” Hudson said. “I'm sure they were all chomping at the bit to get in there tonight. But they'll be good enough to go tomorrow, and hopefully we can just close this thing up.”

The duty of finishing out the night fell to Knack, who allowed one run in his four innings of work, and to Brent Honeywell, Jr., who followed him. Honeywell set an unfortunate record: He needed 50 pitches to get through a disastrous eighth inning. (He allowed five runs on four hits and a walk.) No one had ever taken so many pitches to get through a frame in the World Series. But all the Dodgers needed from him was to finish the game without requiring the use of another pitcher, and ugly as it looked, Honeywell did just that.   

It left Roberts sounding as optimistic as one could possibly be after losing a chance to win the World Series. That only made sense. His team is up in the series, 3–1. He should not have to manage another bullpen game: His three remaining healthy starters are prepared to finish this out. Jack Flaherty will start Game 5, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler lined up if needed, respectively, for a potential Game 6 and 7. There is no one who knows the dangers of getting complacent up 3–0 as well as Roberts. But he felt confident the mechanics of this loss put his group in a better place for another win.  

"To have six guys in your pen that are feeling good, rested, I feel good about that,” Roberts said. “And being up 3–1, yeah.”

The Dodgers lost Game 4. But they hope it will bolster their chances of winning it all in Game 5.

“We're trying to manage this whole series, keep everybody healthy, keep everybody fresh and ready to go,” said Dodgers catcher Will Smith. “We had guys step up today.”