Surprisingly, my biggest takeaway isn’t a lazy Bryce Harper smear (Bryce Harper doesn’t pitch) or that Dave Roberts should’ve played the numbers (everyone says so, even purists).
I don’t claim to be a baseball expert. I watch games, I understand the games, and I played in high school – even if I was awful. Baseball is a weird game. It surprises you, it amazes you, and sometimes it can hurt, too. I wasn’t rooting for the Dodgers. In fact, as a Cubs fan, I’m pulling for anyone besides the Dodgers. Long-term success lolls you to sleep, and the Dodgers have been excellent for quite a while. A big part of that success is due to the greatest pitcher I’ve ever seen: Clayton Kershaw. I realize this is solely my opinion, but it’s based on all that I’ve witnessed. The eye test. Sure, it’s 2019 not 2015. Sure, it’s been a couple of years since Kershaw was that guy, but anyone around my age (25) knows Kershaw is at least one of the greatest of his generation. A pitcher who was a three-time CY Young winner (2011, 2013, 2014), and NL MVP (2014).
Quite frankly, the only pitcher who compares is Madison Bumgarner in the postseason.
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts must’ve had these same thoughts. Bringing in Kershaw during the 7th for the strikeout, fine. I get it. That’s the romance of baseball, and in an era of managers who tend to over manage, Dave Roberts does something we don’t see too often: he lets the pitchers pitch when they’re pitching well.
These days, if a guy keeps changing pitchers and the next pitcher gives up a run, it’s called over-managing. If he leaves the guy in, and he gives up runs, he shouldn’t have been in the game. Either way, you can’t win as a manager. So, Roberts decided he was going to have that guy in there; he was going to have the future first ballot hall-of-famer come into the playoff game in October, and if he lost the lead with him there, fine. That’s who he wanted. But then he gives up the back to backers in the 8th. Would it have been safer to play the righty on righty, lefty on lefty situation? Maybe. I’m not arguing for or against, but still I sit here, days after the fact, and ask, what if? In the end, they could’ve hit homers off both those guys, too.
There is something to playing the wrong team at the wrong time. Either way, Dave Roberts wanted his guy in there. It didn’t go his way, and that’s why baseball is sad. Kershaw will go down as the best regular season pitcher of his generation who could never get it done in October. The eye test tells you though, when it matters most, I’d still be okay if I had that guy when I needed an out.
~ “Cowboy” Derek Smith
