Judging by the Twittersphere following Tuesday night’s 4-3 Dodgers loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, Dodger fans were very unhappy with their beloved team, especially with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

Why so, you ask? Simply put, the Dodgers flat out gave away a game that they absolutely positively should have won, and in doing so, now find themselves of the brink of postseason elimination.

Oh sure, you can argue that the Dodgers still have a meager 0.5-game lead over the NL West second place Colorado Rockies, but the brutally painful truth is that the Rockies have won five in a row, while the Dodgers literally gave away a game that they all but had in the bank. As a result, the Dodgers time atop the NL West could very well be measured in hours, with only four game remaining in the regular season and set to face Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke in Wednesday’s series finale.

Without exception, the biggest gripe by Dodger fans on Tuesday was the fact that the Dodgers had a runner on second base – with no outs – on three separate occasions, yet were unable to score them each time. In fact, the Dodgers were a combined 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base.

Baseball 101 dictates that you have your next batter drop down a sacrifice bunt to move those runners over to third, yet Dodgers manager Dave Roberts never so much as had his next batter even fake a bunt. I mean, even a high school coach knows that this is a no-brainer. Instead, never even mentioned the words sacrifice bunt in his postgame interview, nor did he take responsibility for his team’s loss.

“I think it was more of umm … guys were in scoring position but it was more of the situational hitting,” Roberts told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo after the painful walk-off loss. “There were three opportunities we had tonight with a guy on second base with nobody out, and to not be able to get that guy to third base I think was the difference in the game.”

Ya think?

Roberts was quick to point out that the difference in the game was leaving runners stranded on second base with no outs three times on Tuesday evening, but not once did he even mentioned the words sacrifice bunt.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA – Click on image to view video)

Even though Dodgers starter Walker Buehler pitched brilliantly allowing only two runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts over his masterful 6.0 innings of work, he left the game trailing 2-1. The Dodgers then tied it up 2-2 in the top of the seventh to take Buehler off the hook for the loss, but fell behind again 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh.

Dodgers All-Star shortstop Manny Machado then led off the top of the eighth with a double to left, but Messrs. Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig and Alex Verdugo were unable to score Machado from second base – or even advance him over to third base. The reason? Rather than attempting to bunt Machado or even shorten up their swings to poke a base hit to the opposite field, all three swung from the heels, clearly trying to be that guy. Bellinger flied out to center and Puig and Verdugo struck out swinging for the fences.

And then in the top half of the ninth with the Dodgers trailing 3-2, Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernandez led off the inning with a sharp singe to center and promptly stole second base. Dbacks catcher Chris Stewart air mailed his throw into center field, allowing Kiké to take third with nobody out. Dodgers pinch-hitter Chris Taylor then hit a ground rule double (that landed in the infamous Chase Field pool) to score Hernandez, and once again the Dodgers had a runner on second base with no outs. But yet again, rather than attempting to sacrifice Taylor over to third base representing the go-ahead run, Roberts let Joc Pederson swing away and he flied out to short left. Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner then grounded out to first, and Max Muncy flied out to deep right field to end the inning and any hopes of a Dodgers win without going into extra innings.

It did not go into extra innings.

On a 3-2 pitch by Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda to Dbacks third baseman Eduardo Escobar that was right down Broadway, Escobar absolutely crushed it for a game-winning walk-off solo home run to right field for the Dodgers 4-3 loss.

Game over..
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

Why call it a Dodgers loss instead of a Diamondbacks win, you ask? Because any way you slice it, the Dbacks didn’t win, the Dodgers lost a game that they absolutely should have won; end of story.