It’s probably safe to say that there wasn’t a Dodger fan on the planet who didn’t yell out “What’s he doing?” when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed right-hander Pedro Baez from Game-1 of the 2018 World Series in the bottom of the seventh inning.

All the one-time Dodgers worst reliever, who miraculously resurrected his career over the last two months of the regular season (and thus far through the postseason) to become the Dodgers best reliever, did was strike out Red Sox pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland and shortstop Xander Bogaerts – on 10 pitches – with an inherited runner on second base.

You didn’t need 20/20 vision to see that Baez was absolutely dialed in on Tuesday night, yet somehow Dave Roberts missed (or ignored) it and went the analytics route instead. It failed miserably.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

But instead of letting Baez, who was clearly at his very best and was consistently hitting 97-MPH with his fastball, face right-handed hitting Red Sox pinch-hitter Eduardo Nunez with left fielder Andrew Benintendi on second base and after Roberts opted to (wisely) have Baez intentionally walk slugger J.D. Martinez, Roberts pulled the analytics card out of his pocket and decided to have struggling left-hander Alex Wood face Nunez instead of the red-hot Baez.

It did not work.

Instead, Nunez crushed Wood’s second pitch – an 83.5-mph “knuckle-curve” on the inner corner of the plate – over the Green Monster in left field at Fenway Park for a devastating three-run home run turning a very winnable 5-4 game into a completely out of reach 8-4 ballgame and final score.

When you throw a slow curveball on the inside corner to a guy like Eduardo Nunez, who likes slow curveballs on the inside corner, bad things can – and did – happen. (Video capture courtesy of Fox Sports)

The burning – and very obvious – question of the aforementioned every Dodger fan on the planet is, of course, Why? Why would Roberts completely ignore the fact that Baez, his current best reliever not named Kenley Jansen, was absolutely dialed in and bringing it and go with Wood, who had been banished to the bullpen on September 10 due to his complete ineptitude?

“We talked about [leaving Baez in] with Petey throwing the ball well right there,” Roberts told reporters almost dismissively after the game. “But [Red Sox third baseman Rafael] Devers is really good against the right-hander, and to get a guy off the bench and Nunez, I really liked Alex in that spot, I did. Whether they were going to hit Devers with a lead or go to the bench and go with Nunez, I still liked Alex in that spot.”

So did the Red Sox.

Within seconds of Nunez’s back-breaking home run, social media (i.e., Twitter) exploded with tweets questioning Roberts’ clearly less-than-popular decision to remove an extremely efficient Pedro Baez for a yet again horrible Alex Wood.

But even before Roberts’ weak attempt to justify his failed decision, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers Game-1 starter who was charged with five of those eight Red Sox earned runs on seven hits while striking out five and walking three in his 4.0 innings pitched and was tagged with the loss, did not offer up any excuses for his less-than-stellar outing and owned up to it, unlike his manager.

“Slider wasn’t very good tonight,” Kershaw told reporters. “Didn’t have the depth, kind of flat in the zone, and they made me pay for it. All the way around, wasn’t a great night.”

But as they say, ‘It is what it is’ and the Dodgers now find themselves down one game to none in the best-of-seven World Series. That being said, the Dodger players themselves were quick to point out that there is still a lot of baseball yet to be played in the Fall Classic.

“It’s baseball. We know things can change real quick,” said popular Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. “You know what happened in Milwaukee, we lost the first game and we bounced back.”

Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, who went 3-for-5 on the night, wholeheartedly agrees.

“It’s a long series,” said Turner. “We lost Game 1 in Milwaukee, too, I believe. So we’ll shake this one off and come back tomorrow.”

Even Kershaw acknowledged that this thing is far from over, although his take on it is a bit different.

“We won Game-1 last year [against the Houston Astros] and lost the series,” Kershaw said. “Maybe we’ll try it out this way and see if we can win one.”

But perhaps the most logical comment came from Dodgers second baseman Brian Dozier who, although fully confident in his teammates, acknowledged that they had best not take Tuesday night’s loss lightly.

“If we can split, go home tied, we’re in pretty good shape,” Dozier said. “Can’t lose two games here, I don’t think.”

Word.

Play Ball!