April 20th, 2019 at 2:00 pm 
by 0799291000348 The Dodgers current 2019 record is 14-8, winning almost 64 percent of their games. But after a couple of losses, you don’t have to look long or far to find negative comments about Dave Roberts‘ managerial moves, especially on social media. Some even suggesting that he should be fired.
Balderdash!
Roberts doesn’t need to be fired, or even defended. Dodgers owners Mark Walter, Stan Kasten, (et al.), and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman showed their faith in him as the Dodgers on-field leader by giving him a four-year contract extension on December 3, 2018 that will take him through the 2022 season. But it sure would be great to occasionally read some positive comments about the 46-year-old Naha, Japan native, former UCLA Bruin, and former Dodger, giving him credit when credit is due … like right now.
Case in point: Friday night’s exciting 5-3 victory over the defending NL Central Division champion Milwaukee Brewers and their highly-touted All-Star left-handed closer Josh Hader. From his starting line-up, to his timely pitching changes, to his crafty in-game substitutions, Roberts deftly played his hand, knowing that the Brewers had three left-handers in the bullpen, including Hader, who was well rested and expected to pitch multiple innings late in the game. Inserting right-handed hitters Chris Taylor, Kiké Hernandez, and David Freese at the right time were expertly calculated moves by the Dodgers skipper to give his team the best chance of winning the game.
And they did just that.
Yet Roberts takes zero credit for winning the game, pointing out that Alex Verdugo and his run-scoring double in the top of the second inning, and to Hernandez for his game-winning three-run home run in the top of the eighth inning off of a very tough pitcher (on an 0-2 count, no less), deserve the credit, not him … because that’s what good (great) managers do.
Roberts also credited his entire line-up for their quality at-bats resulting in nine walks, and to his pitching staff that held the Brewers to only one earned run over the last eight innings, with fourteen strikeouts.
But make no mistake about it, it was not by chance that the right players were in the right spot at exactly the right time.
Give Dave Roberts the credit and respect he deserves, Dodgers fans. He has more than earned it!
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I absolutely agree with you Jesse. The players deserve the credit for their performing like the N.L Champs they are and so does Roberts for the job he’s doing.
Nice to know I wasn’t the only one who noticed how well Roberts managed last night’s nail-biter of a game, lol! Defining moment for me was when he went out there in the 7th to basically let Baez know that he needed to stop messing around and just go after Moustakas with the high heat. Baez did so and ended up striking him out to end what could’ve been a momentum-swinging moment in the Brewers’ favor at that point. I don’t need to rehash what went down in the following inning as that’s been pretty much well-documented already. Good write-up, btw.