The Dodgers have won eight consecutive National League West Division titles, which, of course, is the first step to getting to the World Series. Five of those NL West titles have come with Dave Roberts as the Dodgers manager, under whom they made it to two consecutive World Series (2017 and 2018). Quite an accomplishment by any standard.

The Dodgers won neither, albeit the result of cheating by the Houston Astros in 2017 and the Boston Red Sox in 2018.

Or was it?

You don’t have to be a statistical wizard to see that, come October, Dave Roberts – or ‘Doc,’ as he is affectionately known because of his initials D R – seems to make less-than-Doc-like decisions that invariably come back to bite him – and the team.

Don’t get me wrong; Roberts is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and has one of the most brilliant baseball minds on the planet, for which his players absolutely love him and love playing for him.

However (and you knew a ‘however’ was coming), Dave Roberts has a reputation for making horrible non-Dave-Roberts-like decisions once the calendar flips to October, especially – and primarily – with his pitching staff; more specifically, pulling guys too soon (or too late) and/or putting them in roles that they are not accustomed to.

He did it again on Monday evening in Game-1 of the 2020 National League Championship Series – the final hurdle on the road to the World Series – with the Dodgers being the home team at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

Oh, sure, you can certainly argue that this is a ‘Damned if you do – Damned if you don’t’ situation, and there are 13 other National League managers who would kill to be in Roberts’ shoes. But the painfully simple truth for Dodger fans is that, when there is frost on the pumpkin, Roberts’ normally phenomenal baseball instincts seem to go out the window.

It started in the sixth inning on Monday night against the NL East Division-champion Atlanta Braves when Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, who had pitched an absolute gem to that point but had reached the 100-pitch mark and was clearly out of gas, gave up back-to-back singles to Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud and second baseman Ozzie Albies respectively to leadoff the inning. Roberts (wisely) removed Buehler, calling on Dodgers’ (and Dodger fans’) new rockstar folk hero Brusdar Graterol (aka ‘Bazooka’) to try to get out of the mess Buehler had created, with the Braves knocking on the door to break the (then) 1-1 tie.

All Graterol did was retire the Braves in order … on six pitches.

He did, however, take a comebacker off the bat of Braves left fielder Nick Markakis off of his right palm, but immediately recovered and threw Markakis out for the final out of the inning.

Needless to say, Dodger fans were shocked when Roberts did not send the 22-year-old Calabozo, Venezuela native back out to pitch the seventh inning – and beyond.

Why, you ask?

As he often does, Roberts (referred to by some as ‘The Spin Doctor’) spun it this way:

“I think with Brusdar, he took a ball, that last one, off the palm of the hand, so I just felt that that was it right there,” Roberts answered defensively. “I expect him to be ready to go tomorrow.”

But wait, there’s more!

After his brilliant six pitches of work, Roberts replaced Graterol with yet another phenom – 23-year-old Dodgers right-hander Dustin May – this despite the fact that there was nothing visibly wrong with Graterol. May, who has been a starting pitcher throughout most of his six-year professional career (two at the MLB level), faced only five Braves batters and made a grand total of 21 pitches before Roberts replaced him as well.

Now granted, May had given up one hit (a double by Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna), intentionally walked shortstop Dansby Swanson, and then unintentionally hit Braves pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval to load the bases with two outs, but of those 21 pitches, two topped the 99-mph mark, one of which was clocked at 100.1 mph.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, Roberts replaced May with 24-year-old right-hander Victor González, who promptly struck out Braves pinch-hitter and former Dodger Charlie Culberson on three pitches to end the threat, so there’s that.

…and then the proverbial wheels fell off.

Needing only three outs to get to their half of the ninth inning, Dodgers right-hander Blake Treinen promptly (as in the first batter he faced) gave up a go-ahead leadoff home run to Braves left fielder Austin Riley.

…and then things really turned bad.

The Braves would go on to score three more runs (all charged to Treinen) before the third out was recorded. The Dodgers then went quietly in their half of the ninth for the ugly 5-1 NLCS Game-1 loss.

“I just felt in a tie ballgame right there, us the home team, that run [of mostly right-handed batters] right there was really good for Blake,” Roberts spun it. “He’s going to have to do it again. It just didn’t work out, but I trust he’s going to get those guys out.”

Of course you did, Doc … It’s Doctober.

Play Ball!

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