We heard it early and we heard it often from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts throughout the 2022 regular season: “Craig Kimbrel is our closer.”

Craig Kimbrel is no longer our closer.

The Dodgers official closer is now ‘By Committee,’ and they were great in Game-1 of the 2022 National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,407.

“It was a tough conversation,” Roberts answered, when asked about Kimbrel not being on his NLDS roster. “It’s a person, a player I have so much respect for. It hasn’t been a consistent year for him and he accepted the role of getting out of the closer’s role as a professional, and was hoping for and looking for an opportunity here in the DS. We just have other guys that we felt have been more consistent and that match up with these guys better.

“Not that it can’t change, and my expectation, our expectation, that Craig will be ready,” Roberts added. “But we wouldn’t be here without him, and I can’t say enough about the character of Craig Kimbrel because, as a potential Hall of Famer, that’s not an easy conversation, and he was very disappointed, as he should be.”

Kimbrel, who was acquired from the Chicago White Sox on April 1, 2022 in exchange for veteran outfielder AJ Pollock, posted a less-than-stellar 6-7 record and 3.75 ERA in the 63 regular season games in which he appeared for the Dodgers. Unfortunately, he also had five blown saves in his 27 save opportunities, a good many of which came during the stretch run.

After 26-year-old Dodgers 2022 NLDS Game-1 starter Julio Urías allowed three runs on four hits with six strikeouts and no walks in his 5.0 innings of work on Tuesday night, By Committee – Messrs. Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, and Chris Martin – allowed no runs and only three hits in their combined 4.0 innings of relief, with Martin being credited with the save.

“A lot of good players that are just not afraid of the moment. I trust them all,” Roberts said of his new closer(s). “Yeah, it’s not kind of the standard or, whatever, conventional, but I feel confident in whoever we’re going to run out there in the ninth inning.”

“I think we’ve all bought into this concept that when the phone rings, you go get those outs,” Phillips said postgame. “The staff does a good job of getting us prepared for each situation that we’re called upon. You saw it drawn up like that tonight, and I think you’ll continue to see it go that way.”

As for the Dodgers offense, it was great … for the first three innings. After that, not so much.

Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner got things started with solo home run to left field in the bottom of the first inning. Two batters later, Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit his first of what would be two doubles on the night, which was followed by a RBI single off the bat of Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy.

The Dodgers added three more in bottom of the third on a two-out double by second baseman Gavin Lux and a bases-loaded fielding error by Padres first baseman Wil Myers to give the Dodgers a (then) 5-0 lead. After that, Roberts’ team went a collective 0-for-15 with one walk.

The Dodgers most noticeably missing bat in the best-of five series opener was that of Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts, who went 0-for-4 on the night with a strikeout. The National League’s leading run scorer (117) missed a golden opportunity to drive a stake through the Padres heart when he flied out to center field for the final out of the third inning, leaving the bases loaded.

“You could see that they spun us a lot more (threw more curveballs) once we got to the ‘pen and I think we might have had one or two base runners after that,” Roberts said postgame. “So, we’ve got to be prepared for Yu (Darvish) tomorrow. There’s going to be a lot of spin and we got our work cut out tomorrow.”

Yes, Yu do.

Play Ball!

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