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“It wasn’t a terrible pitch to Schwarber.”

Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts

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Suffice to say, when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Friday night’s devastating 5-4 walk-off loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on the absolute meatball pitch served up by struggling Dodgers left-hander Caleb Ferguson to Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, MLB’s fourth-leading home run hitter “…wasn’t a terrible pitch,” it caught them and the millions of Dodgers fans who had witnessed or heard the blast on television or radio completely by surprise.

Truth is, the 87.3-MPH cut fastball that the 26-year-old Columbus, OH native and Dodgers 38th-round draft pick in 2014 out of West Jefferson High School in West Jefferson threw to the single-most dangerous hitter in the Phillies line-up was a horrible pitch that was ‘right down Broadway,’ or ‘right in his wheelhouse,’ as they say.

It had ‘Home Run’ written all over it the instant it left Ferguson struggling left hand … and it became one, to give the Dodgers their fifth loss in their last six games.

This one came with two outs in the bottom of ninth inning of a 4-4 tie on a walk-off solo home run by Schwarber, who now has 17 home runs on the season after 63 games.

“For me, honestly, I though, you know, working backwards, I thought Caleb threw the ball extremely well tonight,” Roberts told stunned reporters. “For me, the fastball in the zone, the life to it, the conviction behind it, it was just one of those things where… it wasn’t a terrible pitch to Schwarber, down and away, it was a good piece of hitting, and that’s baseball. So, for me, it hurts, certainly for us, for Caleb, given his last outing prior, but it’s something I’ll bet as far as how it went tonight.

“We had a little chat, but it was more of very positive and appreciating that the ultimate results on both those outings were similar as far as the result, but how he went about it, completely different,” Roberts added. “So, I just assured him that that’s what I’m looking for and that he wants to be a guy that pitches in leverage for us. Arm talent’s there, and, you know, how he responds to things like this is a tell. As so, I feel really good about it going forward.”

While we can all appreciate that the Dodgers skipper was standing up for Ferguson, the painful truth is that he is broken and needs some time away from the front line to figure out what’s wrong with him mechanically, and even more so mentally. I mean, his confidence has got to be fried after back-to-back disastrous outings.

Spending a little time at Triple-A OKC or even a stint on the injured list could do Ferguson and his now 3-2 record and now 3.68 ERA a world of good. But continuing to run him out there as is where he might encounter additional failures could be devastating for him and could very well bring an abrupt end to his thus far five-year MLB career.

Come on, Doc (and Andrew). Do the right thing here.

Play Ball!

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