Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was trying to play the long game on Monday evening.
This is why, when his team entered the ninth round with a three -point lead in match 2 of the series of the National League division, he gave the opportunity to safeguard Blake Treinen instead of Roki Sasaki.
If everything had been equal, it is likely that Roberts turned to Sasaki to start the Channel. In just two weeks since his return of a shoulder injury and the transfer of the enclosure of the lifts, the recruited starter has become the most dominant rescue option of the club.
But, for as much a revelation that the 23 -year -old right -hander had been at that time – displaying four goalless outings with a quick ball of 100 mi / h and an unshakable separator – the team remained conscientious to manage the workload of Sasaki, which included an appearance in match 2 of the Wild Card series, then another in the first game of the NLDs a few days before.
Thus, with Roberts sufficiently confident in Treinen (the right -wing veteran who came out of a career season, but also some recently improved outings) to protect a three -point cushion that felt relatively comfortable, he left Sasaki seated in the enclosure of the lifts despite the safeguard situation.
He tried to take advantage of an opportunity to rest his relief from the AS.
“He didn’t do two (days) out of three at all,” said Roberts after the match. “So I didn’t just want to put it back in this way. I felt well with whom we had. ”
This plan, of course, almost turned disastrous. Treinen abandoned two points without withdrawing a striker. Alex Vesia needed his defense to shoot a wheel game on a Bryson Stott Bunt to limit the damage from there. And at the end, Sasaki has entered the game anyway to record the final.
In the future, Roberts confirmed on Tuesday, Sasaki is “certainly the main option now” for all future backup situations – the closest the closest team will call them their simplest, because they could also choose to use it in high -level places before the ninth.
“Obviously, what Roki did, continued to show, was very encouraging on many fronts,” said Roberts.
The question, however, remains exactly how the dodgers can bring him the rest of these qualifying series; And how well they will have to balance the burden they place on a young launcher who has never played before in a rescue role.
“He will not finish each match, it’s just not doable,” Roberts said on Tuesday. “This is something he has never done. And you expect to spend a few more weeks (in playoffs). So all of this must play, so that many people do not appreciate.”
The deeper the dodgers in the playoffs, the more delicate this calculation.
For the moment, the preference of the team would be for Sasaki to have at least a day of rest before each of its outings. And although Roberts did not exclude the consecutive days, he described it as “the next graduation point” for the Japanese off -season signature (which had only made eight MLB departures at the start of the season before injuring and missing the next four months).
“There is no guarantee what will look like (in a consecutive sequence),” said Roberts, adding that any potential use of Saskai on consecutive days would require conversations in advance with pitching coaches on the appearance of Sasaki during pre-match capture sessions.
“I would like Roki to start he could, but it is simply not possible,” Roberts reiterated. “Again, we have a lot of conversations, then I make my decision.”
In other words, Sasaki will get the majority of safeguarding opportunities in the future. But he will probably not be the only one to manage such places.
Sheehan responds in the configuration role
Emmet Sheehan reacts after closing the eighth round against the Phillies in match 2.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
After a promising regular season during which he posted an MPM of 2.82 in 15 outings, the Dodgers turned to Emmet Sheehan to be an installation man for several sleeves for their besieged succession bodies.
His first release in the playoff series was embarrassing: abandoning two strokes and two steps while registering only in match 2 of the Wild-Card series against the Reds.
But Monday evening, he bounded with two rounds of relief in one time so that the advance of the dodgers enters the ninth.
The biggest moment of exit from Sheehan (in which he withdrew the team in the seventh, before giving up a triple at the bottom of the line at Max Kepler and Rbi Single in Trea Turner in the eighth) came after he had given this solitary race. The phillies had left -handed sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper who were then. The Dodgers had Vesia, their left left option, warming up in the enclosure of the lifts.
For a brief moment, while the pitch coach Mark Prior came to the Mound and Sheehan collapsed with his pitchcom device during a prolonged break, it appeared that the dodgers were simply blocked so that Vesia warms up.
But Roberts finally stayed on the spot and left Sheehan to launch at the Phillie Star duo. His faith was rewarded by two withdrawals which ended the Channel. Sheehan removed Schwarber with a fast 97.6 -h / h bullet in the inner corner, tied for his tightening third land for a stick withdrawn this season. Then he asked Harper to fly on a change, pumping a fist in his glove while he was jumping from the field.
“I think it just showed a few adjustments that I made compared to this previous match (against the Reds),” said Sheehan.
The biggest?
“Definitely control your emotions,” said Sheehan. “It is a big piece of exit from the enclosure of the lifts. I spoke to a lot of guys, especially after Cincinnati where I was not as comfortable there.”
This Reds outing, of course, was a major red flag for the plans of the Dodgers enclosure. Given the difficulties of the traditional lessons of the team entering the playoffs, Sheehan was supposed to be essentially a man of installation of the enclosure of the lifts capable of filling the gap of the launcher leaving for the ninth.
Sheehan said that, in this release of the Joker, he felt that he “tried to do a little too much, trying to be a little too good with my land in the corners”.
“It’s not really my game,” he said with hindsight. “So, I think that the simple fact of coming back to the approach and the match plan that has been working for a few months was great. Trying to just go directly to them and attack in the area.”
Roberts gave Sheehan to leave it to do this on Monday, and will probably continue to call it in high lever-effect spots, perhaps making Sheehan and Sasaki its favorite combination to close the latest sleeves of matches.
“I just felt that his things were still very good (and that), he was not going to flee these guys at the top,” Roberts said on Tuesday, letting Sheehan face Schwarber and Harper (who are combined for 14 in the NLDS with two walks and eight stick withdrawals).
“I trusted him. I felt at that time that he was the best option. And it turned out to be fair. ”
Treinen missing “edge”
At the other end of the spectrum of lift trust is Treinen, which has not only managed to remove the three strikers he faced in match 2, but also, at least in the estimate of Roberts, did not look like someone confidence either.
“I just did not see this advantage last night,” said Roberts on Tuesday, “that I know that I saw him several times.”
Indeed, Treinen was the most reliable lift of the Dodgers during their World Series race last year, when he was credited with three stops, two sockets and two victories and punctuated his October with 2 ⅓ Worms of relief in addition to match 5 of the World Series.
This season was another story, with Treinen stumbling to an ERA of 5.40 career after missing a large part of the first half with a forearm problem.
Despite this, Treinen entered a higher on Monday, after having withdrawn three strikers in his regular season final before making two aimless appearances in the Wild-Card series.
The Phillies, however, took advantage of its inability this year to obtain so much Swing-And-Miss, protecting itself on only one of the eight swings while wasting a single and two doubles (the last on a half-swing by Nick Castellanos against the Treinen brand sweeper).
“I felt that he was taking a momentum before the latter, so I will check it,” said Roberts. “But there are ways to make an outing, successful or not successful, and how a player realizes for me.”
Monday, Treinen did not check this box. And if he will be thrown into a situation also with leverage, his next time remains to be seen.
