MLB
Dodgers Give Away World Series Game 4
Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a four-run lead going into the 7th inning. In the 54 games during the regular season when the Dodgers led by at least four runs, they won every single one of them. Last night, however, took a different route. A route which cost the Dodgers the game and having the series tied up. Now, Boston is one win away from winning it all. Let’s take a look at what happened.
Positives
Rich Hill
Rich Hill was a huge positive last night. The 38-year-old veteran pitched his heart out and was on point and dominating! Hill pitched 6.1 innings and gave up only 1 hit, with 7 strikeouts. He would later get charged with a run when Scott Alexander came in for him and couldn’t hold his runner.
Offense
The Dodger offense was more alive last night and scored six runs. Usually, that would be way more than enough to secure a win. We’ll get to why it didn’t last night, later. However, multiple Dodgers got hits and a few long balls such as Yasiel Puig’s. Puig got all of the ball and knew it right away when he flipped his bat and threw his hands up after dismounting on the ball. Puig also kissed his muscle while rounding the bases. That passion is the reason why Dodger fans love him and why everyone else hates him. Later in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kiké Hernandez crushed a 2 run bomb, but that’s where it would end for the Dodgers as they would end up losing 9-6.
Negatives
Bullpen
The bullpen was absolutely horrible last night. They came in with a four-run lead in the seventh and ended up giving up nine runs. Nine runs! That is insane and not in a good way! It’s even crazier because the Dodger bullpen has been so good as of late, especially against baseball’s best bullpen in the Brewers. To give up that many runs is unacceptable and that’s when questioning pitching decisions come into play.
Decisions
There has been much talk online about Dave Roberts and his World Series decisions. This series, Roberts has been taking out his starters quite early and at possibly questionable times. Last night was no different. Rich Hill was pitching an amazing game. He had pitched 6.1 scoreless innings and had only given up one hit. Hill started the seventh inning with a walk. He then struck out Nuñez. That’s when Dave Roberts pulled him. What happened next was the bullpen totally unfolding.
Scott Alexander came in and let two runs score, making the Dodger lead shrink in half to 4-2. Ryan Madson then came in and gave up a bomb to Mitch Moreland and make the score 4-3. Roberts decided to bring in Kenley Jansen in the eighth. Like the night before, Jansen gave up a solo shot to lose the lead and tie the game. It got even worse in the ninth inning when Dylan Floro gave up three runs and Alex Wood and Kenta Maeda both gave up a run each, letting the Red Sox score five runs to put them up 9-4 and eventually win 9-6.
Dave Roberts said that before the seventh inning he had a talk with Rich Hill and Rich Hill told him he was giving it everything he had, but to “watch him”. Roberts obliged and took him out when he thought Hill was waning. Do you still place all the blame on Roberts, knowing that? Some do and some don’t. Some also wonder how many of the decisions are coming from Roberts and how many of the decisions are coming from the front office.
The Dodgers are known for using strat driven decisions and statistically, if you take Hill out there, the Dodgers had almost a 100% chance of winning with their four-run lead. Even after Alexander and Madson came in and made it a one-run game they were still statistically favored to win. However, in my opinion, sometimes you need to get your nose out of the computer to look up and watch what is actually happening and what has happened in previous games because artificial intelligence can’t account for the human element. Seeing and feeling is something computer stats will never be able to do or account for and needs to be considered more often.
Photo Credit to Arturo Pardavila III via Flickr
