Dave Roberts described it as a straightforward choice.
If solely it hadn’t include such disastrous penalties.
In the course of the fifth inning Tuesday night time, Shohei Ohtani returned to the Dodgers’ dugout after a clear inning of labor on the mound. Ready for him on the prime step was supervisor Dave Roberts, desirous to ask how he felt after solely his second five-inning begin of the season.
With another pitcher, what occurred subsequent would have been easy.
Over his 5 innings towards the Philadelphia Phillies, Ohtani had not given up successful. He had thrown solely 68 pitches. And he was flashing the form of dominance that will have made a no-hitter really feel like an actual chance.
With another pitcher, Roberts would have prolonged the leash.
Ohtani, nonetheless, shouldn’t be like another pitcher.
He’s a two-way star, coming off a second profession Tommy John surgical procedure, who has been managed with child gloves and bubblewrap in his return to pitching duties this 12 months. He began his comeback by pitching one inning, then two, then so on till he constructed as much as 5. Weeks in the past, the workforce — in session with workforce medical doctors, Ohtani’s agent and the reigning MVP himself — determined to keep away from pushing him previous the five-inning mark till at the very least October.
His well being, each on the bump and on the plate, stays the precedence.
Thus, whereas Ohtani advised Roberts he nonetheless felt good, Roberts mentioned he by no means had any considered sending him out for the sixth. His query, he later defined, was solely to establish data for future decision-making over Ohtani’s workload. So far as Tuesday was involved?
“He wasn’t gonna return out,” Roberts mentioned.
By not sending Ohtani again out, after all, the Dodgers rolled the cube with their ever-faulty bullpen. And in one of many group’s worst performances this 12 months, they yielded 9 runs over the subsequent 4 innings in a gut-punch of a 9-6 defeat.
“We’ve been very steadfast in each scenario so far as innings for [Ohtani’s] utilization — from one inning to 2 innings to 3 to 4 to 5. We haven’t deviated from that,” Roberts mentioned.
“I used to be attempting to get his pulse for going ahead, the place he’s at, persevering with to go to the sixth inning. And he says, ‘Really feel OK.’ In order that was good. However I’m not gonna have a plan for 5 innings, after which he pitches properly and say, ‘Hey, now you’re gonna go six innings.’ He’s too essential. And if one thing occurs, then that’s on me for altering it, and we haven’t executed that each one 12 months.”
After pulling Ohtani with a four-run lead, the Dodgers watched their reduction corps soften down in predictable, reminiscent trend. Justin Wrobleski gave up 5 consecutive hits with one out within the sixth, together with a three-run dwelling run to Brandon Marsh that broke open the inning. Edgardo Henriquez made issues worse, changing Wrobleski — amid a refrain of boos directed at Roberts — later within the inning solely to surrender one other lengthy ball to Max Kepler.
By the point it was over, the Phillies had scored six runs to take the lead. And although the Dodgers would battle again to tie the rating within the eighth, the bullpen faltered once more within the ninth, when Blake Treinen gave up a decisive three-run, two-out dwelling run to Rafael Marchán within the Phillies’ eventual 9-6 win.
For the 5 innings Tuesday, Ohtani displayed utter dominance towards the one workforce to have already clinched a division title.
His fastball was enjoying up, eclipsing 100 mph seven occasions and topping out at 101.7 mph. His secondary stuff was electrical, a mixture of sliders and sweepers and curveballs and splitters that saved the Phillies off stability and in a position to make solely benign contact.
After a two-out stroll to Bryce Harper within the first inning, Ohtani retired the ultimate 13 he confronted. He received solely six whole whiffs, however was extra pitch-efficient due to it, along with his 68 throws coming in 19 shy of his earlier season-high (he threw 87 pitches in his solely different full five-inning begin on Aug. 27).
That’s why, as soon as Ohtani raced again towards the dugout to transition from pitcher to hitter in the midst of the fifth, his elimination wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Why, after Roberts conversed with Ohtani from the highest step, he discovered first baseman Freddie Freeman laughing at him again on the bench, sensing the stressfulness of his supervisor’s choice (which represented the ninth time in Roberts’ Dodgers tenure he had pulled a pitcher from a no-hitter within the fifth inning or later).
By that time, after all, the sport shouldn’t have been at risk both manner.
The Dodgers had scored three runs within the second inning on dwelling runs from Alex Name and Kiké Hernández. They added one other within the fourth off Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, handing the Cy Younger contender simply his fourth begin this season of greater than three earned runs.
However then, a bullpen that had been burned repeatedly in current weeks (together with in a 10-inning loss within the opening recreation of this sequence Monday night time) performed with fireplace once more.
Wrobleski, a rookie left-hander who had been one of many Dodgers’ higher relievers of late, had Rafael Marchán break up the no-no with a one-out single, Harrison Bader and Kyle Schwarber to load the bases with two extra hits after that, Harper to hole a double that introduced two runs throughout, and Marsh to go deep on a dangling 0-2 slider for a go-ahead three-run shot.
Henriquez, one other rookie who had been sharp in restricted motion this 12 months, yielded one other dwelling run to Kepler two batters later.
Identical to that, it was 6-4 Phillies.
Ohtani helped the Dodgers get again within the recreation along with his bat. Within the eighth, he clobbered a leadoff dwelling run deep to proper area for his fiftieth lengthy ball of the season, making him simply the sixth participant in MLB historical past with consecutive 50-homer campaigns.
The Dodgers saved the rally going after that, loading the bases for Name to hit a tying sacrifice fly.
Alas, the Dodgers’ bullpen did what it does finest as soon as extra within the ninth, coming unglued on the worst attainable second.
After getting two fast outs to start out the inning, Treinen gave up a double to Weston Wilson (the No. 7 hitter who entered with a .202 common). He fell behind 3-and-0 to Bryson Stott (the No. 8 hitter) to set off an intentional stroll. Then, in a 3-and-1 rely to Marchán (the No. 9 hitter and backup catcher for the Phillies), he served up an inside cutter that Marchán pulled down the road, getting simply sufficient behind it to ship it bouncing off the highest of the brief right-field wall.
9 painful runs, in 4 depressing innings of Dodgers reduction.
One other loss, that wasted Ohtani’s no-hit (however short-lived) masterpiece.
