ATLANTA — Dave Roberts didn’t hesitate.
So what if Tyler Glasnow had thrown only 78 pitches?
So what if he was still in the fifth inning?
Glasnow had walked his second batter of the inning, and Roberts wasn’t about to take any chances.
Calling on Alex Vesia to record the final out of the inning, Roberts initiated a chaotic sequence of events that resulted in the Dodgers claiming a 4-1 victory over the Braves in Game 4 of their National League Division Series.
The Dodgers advanced to the NL Championship Series.
Because of Tarik Skubal.
Because of Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Because of Freddie Freeman.
And because of David Ray Roberts, the manager affectionately known as Doc who has a game or two like this every October.
The victory over the Braves on Wednesday was a Doctober classic.
On a day in which one of his four aces lasted only 4 ⅔ innings, Roberts figured out how to cover 13 outs of the game with a notoriously unpredictable bullpen.
Roberts’ fingerprints were also all over Andy Pages’ two-run single in the seventh inning that broke open the game.
When Teoscar Hernandez singled that inning with one out, Braves manager Walt Weiss replaced starting pitcher Tyler Mahle with right-hander Didier Fuentes.
Fuentes forced Max Muncy to ground out, but Hernandez advanced to second base on the play.
Due up was Game 3 hero Kike Hernandez.
Rather than have the right-handed utilityman face Fuentes, Roberts deployed rookie Josue De Paula as a pinch hitter. The left-handed-hitting De Paula drew a walk, at which point he was replaced on the basepaths by Tommy Edman.
Kyle Tucker followed up with another walk to load the bases, at which point Weiss turned to fireballer Robert Suarez to pitch to Pages.
Pages batted .078 in the postseason last year, which resulted in his benching in the World Series. He was 0-for-7 in the first two games of this series, but Roberts stuck with him.
Roberts’ faith was rewarded by the most important hit of Pages’ three-year career, a single to right field that drove in two runs to push the Dodgers in front, 3-1. The runs were the Dodgers’ first of the series that weren’t scored via a home run.
The manager demonstrated an equal level of creativity in directing his bullpen.
Vesia returned for the sixth inning, only to give up a leadoff double to Ozzie Albies. Roberts kept the left-hander in for another batter, the left-handed-hitting Drake Baldwin, who lined out.
Roberts’ next call to the bullpen was for Edgardo Henriquez, who spent the last two weeks of the regular season on the injured list. Henriquez gave up a run in the Dodgers’ Game 2 loss, but not only did Roberts trust him to prevent Albies from scoring, he also had him pitch the seventh inning.
From there, it was simple.
Tanner Scott pitched the eighth inning. With Muncy homering in the ninth inning to increase the lead to 4-1, Edwin Diaz came in to record the last three outs.
The Dodgers moved to within four wins of playing in their third consecutive World Series, and they did it with Shohei Ohtani still missing in action.
Ohtani was 2-for-13 in this series.
“It’s good to know that we can still win games without him doing a whole bunch,” Roberts said. “But he’s going to come to life. It will happen.”
Roberts has squinted extra hard in recent days to find evidence of that.
Here’s the reality: In his last 22 combined games between the regular season and playoffs, Ohtani has no home runs and only one RBI.
That isn’t a slump.
The No. 1 player in the game doesn’t go this long without hitting in the prime of his career without something being seriously wrong with him.
Ohtani spent 15 days last month on the injured list because of a discomfort in his right arm. A couple of days before he was placed on the IL, he said his left knee was also bothering him.
The uncertainty over Ohtani’s capabilities forced Roberts to move him around the lineup.
With Mookie Betts grinding out quality at-bats as the leadoff hitter and Freeman producing enough to solidify his place as the team’s No. 2 hitter, Ohtani was removed from the top of the order.
Against the left-handed Chris Sale in Game 3, Ohtani batted fifth. Against the right-handed Mahle on Wednesday, he batted cleanup.
Ohtani managed to create something out of nothing in the second inning. He drew a walk, then stole second base, prompting Braves catcher Sean Murphy to airmail a throw into center field. Ohtani scampered to third base. When Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón dropped a popup by Muncy in shallow left field, Ohtani scored to tie the game at 1.
Ohtani didn’t collect any hits Wednesday, but he didn’t have to.
Roberts had the game under control.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
