Watching the thrilling theater of Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals unfold on Thursday night, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was filled with pride. His rookie manager, Dave Roberts, was pulling the right strings — some of them unconventional — to propel his team to the National League Championship Series.
After starter Rich Hill was yanked in the third inning, Roberts brought in setup man Joe Blanton. He inserted closer Kenley Jansen in the seventh inning. He used starter Clayton Kershaw to get the game’s final two outs. Pinch-hitter Carlos Ruiz produced a big hit at the right time.
“It was really aggressive managing, which is exactly what you’re hoping your manager does in a do-or-die game,” Zaidi said afterward. “I told him when I saw him that it was the best game I’ve ever seen managed, and I really meant it. To pull out those stops — not just to bring guys in early, but to have them ready to do it and ready to do the job — it’s unbelievable.”
Photo: AP
Baseball, especially in the pressure cooker of the playoffs, can occasionally move too fast for some managers. However, Roberts has proved to be a fast learner. A former major league outfielder and coach, best known until now for his dramatic steal of second base in the 2004 American League Championship Series, Roberts more than held his own against the Nationals’ Dusty Baker, who has been managing for 21 years.
Now Roberts faces another veteran manager, the Chicago Cubs’ Joe Maddon, who is highly unconventional and even more esteemed than Baker.
On Friday, as the Dodgers and the Cubs prepared for Game 1 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Maddon was full of compliments for Roberts.
“Very bright, engaging, gregarious — he’s got all those different qualities,” said Maddon, who, at 62, is 18 years older than Roberts. “And he’s obviously a quick study, too.”
Roberts said of Maddon: “I just pride myself in being a lifelong learner. I think that Joe is a guy that we all know and respect as an outside-the-box thinker, a forward thinker. He loves to teach players and people.”
Maddon and Cubs’ boss Theo Epstein have rightly been credited for making their team into the strongest in baseball this season, but Roberts and the Dodgers’ analytics-driven front office, headed by Zaidi and team president Andrew Friedman deserve a lot of plaudits, too.
Because of many injuries, the Dodgers used 31 pitchers this season, including 15 starters. As a result, the bullpen carried a heavy load, leading the major leagues in innings thrown, but also ranking No. 1 in earned run average. It was daunting, but Roberts found a way to keep the Dodgers on course.
“I give a lot of credit to our front office,” he said. “They’ve allowed me to open my mind, to grow and help me make decisions.”
Many of those decisions stem from one of the biggest tasks any modern baseball manager faces, which is how to properly deploy a bullpen.
Roberts said that earlier in the season, he was “conventionally minded” in his bullpen use.
He tried to assign specific roles and specific innings to relievers, perhaps trying to replicate the success of the Kansas City Royals’ World Series teams of 2014 and last year. However, that did not last long.
“It just didn’t go great and I didn’t have a great feeling about it,” Roberts said. “So it kind of evolved into — with conversations with the guys in the pen — of eliminating a certain role, and just classifying yourself as someone who is in the pen as a reliever, outside of Kenley.”
Now the Dodgers will again have to move puzzle pieces around after a taxing series against the Nationals.
The Cubs’ Jon Lester was scheduled to start Game 1 opposite Kenta Maeda of the Dodgers.
Roberts said he was not prepared to name a Game 2 starter or to declare which game Kershaw would pitch.
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