Dave Roberts controversial bullpen decisions backfire in Dodgers Game 4 World Series blowup
One night after pushing all the right bullpen buttons to navigate an 18-inning walk-off Game 3 win, Dave Roberts didn’t have the same deft touch Tuesday night.Roberts earned backlash for pulling starter Shohei Ohtani in the seventh inning with men on for a pair of ineffective relievers in the 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays that evened the World Series at 2-2.Anthony Banda and Blake Treinen allowed two inherited runners to score and two more to score to turn a 2-1 deficit into a five-run hole.“I just don’t know how you even think of going to Treinen in this situation with the game still in reach,” popular Dodgers X account @BlakeHHarris posted.The Dodgers’ bullpen had to cover 13 1/3 innings to outlast the Blue Jays in Game 3, which had a carryover effect into Game 4 since certain options would be limited.Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run homer off Ohtani in the third gave Toronto a 2-1 lead that held into the seventh, when Ohtani allowed a single and double to put men at second and third with no outs.Ohtani had only thrown 93 pitches and allowed six hits and one walk at that point, but Roberts turned to unheralded southpaw Banda since two of the next three hitters batted lefty.One argument against the switch would have been that Banda entered the game with a 7.36 ERA this postseason, including a three-run blip in Game 1, and is not in Ohtani’s class as a pitcher.“It just kind of happened right there where I just felt we needed to find a way to get a punchout and trying to get Banda on three lefties,” Roberts said of pulling Ohtani.“Obviously, they hit (Ty) France at the top for (Nathan) Lukes, but, yeah, (Ohtani) gave us a good effort, he really did.”Banda immediately allowed an RBI single to lefty Andres Gimenez to push the lead to 3-1, and France later added an RBI groundout to make it a 4-1 game.After an intentional walk to Guerrero, Roberts then went to his bullpen again and turned to the struggling veteran Treinen.If you don’t have cable, you’ll...