TORONTO — The Dodgers took a punch in Game 1, and the sixth inning did most of the damage. Toronto turned a 2–2 game into a rout, and a bullpen that has been seldom used all October got exposed. Afterward, Anthony Banda faced it head on.
“I just didn’t do a very good job executing,” Banda said. “I left the slider up, right in his bat path. Bad pitch. He took advantage and made me pay. That’s kind of what happened.” The sequence snowballed fast. He entered with traffic, then watched Addison Barger hammer a hanging breaker for a grand slam before Alejandro Kirk added a two-run homer.
The lefty kept circling back to location and conviction. “It was execution,” he said. “You get put in a situation and you’re trying to find outs. When we execute, we’re lights out. I still believe that. I still feel the confidence in that. Tonight was just a very bad night.” He didn’t try to pin it on layoff rust or rhythm. “There are no excuses,” Banda said. “I need to be better. I need to throw strikes. I know I can do that.”
He also pushed back on the idea that one inning should dent the group’s belief. “I don’t think it affects anything,” he said of the bullpen’s confidence. “It’s a seven-game series. It’s baseball. Anything can happen. It’s hard to go undefeated. You have to flush it, get ready for tomorrow, and when my name is called, go out and execute.”
Inside the room, the mood matched the scoreboard. “We’re not happy,” Banda said. “We understand it’s a seven-game series. It’s very hard to go undefeated, and we have to be ready for a good game tomorrow.” He kept emphasizing the quick reset. “As we come in tomorrow, we’re going to flush it and take it one game at a time,” he said. “We still have a lot of confidence, a lot of good vibes in there. This one got away from us.”
The Dodgers will need him again, probably soon. The World Series doesn’t slow down, and neither do opportunities for redemption. Banda knows that as well as anyone.
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
