Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — All of this series has been leading to this moment. All of the frustration that fans experienced when Landon Knack got shelled in Game 2 or a clearly diminished Jack Flaherty was left out on the mound to wear the loss in Game 5 have been preparation for this moment. Game 6, the long-anticipated “bullpen game” that might just send the Dodgers to the World Series.
Dave Roberts has been defending his passive strategy with the pen with the refrain that a seven-game series is a long one. The key point is to limit the exposure of your best bullpen arms so that the best hitters in the Mets lineup will not know what to do with some of their nastier pitches and so far, he’s done a good job of that. Let’s take a look at where the high leverage arms stand.
As you can see from the chart, the Dodgers’ high leverage guys really haven’t seen the Mets’ top hitters all that much. Only Blake Treinen has faced Lindor twice and only Ryan Brasier has faced Pete Alonso twice. All of the other hitters will be getting their first or second look at our top guys in Game 6. That’s a good thing. However, it comes with a key proviso, given to us by Sarah Langs from ESPN:
So, with the relief corps, you’re more worried about how they might perform in a potential Game 7 than you are for a Game 6. Which makes it all the more important for the Dodgers to take care of business on Sunday, and then take a couple days off to reload for the Yankees on Friday. I’m not too worried about the potential “rust factor” in the World Series, as it will be the same for both teams, and the Yankees will have had even one more day off than the Dodgers. However, if the Mets are able to push it to a Game 7, that would give the advantage to a “hot” Mets team, and the narrative will revert to “Dodgers are chokers” once again. That’s a lot of noise that I’d rather not deal with, to be quite honest. Plus, I have tickets to Sunday’s game, so there’s that.
This whole series has been a case of losing certain battles in order to win the war. Dave Roberts has chosen to hold back his best arms in games that might have been winnable in order to preserve them for a clinching game here in LA. It’s part of the juggling act that Doc and the front office have had to do every game. Given the state of the Dodgers rotation, some innings and some games simply had to be sacrificed in order to have a chance to win the series.
That chance is here. Now. Today. It’s incumbent upon the Dodgers to absolutely go for it. So that might mean trying to get four or five outs out of of Treinen, Kopech, and Phillips. That absolutely is going to mean no Landon Knack or Edgardo Henriquez in the game if the score is tight. Daniel Hudson is rested. He should be able to provide a quality innning. Anthony Banda will have to be our substitute Alex Vesia for today. So if you can get four innings out of Treinen, Kopech, and Phillips, and you can get five out of some combination of Banda, Brasier, Hudson, and Casparius, that sets you up pretty well for a win.
The key to this game, oddly enough, will be the offense. If the team can get a lead early and expand on it, that will make bullpen management a whole lot easier. One of the reasons that the Game 4 NLDS went so well for the pitching is that the game was 5-0 by the end of the third inning and essentially over by seventh. That made it a whole lot easier to let some of the lower leverage arms finish up the ballgame. That absolutely needs to happen on Sunday. It won’t be easy with Sean Manaea on the mound, but the Dodgers will need to use what they learned about his new delivery in Game 2 to inform their plate appearance in Game 6. Hopefully, the results will be better.
Folks in the Mets dugout will surely know that for them, “there’s no tomorrow.” That’s a position that the Dodgers gladly are not in. However, even though there will be a tomorrow for the Dodgers if they lose, they need to play with some Game 7 urgency. They need to put the pedal to the metal and just blow the doors off this Mets team.
Don’t count on another good start from Walker Buehler. Don’t count on the offense showing up on Monday. Today’s the day. Now. Let’s do it!
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!
