Los Angeles Dodgers: It’s time to make a managing change

The Los Angeles Dodgers were shown the door by the Washington Nationals in the NLDS and it may be time to show manager Dave Roberts the door as well.

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a historic regular season. The team won the most games in franchise history, 106, set a new home run record and had 12 walk-off wins throughout the season.

A team mixed with veterans, young all-stars and overproductive rookies, the Dodgers were clearly the best team in the National League all season long. Being the best team in the regular season means nothing once the playoffs start and the Washington Nationals proved that.

A Nationals team that has prided itself on being gritty did exactly that to the Los Angeles Dodgers: they ground out a gritty, 3-2 series win, which included slowly erasing a 3-0 deficit before former Dodger Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam in the top of the 10th. The Nationals are going on, the Dodgers are going home.

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Dodger fans are understandably shaken by this after winning the NL Pennant the last two years, the Dodgers players are shaken up even more. A lot of the blame has been placed on Clayton Kershaw, who allowed back-to-back home runs on back-to-back pitches to Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto to tie the game.

Some of the blame is on the offense, which aside from an outburst in Game 3, was really poor in this series and could not come up when it matters.

Some of the blame is on Joe Kelly, who let up the grand slam in the top of the 10th after a spectacular ninth inning showing.

All of those things deserve blame in their own right. The person who deserves the most blame, at least in Game 5, is Dave Roberts.

Roberts made a few surprising decisions that lost the Los Angeles Dodgers the game. First and foremost, he left Clayton Kershaw out in a fresh inning to face the 3-4-5 of a Nationals order beat him up the first time around in his Game 2 start.

Personally, I agreed with the Kershaw move. I was one of very few people, along with Dave Roberts, that thought he could get over the October hump. I understood wanting him to have the ball over anyone else.

However, only needing six outs with a slew of bullpen arms that were all well-rested, it is obvious that it wasn’t the right move. For the first time in what feels like his entire managing career, Roberts went with his gut, and not the analytics.

He put Clayton Kershaw in that position because he is Clayton Kershaw. The pregame worries of the Dodgers forcing Kershaw in the game just to use him, just because they could, came to fruition.

That move seemed even worse after Kenta Maeda came in and tore through three Washington batters.

The other massive mistake Roberts made, which is absolutely inexcusable, was keeping Joe Kelly out there for a second inning.

Yes, Kelly looked great in the ninth inning but there was absolutely no reason for him to throw a second. The plan was probably to get to Juan Soto and then put Adam Kolarek in, but it was a terrible plan.

Getting one great inning out of Kelly should be all you are asking of him. At that point, you are playing with house money and with a significantly better bullpen than the Nationals you can flex your muscles and go to matchups at this point.

This is a team that has been hesitant to use Kenta Maeda for too long out of the bullpen, who is a starter but decided to allow the guy who just had a bad outing in Washington go a second inning.

I don’t care what the logic is. The logic is wrong.

Personally, I have been a Dave Roberts apologist the entire time he has been with the Dodgers. A lot of things have been overblown and the initial blame always goes to the manager. It was not all Roberts’ fault, as it is not his fault that his league-best offense decided to take a week off.

However, he made notable mistakes in this game that are yet another example of poor decision-making. Just like taking Rich Hill out of Game 4 of the 2018 World Series: it is just hard to find an excuse for this one.

There needs to be a change. Whether that change is outright letting Roberts go, surrounding him with a different bench coach that can bring him down to earth or taking the front office completely out of the managing decisions. There has to be some sort of change.

The difference with this situation, though, is it had no signs of being a front office analytically-driven move. All the analytics point against using Kershaw here. This seems to be Roberts.

I think Roberts offers a lot of value that a lot of fans don’t realize. One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of being a manager is being a good clubhouse leader and gelling well with the guys. Roberts is “one of the guys” and his relationship with the team is the best a manager can have.

However, at a certain point, you have to look at the common denominator. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been different every year the last four years, with the one denominator being manager Dave Roberts.