NEW YORK — The Dodgers have been walking a tightrope with their bullpen this postseason, and that strategy has brought them one game closer to winning the World Series, but things didn’t go as planned in Game 4 of the postseason’s latest bullpen game.
“It’s tough,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team’s 11-4 loss to the Yankees.
Rookie Ben Kasparius, the man selected to open Tuesday’s game against the Yankees, allowed just one run in two innings, but he had three walks and a lot of stressed pitches, which led to the loss of the game. It became a theme. Early innings for the Dodgers’ arm.
Roberts then turned to veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson to act as a bridge from Kasparius to bulk guy Landon Knack. Hudson was expected to penetrate the center of the Yankees’ batting lineup without causing much damage. But Hudson didn’t have his best parts, and the bigger problem was that his lack of command meant that batters quickly found themselves in favorable counts and were in trouble.
Hudson started the third inning behind a count against Juan Soto, and after striking out Soto with one out in the first, things started to spiral. The Dodgers right-hander allowed the next three batters to get on base, giving up a drill to Aaron Judge, a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr., and a walk to Giancarlo Stanton.
“Obviously, I kind of messed up myself a little bit in the third,” Hudson said after the game. “I threw some good pitches to Juan to start the inning, and it kind of got away from me.”
Hudson almost found his way out of the traffic jam. He induced a pop-out from Anthony Rizzo to get the crucial two outs and put shortstop Anthony Volpe at the plate.
With the first pitch he saw, the 23-year-old Volpe electrified the Yankee Stadium crowd, looking for something to cheer, and hit a slider into the left-field seats for a grand slam, giving the Bronx Bombers a 5-2 lead. gave the lead. That should prove to be enough to force a Game 5 on Wednesday.
“I threw a really bad slider,” Hudson said after the game. “It kind of flies out of your hand, and you just get that instant ‘oh no’ feeling in your stomach.”
Roberts said: “He had a 1-2 lead over Stanton and couldn’t pull him away. Then he got a pop-up and got out with one out to go, leaving Volpe with the arm side of a slider. It That was the difference that time.”
Los Angeles’ offense took an early lead on Freddie Freeman’s home run, and even after the grand slam, they had a chance to come back this time, starting with Will Smith’s solo home run in the fifth inning to make it 5-3. However, the Dodgers were unable to put together a big inning against the Yankees’ bullpen, and the Yankees’ bullpen did not allow a run until the fifth inning. Other than the two big flies, the Dodgers offense mustered only four more hits on the night.
Shohei Ohtani, who started with a shoulder injury, appeared to be slightly hampered at the plate, but still hit a 162 mph flyout and a 163.8 mph single in two of his four at-bats.
“We’ve asked him a lot and it hasn’t been a deterrent,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s shoulder. “He’s not feeling it.”
The Yankees gained momentum late in the game, adding one run from Knack in the sixth inning and five from catcher Brent Honeywell in the eighth, opening Game 4 with New York’s biggest offensive outburst in series history. Ta.
“I don’t think anyone expected those guys to lie down,” Roberts said later. “…Unfortunately, those guys talked back. It was a good ballgame until it wasn’t.”
Mr. Casparius added: “Obviously we want to cherish every day. It would have been great to win today, but that’s baseball.”
The Dodgers’ only silver lining from their Game 4 loss was that Knack worked a good portion of the inning and did his job of keeping the Dodgers in the game before things got too late. The right-hander had his best performance of the postseason, recording 12 outs and one run allowed. As a result, Roberts will be able to distance himself from his entire high-leverage reliever lineup, especially Alex Bashear, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen, all of whom will be available for rest on Wednesday.
“I was really trying to move forward as much as I could,” Knack said. “We’re just trying to mix it up really well. Last time (against the Mets) we just tried to go with two pitches and got in a pinch. Today we really tried to get everything going. The mindset after that really influenced us. I was just trying to stay in the game.”
The Dodgers will send Jack Flaherty to the mound for Game 5 and face Gerrit Cole in a rematch of Game 1. Backed by L.A.’s best relievers, Flaherty will be the Dodgers’ series closer and will try to prevent this fall classic from returning to Los Angeles.
“At the end of the day, we’re still in a pretty good position,” Roberts said. “And we feel good. We’ll be ready to go (Wednesday).”
