Last night’s 4-3 win in Game 2 of the National League Division Series was a wild ride — as wild as a 4-3 game can be. It didn’t need to be that way, but it was, thanks in part to Dave Roberts.
Before you think you know where this is going, you don’t.
Roberts was much maligned for bringing in Blake Treinen to begin the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead. Treinen of the 11.57 ERA in September and a guy who looks nothing like the guy the Dodgers leaned on during their 2024 championship run. And yet, I was perfectly fine with Roberts going to Treinen in that situation.
Emmet Sheehan had thrown two innings of 1-run ball — and looked way better than that would indicate. Roki Sasaki is emerging as a legitimate late-inning option for the Dodgers. Tyler Glasnow was used in relief to help bridge the Sasaki gap in Game 1. One thing in common among them all: they were all starting pitchers during the regular season and for the majority of their careers.
In this 5-game series, the Dodgers have been able to deploy more starters out of the bullpen than normal. If they get to the National League Championship Series and beyond, that strategy is going to change. And part of that change includes trusting relievers. Sure, Clayton Kershaw is down there, but this is his swan song, and he isn’t going out as the starting pitcher we all have adored over the last 18 years.
Ideally, if he was going to use Sasaki, it would have been best to do to start the inning. Not often do you see starting pitchers come into games out of the bullpen mid-inning. Sometimes, the situation dictates that, but it’s definitely uncommon.
At some point, Doc is going to need to be able to trust his relievers — many of whom helped the Dodgers last year when they had 2.5 starting pitchers. That’s why deploying Treinen in this situation made sense.
He was facing the 4-5-6 hitters in the lineup, but they weren’t exactly part of the 1995 Cleveland lineup. It was Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos. All of them have had varying degrees of success in the past, but father time is getting to two of them (Realmuto and Castellanos) and Bohm is wildly inconsistent.
Treinen gave up a single to Bohm to lead off the inning that was slightly above-average MLB exit velocity. The double for Realmuto was legit. Then came Castellanos’ 2-run double.
NICK CASTELLANOS MAKES IT A ONE-RUN GAME IN THE 9TH#NLDS pic.twitter.com/fr4W9uPoLM
— MLB (@MLB) October 7, 2025
I mean…
That ball was out of the zone, it was a half-swing by Castellanos — baseball happened on that pitch. Also, if Tommy Edman just makes the tag, it ends up getting the Dodgers a valuable out. The end result, however, was it still brought the Phillies closer, and Roberts made the correct call to give Treinen the quick hook and go to Alex Vesia.
During the pitching change, the wheel play was discussed and put into play, as the Phillies — for some reason — decided to try to bunt with a runner at second and no outs. While Roberts doesn’t deserve all the credit for that play, the fact that he trusted his players to execute it cannot be overlooked. It’d be equivalent to a quarterback going to the head coach and wanting to try a trick play with the game on the line. Make no mistake, if that play doesn’t end the way it does, the Dodgers almost assuredly lose the lead, if not the game.
Once Vesia got the second out, Roberts made another correct decision to go to Sasaki for Trea Turner. It was a confidence-building moment for the 23-year-old who dealt with his fair share of adversity in his rookie campaign. But the fact Roberts would have been comfortable — perhaps out of necessity — with Sasaki facing like NL MVP runner-up Kyle Schwarber with the game on the line (had Turner not made an out) speaks volumes. And, because it never seems to be easy for the Dodgers, Edman had to make Freddie Freeman come up with the dig of his career to save Game 2.
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So far in these playoffs, Roberts is pushing all the right buttons, even when the result isn’t in the Dodgers’ favor. He stuck with Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell for six innings each, when he easily could have lifted either before recording the 18th out. In the Wild Card Series, he allowed Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto go seven innings. It’s almost like this Dodgers’ playoff pitching staff is a 180 from last year’s. Having healthy starters for October will do that for a manager. Aren’t we glad to have it this way instead of having a few extra wins in May and June?
While things have gone well thus far, if the Dodgers get to the NLCS, adjustments will be necessary. Glasnow will slot into the rotation. That’ll still leave normally starters Sasaki and Sheehan (and Kershaw) in the bullpen, but the short relievers are going to have to show up — unless the Dodgers’ rotation decides to go all 2005 White Sox on us. Treinen, Tanner Scott whatever amalgam of lefties they opt for in Anthony Banda, Jack Dreyer and Justin Wrobleski. With Glasnow moving out, they might need another right-hander, which probably means either Edgardo Henriquez or Kirby Yates.
This is why Roberts and the front office get the big bucks. These are not easy decisions to make, and yet, Roberts has been nearly flawless so far this offseason. I’ll never understand why the fan base wants to fire not only the best manager the Dodgers have ever had, but the best manager in baseball today. It’s wild.
Roberts is still getting better as a manager, and a lot of that has to do with the trust in his players and the comfort level the players have with him. That, coupled with his tactical improvement and, well, the haters better get over it, because Doc isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time.
