Dave Roberts Used ‘Best’ Available Relievers In Loss To Diamondbacks

The Los Angeles Dodgers fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the middle game of their three-game set, losing 4-3 in the tenth inning.

A solid start from rookie Landon Knack provided the Dodgers with an opportunity to win the game, however, his start was shortened after a bee delay pushed back Tuesday’s start time.

This forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to limit the right-hander to five innings, even though his pitch count was in a manageable spot.

Another factor was their limited bullpen due to recent usage. Michael Grove, Joe Kelly, and Daniel Hudson were used prior to the ninth inning, while Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia were both unavailable.

That left Nabil Crismatt to attempt a two-inning patchwork job. Crismatt worked a clean ninth, but surrendered a walk-off home run to Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker in the 10th.

Roberts explained that the lack of arms was the perfect storm of misfortune, which led to the loss, per Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:

“You’ve got to look at the roster and look at who you have available that particular night and go with the best you can,” Roberts explained. “Early on, I wanted to use Hudson in the meat of the order and Cris was going to close the game. That’s just where we were at. So he threw up a zero that first inning (the ninth) and unfortunately we couldn’t tack on more than one in that 10th.

“It’s one of those things that, every team is in that same situation. We’re on the back end of nine (games) in a row, and when you win a lot of games, you use your leverage guys and that’s part of it. You’ve got to figure out ways to navigate.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen has found a strong run of consistent play in recent games, working their way into a middle-of-the-pack unit among MLB teams.

One worry is how Kelly will come away from Tuesday’s contest, after tweaking something in his lower half. He was able to finish his inning, but Roberts did explain the right-hander would likely be down for the series finale.

With the recent loss of Ryan Brasier to the 15-day injured list, the Dodgers are going to need another reliever to step up in high-leverage roles.

Where does the Dodgers’ bullpen rank?

Fortunately for the Dodgers, their bullpen has a few things going for themselves. Their 3.05 walks per nine ranks sixth, 3.66 ERA (11th), 1.12 WHIP (6th) and .211 batting average allowed (8th), all have them in decent position to trend in the right direction.

The ugly, unfortunately, is the overall innings they’ve amassed. Their 132.2 innings is the most in the league, which raises some concern at their long-term outlook.