In one of the greatest World Series games in Major League Baseball history, the Los Angeles Dodgers almost had to rely on a position player to pitch.
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Manager Dave Roberts revealed on Tuesday that infielder Miguel Rojas was the emergency pitcher as the game went on, and if Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn’t able to pitch, Rojas would have taken over in the 19th.
“If Yamamoto couldn’t have taken the ball in the 19th, it was probably going to be Miguel Rojas,” Roberts said. “It was either Yamamoto or Miguel Rojas in a World Series game.”
Yes, that’s the same Miguel Rojas who is a 12-year veteran infielder. The same one who has eight career pitching appearances, sporting a 9.00 ERA and allowing opponents to hit .366 with an OPS of 1.142. However, if Yamamoto hadn’t offered to pitch once the game entered the later extra inning, it would’ve been Rojas.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, they didn’t have to rely on Yamamoto or Rojas, as Will Klein — the last man in the Dodgers bullpen — pitched four shutout innings from the 15th through the 18th before Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run to mercifully end the game.
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All in all, the Dodgers used 10 pitchers and had to get a whopping 13.1 innings from their bullpen. Here’s how the entire pitching box score looked for LA:
- Tyler Glasnow: 4.2 IP
- Anthony Banda: 0.1 IP
- Justin Wrobleski: 1.2 IP
- Blake Treinen: 0.1 IP
- Jack Dreyer: 0.1 IP
- Roki Sasaki: 1.2 IP
- Emmet Sheehan: 2.2 IP
- Clayton Kershaw: 0.1 IP
- Edgardo Henriquez: 2.0 IP
- Will Klein: 4.0 IP
Game 4 is on Tuesday night, while Game 5 is on Wednesday night. The Dodgers will hope their relievers can bounce back quickly — or else Rojas may have to start loosening his arm.
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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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One Response
WILL KLEIN WAS THE HERO OF THE GAME. Yeah, Freddie Freeman hit the big homerun as he has done many other times and Dodger fans are grateful for him doing that. And you Too Shohei and Teoscar, But Will Klein stepped into the breech and pitched like a seasoned pro and just kept going until he didn’t have to anymore. John Smoltz on the FOX national broadcast said it best: “If I were the Dodgers I would offer Will Klein a 4 year contract right now on the basis of what he just did..”. He threw almost 70 pitches and 48 of them were strikes. WOW. HATS OFF TO YOU, WILL KLEIN. You stepped up and put out and WE THANK YOU FOR IT AND AS THE DODGER DAWG OF THE GAME!