Dave Roberts Will Frustrate Dodgers Fans With His Thoughts on Bullpen

As Freddie Freeman said following Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Cubs, when the pitching is good, the bats are bad and when the bats are good the pitching is bad. Or at least it was something like that. The Dodgers lost another game on Monday, falling to 8-9 and below .500 for the first since the first few games of the 2022 season. The offense put 6 runs on the board, which should be good enough to win a game with Dustin May on the mound.

Freddie Freeman, Austin Wynns, and Max Muncy actually combined to give May (technically Alex Vesia) and the team a lead 6-5 in the sixth inning.

Then the bullpen happened.

After escaping a jam in the top of the sixth inning, Dave Roberts opted to leave the lefty Vesia in to start the seventh inning. In the blink of an eye, the bases were full of Mets and there were no outs. Doc turned to Phil Bickford who immediately balked in the tying run.

Bickford allowed two more runs on a groundout and a single to put the Mets ahead 8-6.

After the game, Roberts was asked about the bullpen where he dropped this gem that is sure to please each and every Dodger fan.

“These are our guys. They have track records and we have to keep running them out. But we’ve gotta perform.”

Fun. And a great Dave-ish. Oh, and perform they have not. Through 17 games now, the bullpen has a 4.97 ERA, sixth worst in baseball and seemingly is stuck in a pattern of one step forward, two steps back in the early going.

A big difference this year from last is that Dave’s number one fireman, Evan Phillips, is now the unofficial closer. Roberts was pressed about his decision to go with Bickford over Phillips. He was technically asked if these struggles were the byproduct of not having Phillips available for those big moments while he’s being saved for the ninth inning of games. He mostly dodged answering that.

“I think there’s always going to be a spot every night for a guy like Evan, and you can’t fire that bullet every night. Vesia to go back out there to get the 9 hitter and to get [Brandon Nimmo], I don’t expect three straight hits, to be quite honest.”

“You have to understand the rhythm of the game too. If I knew that it was going to be bases loaded and Evan was ready. But I’m not going into that inning expecting bases loaded and nobody out either. So I felt good with Alex going right there and taking down one or two outs potentially with three hitters, and having Phil behind him, but that just wasn’t the case.”

Via SportsNet LA

It’s still early enough in the season but things are feeling exceptionally jumbled up and down the roster.