Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Explains Decision to Pull River Ryan in Sixth Inning
The Los Angeles Dodgers avoided the sweep against the Houston Astros on Sunday with a 6-2 victory. While the victory was convincing, thanks to some insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings, it was far from a win before the eighth inning.
The Dodgers led most of the game but were in a tough bind when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took out starting rookie pitcher River Ryan after 5.2 innings of work. Ryan had his best outing in his short career, and Roberts made the tough decision to pull them out, and that decision almost bit the Dodgers in the butt.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case; however, fans weren’t happy with the call. After the game, Roberts spoke with the media, including Kirsten Watson of SportsNet L.A. Roberts explained his decision to pull Ryan in the sixth inning of the contest.
“It was good to see him use that four-pitch mix effectively,” Roberts said. “We pushed him. I don’t think he’s gone more than 74 pitches in his professional career. He was in a good spot, and I thought he left it out there. He gave us all he had.”
It was a questionable call to pull Ryan, and it immediately backfired as his replacement out of the bullpen, Alex Vesia, gave up a home run to left center to take the game from 3-0 Dodgers, to 3-2.
It didn’t hurt the Dodgers in the long run, and Ryan was great. He gave up one run on two hits and walked three while also recording a career-high eight strikeouts.
“Unbelievable, it’s something you work for your whole life pitching in the big leagues,” Ryan said about his first win. “Fortunately, I was able to come out with a W today.”
Roberts finished his press conference by saying that Ryan would stick around in the majors for a bit, and how could he not after two incredible starts to begin his major league career?
Photo Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
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Will be watching the dvr of this game. This has to stop. Let the kids pitch into the 7 th or 8th if their pitch count is in the 70’s. I know all three top relievers blew the game on Saturday but When Robert’s pulled are lefty I told my wife this will be a huge mistake. Phillips proceeded to give up 4 runs. Perhaps Hudson and Trienen could have kept us from losing a game we scored six in. The rookie was one out away from keeping the shutout and likely could have pitched the seventh.what a confidence boost since he too only threw 74 pitches. Look nobody goes over 100 anymore but now we’re pulling guys before 90. what in the world is going on. Can anyone besides Honeywell hold down the fort? If we don’t get Flaherty or Skubal no World Series. Credit the starting nine for almost two wins with the other guys out. GO DODGERS!
Pitch count was already 91. He had NEVER BEFORE IN HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER, including the MINORS, gone past 74 pitches in a game. And Ryan himself said after the game that he felt fatigued when Roberts came and took the ball from him. You obviously misread the quote because you seem to think Ryan threw 74 pitches last night; that’s false.
I have total confidence that come October, Hudson, Phillips and Treinen will all be critical to the Dodgers success. But Saturday night it just wasn’t in the cards. Phillips gave up an infield single and two softly hit balls that fell just out of the reach of Dodger fielders. Nobody scorched the ball on him but he gave up 4 hits in a row. That’s baseball in the big leagues.
So watch that DVR of the game all you want, but before you bring out your microscope, please know the facts. River Ryan threw 91 pitches on Sunday. It was time to bring him out. He’s a rookie who rarely pitched 5 innings in the minors. Nobody was pulled with a pitch count in the 70s, either; Wrobleski threw 82 Saturday night. If you want to call Dave Roberts out for something, say he pulled Wrobleski a few pitches too early. Why? Because Roberts was trying to get Evan Phillips into the game in a situation where he could build the man’s confidence up. Noble attempt but it failed.
It’s easy to manage a major league baseball game from the comfort of our homes. But Dave Roberts has to do it in real time with real consequences. It’s not nearly as easy as you obviously think it is.
Absolutely correct and anyone that says other wise only has it in for Roberts and won’t listen to reason anyway. Sometimes Roberts make some questionable decisions. Would you rather have Don Mattingly back?!? Name me a manager in MLB that doesn’t make questionable decisions? Even the might (lol) Craig “iRobot” Counsel makes questionable decisions. And what someone said is true: If Roberts were fired as a vast vocal minority of you think should be the case, he would be rehired by someone else before you quit patting yourselves on the back. Just remember what he has had to work with a few decent pitchers and a bunch of waiver wire pick-ups to just keep the staff numbers up do to all the arm injuries. I doubt he had any say in that…
I’ll take Mattingly. And let another team hire him immediately, as you say. Then fans there can suffer from what we’ve had to endure with his pitching decisions. Sure, Roberts is a nice guy, but perhaps the old saying “Nice guys finish last” applies here.
Never learn.. NEVER.. Roberts is a loser.. and has proven it time and time again.. don’t understand why he is still there.. he makes the poorest decisions constantly…. please dump this man!!
See all the reasonable comments in this thread. Your take has no factual basis except you don’t like Dave Roberts…
Dude, the only World Series Roberts led them to was a short season where he didn’t have to face the hard teams, just their own division and a couple west coast tams. Much is made of winning so many games but what does that get you? No World Series rings. Are the rings the object?
Robert’s pitching decisions are like a bad dream that just keeps coming back. Let these pitchers PITCH, damn it! He destroys more confidence and trust with his pitching staff, especially the kids coming up, and destroys anything that letting them finish an inning (or game) to “protect” them will ever do. Even if Ryan gave up that HR instead of Vesia, it wouldn’t have mattered. It seems taking out these pitchers “to protect their health” by assigning some arbitrary pitch count limit weakens their bodies rather than strengthens them. Just look over the Dodger pitchers on the DL the past several years. Even the SNLA announcers seem to be agreeing these days.
Absolutely agree. Let the kids try and work out of it. I think that constantly throwing 100mph is liable to produce more harm than making a few extra pitches. Don’t think he should have taken Wrobelski out either. Bringing in a reliever did no good there and doubt it could have gotten any worse with Wrobeleski in. This is the same manager who leaves the ‘veterans’ (e.g. . Paxton) in to allow 6-7 runs before finally taking him out to ‘protect the bullpen’ ( and lose the game) Think Roberts has some strengths, but pitching changes is definitely not one of them.
I absolutely agree with Robert’s decision. I yell at the TV all the time trying to get Roberts to hear me to take these rookies out. IMHO, rookies should not be pitching the 6th; even the 5th inning is too much a lot of the time. They are not fully developed, they can hurt themselves, and they haven’t built up the stamina yet. Stone is an exception. You can complain about the game last night, but the previous night Roberts left Wrobleski in too long in the 6th and it cost the game, essentially. These calls can go both ways, i prefer to have a set rule – there can be exceptions but in general, nothing past the 5th for rookies (other than Gavin).
Roberts was wrong to take the kid out, and especially to replace him with Phillips, who has been struggling of late. The kid got into a small amount of trouble, and was working his way out of it. Roberts should have left him alone to see if he could finish the inning. What difference does it make if the rookie blows the game, or the “closer”? I expect Roberts was relying on analytics. There is a place for analytics, but it must not supersede gut reaction. The kid was working his way out of the jam. He had pitched a decent game to that inning. Just imagine the confidence boost in the rookie had he gotten out of the jam, as opposed to feeling the manager didn’t think he could do it.
The Dodgers should have won two of three against the Astros, and should have swept the Tigers before the break. Bad management decisions cost those 5 games. Better decisions and the Dodgers would be atop the league standings!