The Dodgers did not take their best shot at winning. The baseball gods hate that.
If neither the Dodgers nor the New York Mets sweep the next three games, the National League Championship Series will return to Dodger Stadium, and the Dodgers might just run another bullpen game. Their season could be on the line that day, and they will need to make better decisions than they did on Monday.
In a short series, every game matters. On Monday, the Dodgers made decisions that were more about winning the series and less about winning the game. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it does not. If not, the winter will be long and bitter.
First things first: This is not just me saying the Dodgers did not take their best shot at winning.
Read more: Plaschke: Mets deliver nasty surprise to any hopes of Dodgers cruising through NLCS
“This isn’t a winner-take-all game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game.
The NLCS is tied at one game apiece. The Dodgers have their only three starting pitchers lined up for the three games in New York: Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty.
That left Monday’s game as a bullpen game. The Dodgers opted to start Ryan Brasier, the reliever that started the Dodgers’ last bullpen game in San Diego.
Brasier worked the first inning, giving up one run.
The Dodgers had 10 relievers on the roster Monday. With Brasier starting and Alex Vesia injured, the most trusted relievers remaining were Anthony Banda, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen.
In the first inning, Banda was warming up behind Brasier.
In the second inning, once the Dodgers decided Brasier was done, they turned to rookie Landon Knack.
The Dodgers, remember, are running a bullpen game because they were not comfortable with Knack starting a postseason game.
So, in a one-run game, the first guy out of the bullpen should not have been Knack.
Knack gave up five runs, including a grand slam, and none of the trusted relievers rescued him. The Dodgers were down, 6-0, en route to a 7-3 defeat.
But, as they say in baseball, this is not about the results. This…