Dave Roberts loitered on the top step of the dugout, his best-laid plans once again not sticking to the script.
In the eighth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, a season-defining moment had found the Dodgers’ long-time, and often-ridiculed, manager.
Having just told reliever Blake Treinen he had only one more at-bat, Roberts changed course in the moment, letting instinct and intrinsic trust in his team guide a critical October decision.
On the night the Dodgers won the World Series against the New York Yankees, little went as Roberts and the club expected.
Starting pitching Jack Flaherty was knocked out of the game early. An aggressive decision to chase a comeback win by using high-leverage relievers had paid off in a stunning fifth-inning turnaround.
Read more: Complete coverage: Dodgers defeat New York Yankees in 2024 World Series
Now, the Dodgers were ahead, on the cusp of a legacy-cementing title. Four more outs, and all those years of postseason heartbreak suddenly would be overcome.
Roberts had two pitchers throwing in the bullpen, veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson and Game 3 starter Walker Buehler. Roberts knew that Treinen, by then in his third inning of work and one pitch shy of matching his season high, already had surpassed most reasonable workload limits.
Sticking to the plan, though, would have meant taking the ball away from his best reliever in the World Series’ biggest moment. It would have been playing things by the book, in a year the Dodgers successfully improvised at every other step.
“We did go through a lot,” Roberts said of this season. “It wasn’t easy, but our guys fought and played every day the right way.”
So, Roberts banked on the character of his team to prevail once again, staying in the dugout as the club completed its championship ascent.
After a 7-6 defeat of the Yankees on Wednesday, in a victory that clinched the World Series four games to one, the Dodgers struck one common theme in their celebratory postgame comments, comparing the back-and-forth, come-from-behind triumph to the bouts of adversity they’d overcome the previous six months.
“Tonight was basically the epitome of our season,” veteran…