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SAN FRANCISCO – Almost always positive and upbeat, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was not after Game 1 of this National League division series. As everyone raves about the dominance of San Francisco starter Logan Webb, Roberts gets angry. He wasn’t so bothered by the results as he was by what he considered to be the unruly approach of his hitters.
“To be completely honest, we haven’t made any adjustments,” complained Roberts.
He added: “We just hunted a lot more than we should have. If you don’t make any adjustments, they’ll keep going to the well.
It’s easier said than done, of course, against a top pitcher like the Giants. But in the second inning of Game 2, things started to turn for the Dodgers. By the time they poured it out in the final innings of an evening 9-2 triumph, they had plenty of reasons to feel good about coming home for Game 3 with Max Scherzer on the mound. .
“It’s interesting how the narrative changes from game to game,” said much more shredder Roberts late Saturday night, before continuing: “It’s a three game series, we have the advantage. off the ground and we’ve got Max on the mound, so I like where we’re at.
The Dodgers’ game plan against Giants ace Kevin Gausman was deceptively simple: don’t chase throws outside the strike zone and don’t bite the right-hander’s split finger fastball if it dives low towards Earth. Gausman threw the splitter 35.4 percent of the time this summer, just behind his four-seam fastball, which he threw 52.7 percent of the time.
The Dodgers started in the second inning with help from a surprising place in the lineup. After Chris Taylor doubled up, the struggling Cody Bellinger called one of Gausman’s dividers down for the third strike. Gausman fell behind with a 2-0 count over AJ Pollock, the Dodgers’ eighth hitter, and with two outs and Taylor within scoring range, Giants manager Gabe Kapler ordered an intentional march, favoring a Gausman clash. against pitcher Julio Urias.
But on a 1-1 count, Gausman, who had kept his rivals at a 0.154 batting average with runners in goal position this season, left a fastball in the zone and Urias, a career 0.190 hitter. , scored him for a single RBI to right field.
“It might be a bad analogy, but it’s kind of like Steph Curry sees one come in,” Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts said of that first run for the Dodgers. “We just needed to see one cross the plate.”
The Dodgers, who were shutout in Game 1, scored four more runs in Saturday’s sixth inning, ambushing reliever Dominic Leone on back-to-back shots with two-run doubles from Bellinger and Pollock.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers swept aside hopes of a Giants return with two sensational defensive plays: Trea Turner dove to smother a Wilmer Flores ground ball behind second base and returned it to Corey Seager to force Buster Posey in the bag. A hitter later Brandon Crawford hit a right single and Flores made the wrong decision to try to move from first to third, only to get cleared by Betts laser throw from deep right field.
The Giants and Dodgers hadn’t played a playoff game since 1889 – a year before the Dodgers joined the National League – and both teams appear to be looking to make up for lost time in terms of heroism.
“It reminds me a bit of the Red Sox and the Yankees,” said Betts, the former Boston outfielder. “It’s a bit like that, but only in the National League. And it’s a great rivalry to be a part of it and I’m just grateful to be a part of it.
As for Roberts’ statement about changing the narrative from game to game, Pollock thinks that’s pretty straightforward math.
“When you do nine runs, obviously everyone will feel that your approach was right,” he said. “And when you put zero, no one is going to like it.”
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