Dave Roberts’ Savvy Strategy Pays Off
If you are a regular listener to the Effectively Wild podcast, or if you are a fan of college baseball, you know there is one strategy that is available to major league managers, but that is rarely utilized.
There are multiple (potential) reasons this strategy is avoided: To avoid embarrassment; to give pitchers “clean” batters”; because it might be viewed as “bush”; or, more likely, because no one else does it.
So what is this unsung tactic, this trick of the trade that is shunned in the big leagues? That would be the mid-batter pitching change. Ask yourself the last time you saw one (absent an injury).
And yet, Dave Roberts, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, used it to brilliant effect a few weeks ago in a game against the rival Diamondbacks. Here is the scenario:
Top of the 7th inning, and the Dodgers already trail 8-4. If the club has any chance of coming back in their final three at bats, they need to keep the D’Backs at bay.
Unfortunately, Yohan Ramírez walked Eugenio Suárez to start the inning. He then allowed a single to Gabriel Moreno. After a pop-out, left-handed hitting Corbin Carroll came to the plate. Ramírez got ahead of Carroll 1-2, and then threw a sweeper to the backstop, pushing the count to 2-2 and sending the runners to second and third, still with only one out. Carroll had seen six pitches and fouled off three of them. Dave Roberts had seen enough.
With a 2-2 count and rights against a lefty, Roberts could have chosen to walk Carroll to load the bases, and kept his right-handed pitcher in to face the right-handed Ketel Marte who was waiting in the on deck circle. Rather than do that, Roberts surveyed the chess board and elected to bring in left-handed Anthony Banda.
The gambit worked. After seeing so many pitches from the righty, Banda struck out Carroll with his first pitch – an 85 MPH slider in the dirt. Banda then intentionally walked the right-handed Marte to load the bases for the left-hand hitting Joc Pederson. But the Diamondbacks have a savvy manager of their own, so Torey Lovullo countered by pinch-hitting with the right-handed Randal Grichuk. Because Banda had only faced two batters, he was required to remain in the game. Banda induced Grichuk to ground out to third to end the inning, leaving the bases loaded and the score at 8-4.
Now, in the end, all of these machinations were for naught, as Arizona tacked on four additional runs in the eighth and ninth innings, and won the game 12-4. But the final score is of little significance to the in-game brilliance and moxie of Dave Roberts. Oft-criticized for his game management, Roberts had a perfect handle on the rhythm of the game and the strengths of his personnel. He understood the situation and the significance of the timing, and didn’t hesitate to try something unorthodox to help his team win.
After the game, Lovullo was asked about the move. He acknowledged that he had never seen it before, but said he might consider using it in the future. College coaches have been doing it for ages. Ben Lindbergh of Effectively Wild has been clamoring for it for years. And Dave Roberts finally introduced it at the highest level. Whether others will join in is anyone’s guess. But, now that the Dodgers have broken the seal, there is a non-zero chance that this is not the last time you see a pitcher walking off the mound while a batter remains standing in the batter’s box.
PLAY BALL!!
