Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Dave Roberts' obsession (or perhaps Andrew Friedman's obsession) with the lefty-righty matchups is infuriating sometimes.
I've always been a believer that you don't bench the hot hitter, regardless of the throwing hand of the opposing starting pitcher.
Tonight, BOTH Joc Pederson (10 HR, 1.082 OPS) and Alex Verdugo (.346 BA, 1.035 OPS) were sat, in favor of Chris Taylor (.161 BA, .504 OPS).
If any outfielder needed to sit, it was AJ Pollock, who was batting .190 in the past 3 weeks.
In addition, David Freese, who seemingly bats 1.000 off the bench and .000 as a starter, was put at 1B instead of Max Muncy. Freese was also batted 3rd or 4th (I forget which), and once again went 0-fer.
In addition, Cody Bellinger, the one guy who has outhit Christian Yelich this season, was placed in the 6 hole. He's hitting .418, 11 HR, is even walking and rarely striking out, and he's 6th?
Why? Because a lefty is on the mound?
Bellinger went 2-for-3 with a HR, by the way. And walked.
To put the cherry on top, they put in Joe Kelly when down 3, who gave up a run. Dodgers plated 3 on a Verdugo HR (who came in as a pinch hitter), and that run given up by Kelly ended up being the difference. Kelly had a 9.90 ERA coming into this game. Maybe just use him for trash time at this point, until he gets right?
Such a tilting game.
Congrats, big dick.