Dodgers: Dave Roberts’ Game 5 pitching strategy immediately backfires

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to start Game 5 with relief pitcher Joe Kelly, opening the game with a significant disadvantage for L.A.

One wrong decision can cost a team the series — just ask Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa.

While the White Sox have the playoffs firmly behind them, the Dodgers still had a chance of surviving the Championship Series if they made the right choices in Game 5.

Starting the game with Joe Kelly was not one of them.

With Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw out, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was left with few options as Game 5 became a bullpen game for the Dodgers. Relying on their relief, Roberts turned to Kelly to deliver Los Angeles through at least the first inning.

But that plan failed miserably, as the 33-year-old Kelly only lasted .2 innings.

Kelly did have an early exit due to an injury, but not before he gave up two hits and two runs to put the Dodgers in an 0-2 hole in the top of the first inning.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts makes fatal mistake in starting Joe Kelly in bullpen game

Without Scherzer or Kershaw delivering the Dodgers through the game, Roberts needed Kelly to be the opener, or the pitcher who scores the first few outs of the game.

Oddly enough, no one expected that to be Kelly. Instead, Corey Knebel was considered a strong option to open the game for the Dodgers. After all, he did it earlier in the playoffs in Game 5 of the NLDS. In a pinch,

here’s how the Dodgers

have been managing their bullpen in such difficult situations.

“In Game 5 of the Division Series, they had Corey Knebel “open” before handing the reins to Julio Urías, who delivered four innings as the “bulk” pitcher. Then, in the first game of the NLCS, the Dodgers had Knebel “open” as part of a Johnny Wholestaff approach: none of the eight pitchers manager Dave Roberts called upon that night recorded as many as six outs on their own.”

The Kelly decision isn’t going over so well with baseball fans. FanSided’s Climbing Tal’s Hill even joked that Kelly faked the injury to help the Dodgers delay the brutal inning.

Meanwhile, the Braves have one of the best young starters in baseball with Max Fried, who helped in shutting out the Dodgers in the first inning. Kelly’s replacement, Evan Phillips, has already recorded two strikeouts.

Since Dodgers fans’ complain about how Roberts often over-manages, tonight’s decision to start a relief pitcher who fails miserably, then proceeds to get injured, is a pretty classic case of it.