Dodgers: Dave Roberts Calls Sunday the Biggest Win of the Year
The Dodgers desperately needed a win on Sunday afternoon. Facing the potential of losing 5 consecutive games, they sent out Michael Grove to make his big league debut. But the first 2 innings offered no sign of hope that they were about to break their losing streak.
After Grove allowed a single and walk, a groundball to Gavin Lux went through his legs to open the door. The Phillies would end up putting up 4 unearned runs in the inning and taking a quick lead. The Dodgers would put up a pair of runs over the next 2 innings thanks to a Mookie Betts homer and Max Muncy single.
But the good news is that the Dodgers bullpen did their job. Phil Bickford, Alex Vesia, Yency Almonte, and Shane Greene combined for 5.1 scoreless innings behind Grove. That led to a walk-off double off the bat of Gavin Lux in the 9th inning. After the win, Dave Roberts called it their biggest win of the year.
“It’s huge. I don’t want to say it’s the biggest win of the year. It’s a small sample. But right now this is a big one. To lose five in a row and potentially six or whatever it was, to go into this Arizona series – guys are feeling pretty good right now. We’ve just got to get back to playing our type of baseball – not giving outs away, not giving away bases, not walking guys and taking an extra base, taking good at-bats. When we do that, we’re as good as anyone.”
But that moment sort of overshadowed two big plays prior to that. Cody Bellinger tripled into the right-field corner and Chris Taylor followed that up with a walk. Both of those came with two outs in the inning before Lux walked it off for the Dodgers.
But the fact remains that the Dodgers do need to do a better job of stepping on the gas early. An error like that in the second inning can really take the energy out of a dugout, and it certainly appeared that way. Up next, the team will welcome the Diamondbacks into Los Angeles tonight.
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Gavin Lux should be the DH. Let the others work instead of getting off days.
Bring up a double A or triple A 2nd baseman who can field routine plays. Fire whichever coach is responsible for working with infielders, and get someone else.
Typical Roberts! We are NOT even 2 months in to the season and Roberts likes to spout off and say this.
Lasorda would have been more realistic and say something to the effect of, ” Lux got lucky. We should have won the whole damn series as it was against friggin’ Philadelphia.”