Dodgers News: Why Dave Roberts Let Tyler Anderson Go After the No-Hitter

Hats off to Tyler Anderson, what a start for the southpaw on Wednesday night. The Dodgers hurler spun 8.1 hitless innings against Anaheim and nearly completed the no-hitter. But Shohei Ohtani had different ideas, lacing a triple down the rightfield line to break it up late.

That came on the 123rd pitch of the game for Anderson, by far a career-high for him. But he was also at 117 pitches after 8 innings. The biggest shock of the night for Dodgers fans was that Dave Roberts even allowed him to go back out. After all, Doc has a reputation of protecting his guys.

And Doc knows that he has earned that reputation with Dodgers fans. He spoke about it after the game when talking about why he opted to keep Anderson in the game and give him a chance to complete the no-no.

“I know I’ve got this reputation as a grim reaper, but I’m a sports fan too. I wanted that just as much as Tyler and his teammates wanted it tonight.”

Anderson started the 8th inning with a leadoff walk, battling back and punching out Taylor Ward on pitch number 117. That was the point that the Dodgers skipper decided he was going to give him the chance to finish what he started.

“Once he got through there, at a certain point he knew he had to come out and throw strikes, not walk guys/ They were either going to get a hit or it was going to end pretty quickly. How we got there, there wasn’t much cost. I know his teammates wanted it. I know the fans wanted it. When I look objectively at the short, the long-term, it made sense.”

He came so close to getting it done. Unfortuantely, it just wasn’t in the cards for TA on Wednesday night. But the Dodgers southpaw won his 8th game of the season, the second LA starter to reach that mark this year after Tony Gonsolin did it on Tuesday night. 

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