Dodgers’ latest bullpen play backfires, but team’s best relief arms are ready for Game 5 (video)

NEW YORK – The Dodgers have been walking a tightrope with their bullpen this postseason, and while that strategy won them the World Series within one game, things didn’t go their way in their final postseason bullpen game in Game 4.

“It’s a challenge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team 11-4 loss to the Yankees.

Rookie Ben Casparius was the man picked as the team’s leadoff player against the Yankees on Tuesday, and while he allowed just one run in his two innings, his three walks made for a lot of stressful pitches, which proved to be the theme of the competition. early innings for the Dodgers’ poor.

Roberts then turned to veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson to bridge Casparius to bulk man Landon Knack. The hope was that Hudson would get through the heart of the Yankees’ lineup without major damage. However, Hudson didn’t have his best attributes, and the even bigger problem was that his lack of command quickly put hitters in favorable numbers, leaving him in trouble.

Hudson started the third inning trailing in the count against Juan Soto, and after striking out Soto for the first out of the inning, things started to spiral. The Dodgers righthander got the next three batters to reach base, allowing Aaron Judge to single and surrendering a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and walked Giancarlo Staton.

“It was obviously a bit of a self-made mess for me in the third,” Hudson said afterward. “I threw some good pitches to Juan to start the inning, but then it got away from me.”

Hudson almost found his way out of the traffic jam. He popped out Anthony Rizzo for a crucial second out, bringing in shortstop Anthony Volpe.

On the first pitch he saw, the 23-year-old Volpe got the Yankee Stadium crowd moving, looking for something to cheer about. He crushed a slider into the left field seats for a grand slam to give the Bronx Bombers a 5-2 lead that would prove to be enough to force Wednesday game 5.

“I just threw a really bad slider,” Hudson said after the game. “Just one of those things that just jumps out of your hand and (you) immediately have an ‘Oh, no’ feeling in your stomach.”

Roberts said: “He had Stanton 1-2 and just couldn’t put him away. Then he gets a pop-up, and he’s one away from getting out, leaving a slide arm to Volpe. That was the difference in that inning.”

LA’s offense had taken an early lead another home run from Freddie Freeman and even after the grand slam, he had chances to get back into it, starting with a Will Smith solo homer that made it 5-3 in the fifth. But the Dodgers were unable to put together a big inning against the Yankees’ bullpen, which didn’t surrender a run over five innings. Outside of the two big flies, the Dodgers’ offense yielded only four other hits that night.

Shohei Ohtani, still opening with his injured shoulder, seemed somewhat hampered in his at-bats, but shot a 100-mph catch and a 105-mph single in two of his four at-bats. The other two at bats resulted in a pop-up and a strikeout.

“We’ve asked him many times, and it doesn’t bother him,” Roberts said over Ohtani’s shoulder. “He doesn’t feel it.”

The Yankees got things going late in the game, scoring one run in the sixth inning off Knack and five more off mop-up man Brent Honeywell in the eighth, breaking open Game 4 with by far New York’s biggest offensive outburst of the series.

“I don’t think anyone expected those guys to lay down,” Roberts said afterward. “…Those guys, unfortunately, answered back. It was a good ball game until it wasn’t.”

Casparius added: “It is clear that we want to take care of every day. A win today would have been great. But that’s baseball.”

The only silver lining of the Dodgers’ loss in Game 4 was Knack’s job of eating up some of the innings, keeping the Dodgers in the game before it became too late. The right-hander delivered 12 putouts with one run allowed in his best outing of the postseason. As a result, Roberts was able to stay away from all of his heavily indebted relievers, specifically Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen, all of whom will be rested and available on Wednesday.

“I was really just trying to move forward as much as I could,” Knack said. “I actually just try to mix well. The last time (against the Mets) I got in trouble trying to go with two pitches. Today I really tried to get everything going. The mentality after that was really just to keep us in the game.”

The Dodgers now send Jack Flaherty to the mound for Game 5, where he will face Gerrit Cole in a Game 1 rematch. Flaherty, backed by LA’s top backup arms, will look to bring the series closer for the Dodgers and prevent this fall classic from returning to Los Angeles.

“At the end of the day, we’re still in a pretty good place,” Roberts said. “And we feel good. We are ready to go (Wednesday).”