Dodgers Lack Of Situational Hitting Cost Them In The Playoffs

Max Muncy, and the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers, continually failed to get runners over and/or in this post-season. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

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They were old, they were tired, they were outplayed, they were outmanaged. The foregoing represents a sampling of answers to the question of why the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dynasty seemingly ended when the Milwaukee Brewers swept them to win the National League pennant.

All of the above are true. At 30.8 years of age, the Dodgers sported the oldest roster in the game. Los Angeles has played 350 games in four countries, over the past two years. Pat Murphy pulled all the right levers, and Dave Roberts did not.

But one of the main culprits has been the Dodgers’ Achilles’ heel for many years – situational hitting. Some of the stats belie this idea. For instance, Los Angeles hit .262 with runners in scoring position this season (see all the way at the bottom), which was seventh in all of MLB. And their rate of “productive outs”* was 28%, when league average was just 28.7%. Los Angeles scored a league-average 51.2% of runners from third base with less than two outs. And they were above the league average of 52.2% with regard to advancing a runner from second with no outs (53.5%).

*Productive outs are advancing a runner with none out or driving in a runner with the second out of an inning.

But if you watch the Dodgers day-to-day, and if you watched them in the playoffs, you know what you saw, and you know that numbers lie. For instance, you know that the Dodgers had the 8th fewest sacrifice attempts all season (just 27, while the Tampa Rays, who are about to play in the World Series, had 82). When asked in his press conference following Game 3 of the NLCS about his failure to bunt the leadoff baserunner over with Tommy Edman at the plate both times, Roberts said he wanted to play for the big inning.

Maybe Roberts didn’t trust Edman insofar as he attempted a sacrifice bunt in Game 2 of the Division Series and popped it up. Maybe it was just bad timing, as Will Smith came to the plate with two on and no outs in the fifth inning of that same game, and flew out to right (Smith has never bunted in his eight-year career).

But it isn’t just the managerial decisions. As with Edman’s inability to get the bunt down, it is the players’ failure to execute when the lights are the brightest. To wit:

Trailing 1-0 in the second inning of Game 4 of the Division Series, Shohei Ohtani led off with a walk, stole second, and went to third when catcher Sean Murphy threw the ball into left field, all while Teoscar Hernández struck out. With one out, slugger Max Muncy came to the plate just needing to pull a ground ball or hit a fly ball, and the game would have been tied. Instead, he hit a pop up less than 200-feet to short. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Mauricio Dubón dropped the ball, allowing Ohtani to score the tying run.

In Game 1 of the NLCS, Muncy struck again. At the plate in a 0-0 game with Ohtani on second and Hernández on first with no outs, Muncy struck out. Pages followed with an RBI single, and then Kyle Tucker walked to load the bases with one out. Kiké Hernández came to the plate needing to loft a fly ball to extend the lead. Instead, he grounded into an inning-ending double-play. That would be the Dodgers’ lone run in their eventual 2-1 loss.

Move ahead to Game 3, which was essentially a “must win” after losing the first two in Milwaukee. Los Angeles found themselves down 1-0 in the sixth inning, when Teoscar Hernández and Tucker led off with walks. And that man, Muncy, again came to the plate and again struck out. After an Ohtani walk loaded the bases, Smith doubled two home to give the Dodgers the lead. But with runners on second and third and one out, Kiké Hernández and Edman both struck out, ending the threat. Those would be the only two runs the two-time defending champs would score in their 6-2 loss.

Game 4 was a most perfect ending to this era of Dodgers baseball. Down 0-3 with their backs against the wall, Los Angeles got two runners on with one out in the first and chance to set the tone. Rather, Smith grounded into an inning-ending double-play.

In the second, Tucker and Teoscar Hernández both singled. Rather than keeping Miguel Rojas in the game for a sacrifice attempt, Roberts called on Muncy off the bench, who promptly struck out. The inning worked out okay, as Pages singled home a run and Ohtani hit a massive three-run homer to stake the Dodgers to a 4-0 lead.

In the home half of the sixth, trailing 5-4, Muncy again struck out; this time with a runner on third and two outs.

The next inning, things were going according to plan. Still chasing a run, Pages led off with a double and Kiké Hernández bunted him to third (maybe Roberts learned his lesson from Game 3). Dodger Stadium was rocking at Ohtani came to the plate. Three pitches later he had struck out. And when Betts grounded out to short, the tying run was left on third yet again.

In the eighth, Smith hit a double down the right field line with one out. Sal Frelick misplayed it, allowing Smith to move to third. Up came Tucker – the highest paid player in baseball this season at $60 million. A fly ball would even the score and keep the Dodgers’ hopes alive for at least another inning. On the second pitch he saw, Tucker hit a ball 217-feet to short center field that Garrett Mitchell sprinted into to catch, running the ball all the way back to the infield to keep Smith standing on third. Teoscar Hernández struck out, leaving the tying run on third base for the third inning in a row, which effectively ended the season and the dynasty.

It is accurate to say that the Dodgers need to get younger and quicker. But it is even more accurate to say that the Dodgers need to get better – better at doing the small things that flip innings, flip games, flip series. They need to move runners up 90-feet; they need to score runners from third with less than two outs; and they need to do all of these things in the post-season, when runs are at a premium, and games are decided by the slimmest of margins*. And if they want to learn how, they should simply tune in to the World Series that starts Friday night, as both the Rays and the Brewers are experts at playing that way.

*Los Angeles hit .116 with runners in scoring position this post-season. Milwaukee (so far) is hitting .284.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.