Ken Rosenthal: Dave Roberts showed ‘incredible discipline’ in ‘effectively conceding postseason games’

Did the National League Championship Series go six games only because the Los Angeles Dodgers let the New York Mets win two games? Fox field reporter Ken Rosenthal didn’t use those exact words but he didn’t exactly stray from that thought, either.

The Dodgers defeated the Mets 10-5 in Sunday night’s game 6, clinching a 4-2 win in the series. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with Los Angeles holding a 7-4 lead, play-by-play man Joe Davis gave the floor to Rosenthal. The field reporter credited Dodgers manager Dave Roberts approach. The approach Rosenthal credited was Roberts having the “incredible discipline” required in Games 2 and 5 (the two Mets wins) to “effectively concede postseason games.”

“It took incredible discipline from Roberts not to chase those victories in Game 2 and Game 5,” Rosenthal said. “And frankly it was not a great look, effectively conceding postseason games. But should they hold on, the end will justify the means. He had to manage this way because he was short-handed. Short-handed with his rotation. Short-handed in his bullpen once they lost Alex Vesia.”

Ken Rosenthal: It took incredible discipline from Roberts not to chase those victories in Game 2 and Game 5.

And frankly it was not a great look, effectively conceding postseason games.

But should they hold on, the end will justify the means.pic.twitter.com/MIdlDOPQX1

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 21, 2024

In fairness, this was not a particularly competitive six-game series. The average margin of victory over the six games was 6.7 runs. That included New York’s two wins, a 7-3 win in Game 2 (the closest game of the series) and a 12-6 win in Game 5. Only twice (Games 4 and 6) was a game tied after 0-0 and only once (Game 6) did the team that scored first fail to win, or even fall behind at any point of the game. In its two losses, Los Angeles trailed 6-0 after two innings (Game 2) and 8-1 after three innings (Game 5).

So, it would not be out of line to credit Roberts for recognizing the situation and opting against stretching out his pitching staff in the two losses. This is particularly true in Game 5, when the Dodgers knew that even with a loss, they’d return to Los Angeles with two chances to win one game for the pennant.

Let’s give Roberts the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s what he meant.

Why couldn’t he say that? This was not an off-the-cuff comment. It was also not a comment made by an inexperienced reporter.

You can credit Roberts’ handling of the pitching staff without saying that he was “effectively conceding postseason games” and praising his “incredible discipline” for doing so. There’s a difference between managing wisely to set your team up better to bounce back from a likely loss and conceding (or “effectively conceding”) two playoff games. One sounds like crediting a skipper for situational awareness. The other essentially says the series went six games because the Dodgers gave two to the Mets.

There simply had to be a better way for Rosenthal to word this.

[Photo Credit: FS1]