Dodgers miss mark in Game 2 loss to Mets, but it could have been worse

LOS ANGELES — Imagine if you told Dave Roberts before Game 2 of the National League Championship Series that his Dodgers were going to lose to the New York Mets on Monday afternoon, but he could pick how. Which way do you think the manager would have preferred to go?

A) Via a viral Grimace Milkshake Accident, circa TikTok 2023.

B) By dugout snakebite.

C) In a nail-biter that exhausted and exposed his best bullpen arms.

D) By a wide enough margin – 7-3, if we’re being specific – that let him rest and hide his best bullpen arms to pitch another day.

I know, I know. Where’s E, none of the above? This is the playoffs. You’re supposed to do everything you can to avoid losing. You’re supposed to go with what works. So if you’re going to tee up a bullpen game, let it be one resembling the masterpiece the Dodgers’ relievers painted in Game 4 of the NL Division Series, when eight pitchers combined to allow just seven hits, two walks, and strike out eight hitters to force Game 5 in the NLDS.

You’re not supposed to get cute or experiment or mess around or send rookie right-hander Landon Knack to the mound, down 1-0 in the second inning, with the assignment “to take down most of the outs today.”

Even if you’re short-handed, or more short-handed, having just added standout reliever Alex Vesia (he suffered an intercostal injury in Game 5 of the NLDS) to the crowded shelf of hurt Dodgers pitchers, you really shouldn’t bestow such a big role on someone who isn’t ready for it.

But once you have, once Knack came in and gave up a single, a walk and a double in the first four batters he faced before serving up a grand slam to Mark Vientos, once the damage was done and the Dodgers were trailing 6-0 in the second inning, then you’ve got more choices to make.

Roberts could have exacerbated his initial managing error, made his blunder exponentially worse.

He didn’t. He managed responsibly, exercised discipline. Avoided the temptation to chase a win even when the Dodgers closed the gap to 6-3 in the sixth inning, knowing that this pitchers could neither erase the Mets’ runs nor produce any of their own.

With a Game 1 win in the bank already in this seven-game bi-coastal series, Roberts avoided trotting out all of his best relievers. He kept Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen out of the fray. Didn’t waste them while the offense tried and failed to play catchup.

Roberts leaned instead on the rookies, including Knack, who gave up all five runs in the first of the two innings he lasted. And Brent Honeywell, the turtleneck-rocking right-hander who didn’t give up a run while working the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. And, finally, on Edgardo Henriquez, the 22-year-old hurler who allowed the Mets just one insurance run in the final two innings.

Honeywell, especially, was helpful after “baseball happened,” as he put it.

“It was go until he takes the ball from me,” Honeywell said. “That’s how I want to pitch anyway, especially when the game didn’t necessarily go as planned.”

“Those are innings that a guy like that gives us that gives us the best chance to win the following, ensuing game,” Roberts said. “It’s not lost on anyone in that clubhouse what Honey did for us and Henriquez as well.”

And so Roberts’ top relievers will land in New York ahead of Wednesday night’s Game 3 feeling fresh, yes, and also remaining something of a mystery to the Mets’ hitters, who won’t have faced them since May. Advantage: Dodgers.