LOS ANGELES – Even after admitting that using a position player to pitch was a possibility, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that he is a fan of playing traditional extra-inning rules in the postseason.
A night earlier, the Dodgers won Game 3 of the World Series in the 18th inning. In the regular season, the game would almost certainly have been decided much earlier, with the automatic runner on second base starting each inning, starting with the 10th.
Instead, the teams played until Freddie Freeman homered to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays.
The 18-inning game was the longest game in World Series history – the Dodgers defeated the Red Sox in that other marathon, in Game 3 of the 2018 Fall Classic.
“It’s baseball in its truest form and part of winning a seven-game series is that when there are games like that, you have to go through the war of attrition with pitching,” Roberts said. “I like the way it is, and also the regular season, the way it’s structured.”
Roberts got a fourth inning of scoreless relief from his 10th pitcher of the night, Will Klein, and would bring in Yoshinobu Yamamoto – who had thrown a complete game two days earlier – if the game reached the 19th inning. What if Yamamoto couldn’t have thrown? Infielder Miguel Rojas was the next option.
“That’s about where we were at,” Roberts said, noting that Game 1 starter Blake Snell had thrown a pregame bullpen session and likely wouldn’t have been considered.
George Springer was “hour to hour,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after leaving Monday’s game with side discomfort after taking a swing.
Bo Bichette started at DH in Springer’s place and went 1-for-4, including an important RBI single in the seventh inning.
Springer did not play in the 6-2 win on Tuesday.
But Schneider didn’t rule out the possibility of Springer being available in some capacity later in the series.
“He plays for moments like this,” Schneider said. “Whenever this season is over, you’ll be surprised to see how much he’s had to do physically. If he’s good in any way, I want George.”
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