Dodgers' Dave Roberts Still Looking For Relievers He Can Trust

""Yeah. I think - you like them all, you trust them all, to various degrees," Roberts said. "And I think in the postseason, you have to go with ultimately who you feel best in that one spot. "And so it's ever-evolving, and I'm not going to be a 'It can't be blind to performance and heartbeat and how guys respond to certain situations.' "It's sort of a daily kind of conversation with the pitching coaches, the front office and just kind of - and most importantly, what I see.""

"High-leverage spots were few and far between against the Cincinnati Reds, who the Dodgers swept in the NL Wild Card series, however, some problems still arose in each game with the Reds managing to load the bases in the late innings. Outside of those occasions, the Dodgers' pen looked solid in the final inning of each game. Blake Treinen bounced back from a horrid final month of the regular season and gave the Dodgers a scoreless ninth inning in the opening game, and Roki Sasaki shut the door on the Reds with a dominant performance in Game 2."

Dave Roberts continues to evaluate which relievers he can trust in high-leverage postseason situations after the bullpen showed inconsistency down the stretch. Late-season losses were influenced by relief mistakes, prompting Roberts to weigh performance, heartbeat and situational responses when assigning roles. He consults daily with pitching coaches and the front office while relying on his own observations to decide postseason matchups. High-leverage opportunities were limited in the NL Wild Card sweep of the Reds, though late-inning base-loading occurred. Blake Treinen and Roki Sasaki delivered key late-inning performances ahead of the NLDS versus the Phillies.

Read at Dodgers Nation