LOS ANGELES (AP) — Admitting he came close to putting a position player on the mound for the first time in World Series history, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said a month ago he never would have believed he'd face that decision.
“I would have thought I was under the influence of something, for sure,” he said.
A day after the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 on Freddie Freeman's 18th-inning home run off Brendon Little to take a 2-1
lead in the best-of-seven Series, both managers said Tuesday they were getting close to having to send a position player to the mound in a game of utmost importance because they were running out of available pitchers.
Yet, neither was immediately in favor of adopting in the postseason the automatic-runner rule used in the regular season since 2020, in which each team starts every extra inning with a runner at second base. Among 209 extra-inning games this season, all ended by the 13th. In the six seasons with the “ghost” runner, the longest was the Dodgers' 16-inning win over San Diego on Aug. 25, 2021.
“Baseball in its truest form and part of winning a seven-game series is if there are games like that, then to have to go through the battle of attrition with pitching,” Roberts said.
As bullpens emptied and the Dodgers and Blue Jays played deep into the night, Toronto second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a jarring thought — both teams might run out of arms.
“There was a point where I was like, we might see two position players in the World Series going back and forth,” he said.
Will Klein, the Series-record 10th pitcher for Los Angeles, doubled his previous career highs with four innings and 72 pitches. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had warmed up and was set to enter for the Dodgers in the 19th, two days after throwing 105 pitches to win Game 2 in his second consecutive complete game.
“If Yamamoto couldn’t have taken the ball in the 19th, it was probably going to be Miguel Rojas. So that’s kind of where we were at,” Roberts said.
Rojas, a reserve infielder, made four mop-up pitching appearances during the regular season.
Little entered in the 17th for the Blue Jays and Shane Bieber, their scheduled starter for Game 4 on Tuesday, was in the bullpen and would have followed him to the mound. Rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage, scheduled to start Game 5 on Wednesday, would have been the last pitcher in before a position player.
“When I saw Shane go down there, I was like, anything’s possible at this point, just depending upon how long it went,” Yesavage said.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider wasn't sure he would favor extending the automatic runner to the postseason.
“I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to baseball,” he said. “It’s kind of unique because that’s how you play for 162 and then that goes away. But with that, I think you've got to structure your roster accordingly to try to handle some of those situations.”
Roberts said he woke up refreshed on Tuesday ahead of Game 4.
“I took a little sleep aid to get off my high and woke up with clarity, freshness, and excited to go tonight,” he said.
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