Keep it Simple
Let’s face it… there’s quite enough pressure on these players in October without yanking on their chains to do something unusual.
Nowhere has this become more manifest than with Max Scherzer:
#Dodgers Max Scherzer: “My arm was dead. I could tell when I was warming up.” Thought it would get better as he pitched but it didn’t
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 18, 2021
Max is a max-effort guy… and he relies on getting himself amped up before pitching.
That tends to work once every 5 days as a starter, but how about when this 37-year-old decides that he wants to also throw an odd high-leverage inning here and there in between starts?
Now he’s suffering from the impact of his own competitive desires, and that’s putting his team into a pickle about how and when he can be used again in this series.
Meanwhile, his teammate Urias struggled to get into the flow of Game 2 and gave up 2 key runs in the 8th inning on Sunday. That could have unknown ramifications for the Dodgers down the road.
There’s a phrase for this: it’s that the Dodgers are being “too clever by half”. Their own schemes have been planned out and contingency plans have been put in place, and then maybe even emergency plans have been thought of as well… all to try and make their pitching perform well.
"Adjective: too clever by half (idiomatic, of a person, plan, theory, etc.) Shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful. [source]"
That’s the trouble with over-planning… your plans can backfire and you’re left with a nice plan that simply didn’t work.
Here’s how proper planning can work: knowing that left fielder A.J. Pollock now longer has a strong — or accurate — throwing arm, Eddie Rosario took the seemingly highly risky move of tagging on a fly out to left field and bolting for second base.
That’s simply an excellent example of doing your homework.
It’s not always the same
Sometimes such detailed plans do win the day… see Urias beating the Braves in 2020’s Game 7 when he pitched the 7th-9th innings and shut us down completely. That Braves team struggled to handle that Dodger bullpen game on that day.
This year’s Braves team doesn’t have a pitching staff held together by baling wire, duct tape, and prayer. This pitching staff is simply going out and doing its job while the offense is finding just enough runs to make a difference.
All of this is happening despite a lack of hitting from Freddie Freeman and Adam Duvall while the pitching did walk nine Dodgers on Sunday.
In other words, the Dodgers had their chances. But maybe — just maybe — there was some confusion among them about how the plan was proceeding.
But while the Dodgers have been busy planning and scheming with their giant brain-trust, the Braves are forcing the action. And Winning.
Sure: LA might just have a 12-2 lopsided victory coming up in the next couple of days. It’s possible. But they also have to beat Atlanta in 4 of the next 5 games to get to the World Series.
The Dodgers did exactly that last year… but this Braves team remembers that, too, I think they will do everything possible to avoid that result this time. Atlanta may even be immune to iocane powder this time ’round.
Truly the Dodgers have a dizzying intellect. But don’t get involved in a land war in Asia.