One of the most confounding moves made by Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts during Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday night was not only using Brandon Morrow, but sticking with him for so long in the seventh inning.
Prior to the game, Roberts had said that Morrow would not be available to pitch. Morrow had pitched in all but one of the Dodgers’ postseason games to that point, including Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday. A recently converted starter, Morrow had never before pitched three days in a row. That made using him in Game 5 very risky and something the Dodgers weren’t planning on doing.
But Roberts says Morrow told him during Game 5 that he wanted the ball.
“He called down and said that he felt good,” Roberts said of Morrow after the game. “He was throwing today, he felt good. He called in the middle of the game, said, ‘Hey, if we take the lead, I want to pitch. I want the ball. My body feels good.’ So in the 7th inning there, you can’t turn him down. He’s felt good, he wanted to be in the game. It’s a credit to him to be used the way he has been and want the baseball.”
Morrow’s not the first player to try and talk his way into a game. Players are competitors and will often want to enter or remain in games despite being gassed. It’s up to coaches and managers to recognize when it’s a bad idea to push the player and keep them from themselves. Roberts failed to do that.
Morrow made just six pitches, got clobbered for a solo home run, single, RBI double, wild pitch, and then a 2-run home run. Roberts finally pulled him after that.
Roberts should have stood by his plan to give Morrow the game off. And if the opportunity to use Morrow was too tempting to resist, then Roberts should have pulled the reliever after the single to Alex Bregman. What more did he need to see to know Morrow didn’t have it? He could have potentially spared a few runs had he pulled Morrow earlier. Pitching Morrow — and for so long — may be the Roberts’ biggest mistake of the series.
Houston now leads 3-2 as the series heads back to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Tuesday night.
