Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was forced to explain why Yu Darvish and not Clayton Kershaw started Game 7 for his team.
Hindsight was not kind to Roberts on Wednesday night, as Darvish was rocked for five runs in 1.2 innings, while Kershaw delivered four scoreless innings in relief of him. Naturally, many began asking why, if Roberts had no aversion to using Kershaw for as many pitches as he did, his ace lefty hadn’t simply started the game.
Roberts explained after the defeat that he didn’t want to give Kershaw the ball on two days’ rest.
Dave Roberts used logic to explain why Yu Darvish started: Alex Wood had never pitched on short rest. Clayton Kershaw was on two days’ rest.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) November 2, 2017
Roberts has had to face many questions over his pitcher usage during this series, but the move to start Darvish was a defensible one. He may not have hoped or planned to use Kershaw for as long as he ended up having to, and it would have been easy to write off Darvish’s bad Game 3 start as a fluke, given that he’s a quality pitcher who was very good in the AL playoffs. He’ll ultimately have to live with the second-guessing for a long time to come, though, given how both of his pitchers performed.
