Dodgers fans turn on Red Sox postseason legend after NLDS failure
Whenever a promising team falls short of expectations, people look for someone to blame.
Boston Red Sox fans and media members have blamed Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom and ownership all season long; one year after going to the ALCS, the Sox finished last in their division for the second time in three years.
A Sox legend is also coming under fire in the case of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won 111 regular-season games (the most by any team since the 2001 Mariners) and the division but only managed to win one NLDS game before losing three straight to the San Diego Padres. Dodgers manager and Sox hero, Dave Roberts, is on the hot seat.
After the Dodgers’ postseason run ended in such stunning fashion, “Fire Dave Roberts” trended on Twitter. The chief complaint – aside from people whining that the Dodgers should have more than one ring since they hired him – is that Roberts fails to get his team going in the postseason.
Ironically, that’s exactly how he became a legend in Boston in 2004.
Eighteen years ago this week, the Sox were on the verge of getting swept by the Yankees in the ALCS. In Game 4, they were down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, three outs away from elimination, when Kevin Millar drew a leadoff walk against Mariano Rivera. Manager Terry Francona sent Roberts, whom the Sox had acquired from the Dodgers that summer, in to pinch-run for Millar. The speedy Roberts promptly stole second on Rivera’s first pitch to Bill Mueller. Mueller then singled to drive in Roberts and tie the game. As he raced home, he ignited a fire under his beaten-down team. Later that night, David Ortiz hit a walk-off home run to cap the game at 12 innings and turn the tides in Boston’s favor.
Before that series, no team had come back from being down three games to none to win the series. No team has replicated the feat since.
The Dodgers won’t fire Dave Roberts
Unfortunately, Angelenos are stuck with Roberts. The three-year contract extension and raise the Dodgers gave him last spring go into effect in 2023.
While the Dodgers’ postseason exit is understandably frustrating for fans, they sound like a west-coast version of the Yankees when they moan about a manager who’s guided a team to the postseason in each of his seven seasons at the helm. Even though the Sox benefitted from Roberts making some questionable decisions in the 2018 World Series, he entered this NLDS with a pretty solid record in elimination games.
Overall, the Dodgers haven’t missed the postseason since 2012, and since 2013, have won their division every year but 2021. In that span, they’ve won three pennants and a championship. Most MLB teams and their fans would kill for a smidgen of that success, but for big-market teams like the Dodgers, reaching the postseason isn’t enough.
Thankfully, one stolen base was enough for Boston.
