In defense of Dave Roberts’ decision to leave Jack Flaherty in Game 1 of the World Series

Lost in the excitement — and rightfully so — of last night’s Game 1 is the decision Dave Roberts made by letting Jack Flaherty face the heart of the Yankees’ lineup for a third time. A lot of folks called for and expected Roberts to pull Flaherty at some point before he faced Giancarlo Stanton. At the time and even still, I’m OK with Roberts leaving Flaherty in at that point.

Flaherty hadn’t been exactly cruising, but he had been doing and showing enough to warrant another chance to get through the Yankee lineup.

If Evan Phillips had been on the World Series roster, this could have played out differently. The fact that Roberts and the Dodgers are down one of their best high-leverage arms (despite getting Alex Vesia back and Brusdar Graterol making his first appearance in a month) might have forced Doc’s hand in trying to get some extra out of Flaherty. He has talked about and mentioned multiple times about “getting greedy,” and this was one of those situations — but for good reason.

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Yes, Flaherty gave up a solid single to Juan Soto to begin the inning, but he was able to strikeout Aaron Judge for a third time. That brought up Stanton with one out.

Now look, I have long since been a Stanton fan. A few years ago, I wanted him on the Dodgers perhaps more than any other player in the game at the time. But he isn’t the same player who won the 2017 National League MVP Award, despite his tendency to show up in the playoffs. And the pitch he golfed, as Joe Davis correctly called, wasn’t a terrible pitch. For the way Stanton was and did swing, however, it was a location mistake.

It’s just in the strike zone, but still a bit too elevated and on the inner half of the plate.

He had a .250 batting average and on-base percentage, but he also slugged 1.000 on pitches in that part of the plate (Attack Zone 7). He had only seen two curveballs in that location the entire 2024 season, with this Ryan Pressly pitch being the most similar. Stanton saw more curveballs in Game 1 in that location than he did all season. For a guy with a 1.143 slugging percentage in his career on curveballs in that location, the Dodgers might need to change their strategy a little bit going forward.

Here’s the screencap of the pitch:

If that pitch is 4-6 inches toward the left-handed batter’s box and at the same height, we’re having a different discussion because there’s no way Stanton is making contact with it at the point. Alas, it wasn’t, and we’re having this conversation.

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If there was ever a time for Roberts to get a little greedy with his starting pitchers, it was this game. Not because Flaherty was dominant or the offense was humming, but because it’s early enough in the series and Flaherty was doing a solid job to that point. With the bullpen being leaned on so heavily this postseason and them being down Phillips, it made sense.

I’m not so sure Roberts makes a decision like this later in the series, as there will be fewer games remaining, meaning he can lean on the bullpen guys a little more knowing they’ll have an entire winter to recover. Maybe not Brandon Morrow 2017 World Series levels of lean, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see guys pitch back-to-back games multiple times, and maybe even seen one or two arms make an appearance in all three games in New York.

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Even if Freddie Freeman hadn’t done what he did last night, I’d still feel this way. Sure, it’d feel a little different being down 1-0 instead of up 1-0, but the criticism or praise of a decision cannot be determined based on the outcome of the situation/game. Roberts made a decision with conviction, and sometimes, that’s all we can ask for as fans.