Dodgers: Dave Roberts Made the Right Call Pulling Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw pitched the longest game of his postseason career, still the Dodgers ace was pulled in the ninth inning with plenty of gas left in the tank.

Dave Roberts had a big decision on his hands during the ninth inning of Friday’s game two of the NLDS.  His ace Clayton Kershaw was locked in and ready to go for the ninth inning with a Maddux-like 85 pitches.  On the other hand there was Kenley Jansen, who has been in a funk and not having any relief work since Monday.

Roberts very well could of let Kershaw finish out the 3-0 game and pick up the first complete game of his postseason career.  Instead, Dave Roberts made the right call by taking the long term view on the postseason.

In almost every NLDS, Clayton Kershaw has made two starts, with the second start almost always coming on short rest.  Up 2-0 in the series, Kershaw now has a chance to be as fresh as he’s ever been for the NLCS as he’s never thrown fewer than 90 pitches in the first round of the playoffs when the Dodgers advance.

In addition to a rested Kershaw, Dave Roberts knew that if the Dodgers are going to have a legit shot of winning the World Series, Kenley Jansen needs to pitch like the dominant Kenley Jansen we’ve all seen over the last handful of years.  With a 3-0 lead in the game, and a clean inning, this was the perfect time to put Jansen into the game, and let him work through his struggles.

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On Monday Jansen appeared in the NL West tiebreaker game and allowed two solo home runs that cut the Dodgers lead from 5-0 to 5-2.  While it would have been easy to say that’s typical for closers pitching with a bigger than normal lead, this went deeper than that.  Ever since returning from the disabled list, Kenley Jansen has had his fair share of struggles.

On top of his struggles, Dave Roberts knew he needed to knock off the dust from keeping Kenley Jansen on the shelf.  If he didn’t use Jansen last night, then the earliest that Kenley could have gotten game action work is tomorrow in game three of the series.  That would be almost a full week since Jansen’s last appearance.

Not only did Kenley Jansen knock off the rust last night, he looked like the all-star version of himself.  Jansen has seen a dip in his velocity at times this season but last night the velocity was there in full effect. Almost all of Jansen’s cutters were clocked around 94-96 miles per hour.  More importantly, the control was there and so was the dominance.

Jansen allowed just one hit and picked up an effortless save.  Clayton Kershaw could have finished the game and recorded his first shutout in the postseason but Dave Roberts wasn’t worried about individual accomplishments, he’s trying to steer the Dodgers towards their first championship since 1988.  Although it wasn’t the most popular move to pull Kershaw, it was the right one as Kenley Jansen needed work.