Dodgers: What the Dodgers Need To Change Going Into Game 2

Already one game into the 2018 World Series and a few things stand out about what the Dodgers need to change.

One obvious fact that stood out from game one of the World Series is that ace pitchers, on both sides, cannot be relied upon to pitch deep into games. The bullpen and late game defense will be huge this World Series against a high scoring Red Sox team.

Last night in game one of the World Series, two of the games best starting pitchers took the mound; Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale who combined for just 24 outs.  The rest of the bullpens had to get a combined 27 outs!

Both star pitchers are seven-time All-Stars who specialize in keeping runners off base however, that was not the case in game one. Kershaw and Sale combined to allow 12 hits, five walks, and eight runs. Neither starter worked more than four innings which is rare for them even at this big of a stage, despite their postseason struggles.

Dave Roberts had this to say following yesterday’s loss about going to the bullpen early in support of Kershaw’s not pitching his best last night. PER Tyler Kepler of NY Times.

"You look at the position players on both sides, grinding at-bats, and both teams have the ability to work pitch counts and get pitch counts higher. So you’re going to have to go to the pen and play matchups, and that’s kind of how we saw it."

The Red Sox bullpen turned out to be much more effective than Sale, allowing just a run and three hits in five innings. From a different perspective, they ended up using six pitchers out of their bullpen following Chris Sale, and the Dodgers only used four. If LA can get to David Price early and force Boston to use their bullpen early, this can become a real advantage for the Dodgers for the remainder of the series.

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Poor Defense

When facing a team as dangerous as the Boston Red Sox no errors can be made to stand a chance against this offense. Already down one game in the series, the Dodgers especially need to be locked in and limit their defensive miscues.

Although the scoreboard states there were zero errors in the game, the Dodgers had tiny mistakes that turned out big and ended up costing them in key situations. Had the Dodgers played a better game defensively, they were primed to steal game one.

For example, in the first inning, David Freese nearly caught a foul pop up from Mookie Betts. Betts eventually became the first run of the game that inning and these kinds of mistakes cannot happen against a top three player in baseball.

Puig could have kept Andrew Benintendi on first base instead of trying to cut off Betts, which ended up being the second run of that inning.  Had Puig not thrown home, Benintendi would have not reached second base and subsequently scored on the next base hit.

Later in the game, there was a missed chance on a double play as Brian Dozier made a slow turn. Little mistakes like this cannot be made if the Dodgers want to beat the best team that has knocked off two 100 win teams. Coach Dave Roberts and company are sure to be looking to correct these mishaps before game two starts tonight in Boston.