Dave Roberts is all but waving Dodgers' white flag with Skubal, Yamamoto plan for Game 4

The Los Angeles Dodgers are down 3-0 in the NLCS to the Milwaukee Brewers, staring straight down the barrel of a stunning postseason elimination. Dave Roberts is on the hot seat after Wednesday night's game, when a series of terrible decisions, both with the lineup determination and in-game choices, doomed Los Angeles to a 6-2 loss.

If LA loses on Thursday night, the story we all remember will revolve around Roberts and Blake Snell. The skipper left his starter in after issuing a leadoff walk in the seventh inning and was punished for it after Jake Bauers hit a go-ahead homer (on the 11th pitch of the at-bat). It was a sick reversal of the moment that Kevin Cash will always be remembered for — taking Snell out in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series.

Roberts' poor planning doesn't seem like it's going to end with Game 3, though. Ahead of Game 4, he said that both Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be unavailable to pitch, "because the Dodgers need to win four games."

If anyone knows what it's like to be down three games to nothing in a championship series and come out on top, it's Roberts — but would anyone really bet that this Dodgers team will do what only the 2004 Boston Red Sox could?

Tarik Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto unavailable for NLCS Game 4 despite Dodgers' dire straits

This is a stunning lack of urgency for a team that's already heavily criticized for having a smug air about them. Of course, Roberts would never publicly acknowledge that the odds of LA bouncing back from this are slim-to-none, but making Skubal and Yamamoto unavailable comes across as Roberts throwing in the towel and wanting to get on with his offseason vacation.

There's only one team who's ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in an League Championship Series for a reason. Everything had to go right for that Red Sox team. If Roberts himself hadn't taken that base in Game 4, it's likely that we'd still be living in a world where no team had ever done it.

It's about getting all of the small things right, and does anyone really trust Roberts to do that right now, when his starting lineups include Tommy Edman and he's burning Josue De Paula to bet that Kiké Hernández will be able to find one more stroke of magic?

If the Dodgers have the slimmest of leads in late innings, maybe Roberts will change his mind. This could all be smokescreen to keep Pat Murphy guessing. But if we get a close game in late innings and don't see Skubal or Yamamoto, Roberts is going to hear it when the Dodgers go home.

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