Dodgers fans are piling on Dave Roberts for puzzling Dalton Rushing decision

On Thursday, it looked like the Dodgers were doomed to be swept by, all of teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Paul Skenes absolutely blanked LA through six innings — he only allowed three baserunners on a walk, and single, and a double. Blake Snell wasn't doing too poorly either, at least until the bottom of the fifth. He'd kept Pittsburgh to just one run up to that point, but then he just lost his stuff.

Three consecutive singles gave the Pirates their second run, and then the Dodgers paid for intentionally walking Andrew McCutchen when rookie Nick Yorke doubled in two more. The fifth and final run of the game scored on an Alexander Canario groundout.

The Dodgers were still scoreless when they got down to their last three outs, but Mookie Betts kept their hopes alive with a leadoff solo homer. Freddie Freeman struck out, but the Dodgers piled singles upon reliever Dauri Moreta, and Andy Pages drove LA's second run in. Hyeseong Kim lined out, but Miguel Rojas tacked on another.

With one man on and two outs, the Dodgers made it all the way from their No. 2 to No. 9 hitter. But where fans might've expected to see No. 1 prospect Dalton Rushing, they instead got ... Ben Rortvedt, who was just called up earlier in the day while the Dodgers wait on an official Will Smith decision.

Rushing had been removed from the game in the bottom of the eighth. Rortvedt struck out swinging to give the Pirates the win.

Dave Roberts' decision to pull Dalton Rushing, sub in Ben Rortvedt cost Dodgers a comeback vs. Pirates

Roberts said after the game that he wanted to "get Rushing off hit feet given the workload he has ahead," but that he wouldn't have made that decision if he knew that Rushing was going to get another at-bat in the ninth. The Dodgers' chips were down, sure, but it doesn't inspire positive feelings in fans when a manager basically admits to giving up on a game when a division title is still on the line.

To be fair, the odds that Rushing would do something incredible were pretty low, but they were basically nonexistent with Rortvedt, a guy with a career .539 OPS. Rushing has at least been hitting more decently as of late (he has a .471 slugging in his last seven games), and he came up in a huge spot against the Padres last month.

It seems like Roberts was just willing to lose that game and suffer the embarrassment of a sweep at the hands of a .450 team. The Padres are in similarly bad shape, but this was another frustrating series that the Dodgers should've capitalized on, but just didn't.