Dave Roberts' ejection, postgame comments show how badly Dodgers got screwed

On Wednesday night, the Dodgers were in an okay spot through five innings in their final regular-season game against the Phillies — up by one run thanks to three Freddie Freeman RBI and one for Miguel Rojas — but the Phils were threatening at the top of the sixth. With Alex Vesia on the mound, Alec Bohm doubled, then Brandon Marsh put down a bunt to move Bohm over to third.

With Kiké Hernández positioned almost halfway down the third base line, he fielded the ball with a bit of a bobble, but recovered to throw to Rojas covering third. Bohm made his way toward the bag, but Rojas reached down between his legs to tag him before his foot could touch the base. Out, right? That's the end of the story, right?

Third base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called Bohm safe, citing interference at third. Rojas was quick to make his argument to Wendelstedt; he'd clearly left his stance open to give Bohm enough space to slide through to the base. He'd given Bohm a lane, and the Phillies All-Star had room to make it to the bag, because he did. Alanna Rizzo, on color commentary for SportsNet LA that night, asked, "[In that situation,] I mean, what are you supposed to do?"

Dave Roberts — usually a very mild-mannered, always look on the bright side kind of guy — came out to defend his player, yelling at Wendelstedt and gesturing toward the base before quickly getting tossed in his first ejection of the season.

It wasn't a play the Dodgers could challenge, so Bohm was officially safe at third and Marsh was safe at first with no outs. Joe Kelly came in to relieve Vesia, and then things went from bad to worse.

Dave Roberts got his first ejection of the season on a terrible call by Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt that might've cost the Dodgers a win

JT Realmuto grounded out, but it was enough to get Bohm home safely to even the score. Kelly walked Nick Castellanos, Bryson Stott flew out, but then Johan Rojas walked to load the bases. Kelly, whose control has always been pretty suspect even on good days, threw a wild one past Austin Barnes to allow Marsh to score. 5-4, Phillies.

Okay. Bad, but manageable, right? Not necessarily the end of the world.

But then Kyle Schwarber came up. Kelly got him to a 1-2 count, then threw what was actually a pretty nice changeup to the upper right of the zone. Schwarber crushed it and sent it 426 feet into center field. 8-4, Phillies.

Kelly finally got out of the inning by getting Trea Turner to fly out, but the four-run lead would prove to be insurmountable for LA. Through the next four innings, only four Dodgers were able to get on base, and Gavin Lux only did it because he got beaned by a pitch. Schwarber made matters worse with his third homer of the night, a solo bomb in the ninth. 9-4, Phillies.

After the game, Roberts didn't bother hiding his displeasure to the media. "[Wendelstedt] missed the call. [...] It was an egregious miscall. [...] It needs to be reviewable. That play changed the complexion of the game. And he got it wrong, that's just the fact."

If the events that followed weren't enough to convince you, the Phillies' win probability went up 10.2 points to 53.5% on that play. Roberts said it best, it was an egregious call on a bang-bang race to the bag, and it cost the Dodgers a series win.