SAN FRANCISCO — As he watched his team get shut out in Game 1 of their NL Division Series with the San Francisco Giants, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ priorities changed.
“The offense became more important,” Roberts acknowledged before Game 2 Saturday afternoon.
Before the series started, Roberts said he planned to start Cody Bellinger in center field in each of the games at Oracle Park where deep power alleys make center field a defensively demanding position.
But Roberts changed directions in Game 2, starting Chris Taylor in center field and moving Bellinger to first base. Matt Beaty (hitless in six at-bats in the wild-card game and NLDS Game 1) goes to the bench.
“After kind of thinking through things, I just felt that we needed … I wanted to bet on four good at-bats,” Roberts said. “The person I know – results notwithstanding, recency – I’ll bet on Chris. My early thought was, yeah, build around Cody in center field. It changed.
“You have to be ready to read and react. I’m not going to be set in my ways.”
An All-Star for the first time in his career, Taylor hit just .223 in the second half and finished the season in a 7-for-65 (.108) slump before hitting the walk-off home run in the wild-card game on Wednesday night.
“Certainly, you give up a little bit of center field defense,” Roberts said. “I wanted to get CT in the lineup.”
But Roberts wasn’t ready to make a move in left field, where AJ Pollock went 0 for 6 with three strikeouts in the wild-card game and Game 1 of the NLDS – raising the specter of his 2019 NLDS performance against the Washington Nationals. Pollock went 0 for 13 with 11 strikeouts in that series.
Roberts cited Pollock’s regular season – he hit .297 with 21 home runs and an .869 OPS – as the main reason for not starting Gavin Lux ahead of him in left field. Lux hit .360 (18 for 50) over the final month of the season while playing the outfield for the first time in his career.
“There’s a body-of-work component,” Roberts said of sticking with Pollock. “I think that Gavin swung the bat really well and picked us up big for two weeks. There’s also the component of the season AJ had and the experience that he’s had. So to kind of just default to a two-week sample … I just felt that the body of work should win out.”
Roberts’ faith was justified by Pollock who went 2 for 3 with a double, scored two runs and drove in two.
“I just don’t think that two games of not swinging the bat well is enough for me with what he’s done for us,” Roberts said.
“I have a lot of confidence in AJ. … I just know that for us to win the World Series this year he’s got to be an integral part of it. And I believe in him.”
GAME FOUR
With the split in San Francisco, the NLDS is guaranteed to go at least four games and the Dodgers’ pitching plans for that fourth game are very much undecided.
“I think Tony (Gonsolin) is going to take the bulk. How we piece it together still a lot of it depends on how Max (Scherzer, the Game 3 starter) comes out of it, where we are at after Game 3,” Roberts said before Saturday’s game. “I can see Tony pitching a lot. I can see him not pitching a lot.”
Roberts said the Dodgers will consider using an opener before Gonsolin or some other configuration of a bullpen game. He would not rule out returning to Game 1 starter Walker Buehler on just three days’ rest – something Buehler has never done.
“I’ll just leave it at this – I think everything’s on the table,” Roberts said. “Depending where we are.”
TWIN BILL
Giants reliever Tyler Rogers has a twin brother, Taylor Rogers, who pitches for the Minnesota Twins. Taylor came to Game 1 at Oracle Park to support his brother.
“It was very cool to have him here,” Tyler said Saturday. “A lot of people mistook him for me and even like during the game they were asking him why he was in the stands.”
The confusion must have gotten even greater when Tyler went in to pitch in the eighth inning of Game 1.