LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has finally done something that none of his predecessors have ever done. On Sunday night, the Dodgers completed their win over the New York Mets with a 33-inning scoreless streak following a stunning performance by hometown boy Jack Flaherty, tying a record for most games played in MLB history.

Yes, it’s just Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. Yes, there are more opportunities for something like this, as the playoffs involve far more rounds than they used to, and yes, the previous team that held the record – the 1966 Orioles – did it primarily on the backs of starters. But that’s what makes it all the more impressive.

We’re not talking about a streak that came when it was just a matter of letting the guys cook and getting a few magic tricks from legends like Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson to seal the deal. This streak occurred in the middle of elimination games, with two handfuls of pitchers. The level of difficulty is significantly higher.

It should also be noted: The Dodgers set franchise records for the largest failures in postseason history. On Wednesday, they set the record with an 8-0 victory over the Padres in a road elimination game. On Sunday, they broke it with a 9-0 win against a so-called hot Mets team that had no idea what hit them.

“I thought you could clearly see that (Mets pitcher Kodai) Senga just didn’t play his best tonight. The division was not competitive. He didn’t use his sweeper. And then he just relied on the cutter, worked behind the hitters and walked the guys,” Roberts explained after the game. “For us to take our walks and create stress… I just thought we kind of checked in tonight and got some big base hits, whether we pushed a guy over, pushed him up and then got a hit. All night I just thought we were really stubborn. I thought the attacking coaches did a great job of coming up with a game plan. And then the players executed.”

In the bottom of the second inning, with Senga unable to reach the zone, Tommy Edman came to the plate with no outs after Gavin Lux issued a walk. He flipped over, moved Lux ​​above him, and on the next pitch Shohei Ohtani singled him into the net, extending the lead to 3-0 – a simple maneuver that some may doubt, but when it works, it looks brilliant.

It happened again later in the game, it looked routine. Roberts played small ball with two sacrifices in one game, after only 10 all season.

“It’s just playoff baseball. I just think it’s a fact – the truth is that the postseason is different than the regular season. It’s about 90 feet and giving yourself — and part of that was making sure Shohei had a chance to get up,” Roberts said matter-of-factly. “It is thanks to Tommy and Kiké (Hernández) that the performance in these runs was great. And Gavin gets the ball down, Tommy gets the ball down, it’s just team baseball. If you can put a guy in scoring position, it just creates a little bit more stress.”

The fact is that for a franchise like the Dodgers, despite all of these internal achievements, the World Championship is all that matters. And even some of them don’t Really Count as you listen to some fans and experts.

Even if that team goes on to win the World Series – by giving the man called “Doc” two rings, putting him on par with former Dodgers manager and legendary character Tommy Lasorda and placing him two behind Walter Alston, who won four championships in both Brooklyn and LA, including the management of Jackie Robinson in 1954 and 1955 – Roberts will never get the respect he truly deserves. And it’s hard to understand why.

For one thing, he won during the coronavirus pandemic year of 2020. Say what you will about it being a short season, no one else won the World Series that season. The Dodgers also boast one of the highest payrolls in MLB history, providing convenient insurance for those who simply don’t want to give credit to the black American manager who was born in Japan. As a reminder, Roberts was the first minority manager in Dodgers history, not even the first black man.

It’s truly impossible to do justice to arguably the best managerial decision in MLB history: Lasorda calling on the crippled Kirk Gibson to score in the bottom of the ninth to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series – but this The manager’s legacy is not defined by individual lineup moves.

It doesn’t help that Roberts arrived precisely at a time when the position was being heavily devalued across the game and general public criticism through things like social media was turning reflection into a far more sophisticated art form. All the advanced metrics and information-based operations, with data available everywhere, have made many owners and people in the game feel like a lot of it is easier than it looks.

“As Dodgers manager, there will always be pressure to win everything. Dave knows that,” Jerry Hairston Jr. said Saturday. Hairston played for the Dodgers and is now a local broadcaster for the team on Spectrum SportsNet. “This year was his best managerial job to date. We were rocked by injuries, especially on the pitching side, and the front office said we would take care of it in the offseason. But with so many injuries. He led us to the best record (in MLB). The final two games of the Padres series were a microcosm of what he has done all season. He, his staff and the players know the work isn’t done yet. They are extremely focused.”

Whether it was coming off a loss to the Padres in the NLDS in Game 3 and immediately declaring the next game a bullpen game while his opposing skipper was more focused on celebrating his win after the win, Roberts is not just any baseball puppet. Yes, he has a strong team. Yes, their front office is heavily focused on analytics. And yes, they seem to sleepwalk to division titles year after year in a reasonably weak NL West. When it comes to institutional arrogance, the Dodgers are at the top. They can sign “anyone” because they are rich and “everyone” wants to play there. You can “fix” any player that comes off the scrap heap. If you fail in their system, it is because of your abilities, not because of them.

But the truth is that a lot of people thought the win against the Padres was a job-saving win. Had they been edged out in the playoffs by a divisional opponent for the third straight year, it would have been completely understandable if the team felt like it just couldn’t make any progress with the UCLA alum at the helm. But they didn’t lose. And Roberts managed to get around Padres manager Mike Shildt (see the scoreless streak) to advance. Now the Mets are so stunned that the guys are making ridiculously stupid plays on the basepaths out of desperation.

“I thought he had surgery in Game 4 and Game 5 (against the Padres). “I thought he had the right feel and the right pulse to know when to make a play, who to go to, and yet (pitcher Alex) Vesia had pain in his oblique and didn’t miss a beat,” Dodgers said Baseball President of Operations Andrew Friedman told the Orange County Register on October 12th. “We have such a fan base and we love it. The expectations are super high. We love that too.

“And if we don’t do that, there will be a lot of blame and a lot of disappointed people. We would much rather have that than have people not care about it. The theater of October baseball is entirely results-oriented. When you achieve a good result, positive things are said and written. When you have a bad result, really bad things are said and written.”

It didn’t hurt that Flaherty, another Black man, threw the game of his life while his mother and former Harvard-Westlake Middle School teammates sat in the stands. Then outfielder Mookie Betts broke out of the slump with a bases-clearing double in the ninth after reaching and scoring the game’s first run.