Last night, President Trump tweeted his thoughts on Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ bullpen strategy. Starter Rich Hill had tossed six shutout innings, but issued a leadoff walk to Xander Bogaerts in the seventh. After striking out Eduardo Núñez, Roberts elected to swap Hill for fellow lefty Scott Alexander, who walked Brock Holt on four pitches. He then brought in Ryan Madson, who has struggled in the World Series thus far. Madson was able to get Jackie Bradley, Jr. to pop out, but then served up a three-run home run to Mitch Moreland that put the Red Sox back in the game. The Red Sox would to on to tie the game in the eighth, then hung a five-spot in the ninth en route to a 9-6 victory.
Watching the Dodgers/Red Sox final innings. It is amazing how a manager takes out a pitcher who is loose & dominating through almost 7 innings, Rich Hill of Dodgers, and brings in nervous reliever(s) who get shellacked. 4 run lead gone. Managers do it all the time, big mistake!
During the postgame press conference, Roberts was asked to respond to the tweet. To his credit, Roberts was level-headed about the criticism. Roberts said, “The President said that? I’m happy he was tuning in and watching the game. I don’t know how many Dodger games he’s watched. I don’t think he was privy to the conversation. That’s one man’s opinion.”
Roberts wasn’t the only one to respond to Trump’s tweet. Via Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Hill said, “There was a mass shooting yesterday … The focus, in my opinion, of the president is to be on the country, and not on moves that are made in a World Series game.”
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman tweeted a few crying laughter emojis followed by, “I’m crying …. don’t get mad at me for commenting y’all… this is a sports related tweet….” Then, responding to someone who suggested that Trump’s tweet isn’t out of character for a President, Bregman said, “I’m just saying it’s funny how we are told to stick to playing sports… It’s very hypocritical when he’s telling Roberts how to manage…especially when a mass shooting just happened earlier that day…”