WHATEVER THE DODGERS ARE DOING, IT'S WORKING, EVEN IF ROBERTS TELLS FOX FIRST

Walker Buehler would leave Game 3 after four innings, as his manager told a national TV audience, and if he keeps performing well with Yamamoto and Flaherty and the bullpen, a complex puzzle might end

     In a series that staggers and freaks us, like Halloween, who ever thought a manager would reveal secrets in an on-field interview? There was Dave Roberts, actually saying something meaningful on Fox when questioned in the fourth inning. He wanted Walker Buehler, who was up 2-0 and performing well, to retire the side and go home.

     This was said to millions of viewers before Roberts told the pitcher in the Dodgers dugout. Then he wanted Michael Kopech to replace him in the fifth. True, Buehler has been dragged through two Tommy John surgeries and a hip issue. But he was blazing like the old days, when he was described as an ace, and didn’t care that temperatures were dropping below 50 degrees at Citi Field. Nor did he care about the “OMG” signs  and Grimace scenery in New York, which dreams of a subway World Series.

     “I love pitching in the cold, personally. I don’t know why or how,” Buehler said. “When I was (at Vanderbilt), I think I had the first 10 starts that were under 30 degrees one year. So something I’m used to, or at least used to be used to. … I think the cold really affects the ball weirdly. The ball moves really well here, or kind of always has. I think the cold just makes the ball act a little bit funky."

     Funky, he said.

     Whatever Roberts envisioned, he dished it to the TV reporter Wednesday night. His rationale once again worked despite his bullpen game flop Monday in Los Angeles. Out came Buehler after he struck out Francisco Lindor with the bases loaded, screaming off the mound. In came Kopech, followed by Ryan Brasier, Blake Treinen and Ben Casparius. The Mets were held scoreless, just long enough for Shohei Ohtani to relax — runners were aboard, when he succeeds in the postseason, unlike his 0-for-22 crisis with the bases empty — and finally hit a three-run homer.

     The Dodgers won 8-0. They’ve collected four shutouts in five games, which blurs the mind in the playoffs or during any time of the calendar. Kike Hernandez returned as a crazy hero, with his 15th postseason homer when he’s a utilityman the rest of his life. This was a complete performance, enabled by Buehler, who pushed the club to a 2-1 lead with Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching tonight after his masterpiece last week and Jack Flaherty pitching Friday after his weekend masterpiece. I am not sure what Dave Roberts is doing every day. Did he not know Buehler had allowed at least a run, often many more, in 14 straight starts?

     His uncertainty is working in the National League championship series, at the moment.

     “It’s been a long road for me,” Buehler said. “Being back and not being successful sucks, but I looked at the playoffs as trying to win a big game in New York. When the stakes are that big, it makes everything else feel real small. These are the games I’m here to pitch. Being in big games, that’s literally all I care about. This is definitely a big momentum win for us.”

     “That was Walker Buehler,” teammate Max Muncy said. “Walker is a different animal in the postseason.”

     And the Mets, as the Yankees have taken a 2-0 lead over Cleveland in the American League series? “We play the game to try to give a good show for the fans. We didn’t do anything to give them moments,” Lindor said. “They didn’t get what they came here to see tonight.”

     You’d be foolish to predict what happens next. Will Yamamoto earn his $325 million or botch it? Is Flaherty the staff ace or an erratic stumblebum? The Dodgers have a chance to create what America wants, a World Series against the Yankees. Roberts looks unshakeable, raving about Buehler after removing him. “That was the pitch of the game,” he said of the Lindor strikeout. “Obviously, the crowd was into it. They were gaining momentum. To get the breaking ball down below the zone and get a great hitter out ws huge. I think that kind of speaks to experience.”

     As in? “I think it's been a lot of lessons that he's had to learn, and appreciating, understanding the pitcher he is today,” Roberts said. “And also appreciating the fact that you just can't give in to Lindor in that moment.”

     Six games away from winning it all, for the second time since 1988, the players should grow accustomed to a longer stay in the city. Dodgers vs. Yankees. Imagine a series we’ve thought about for eons. “I mean, being able to go home with a few days off looking at a World Series would be the ultimate goal,” Treinen said.

     But anyone who watches the Dodgers knows a lapse is always possible. “If we don’t do something with this, then it doesn’t really matter a whole lot,” Buehler said.

     When the pitchers are sterling, Ohtani can swing and do damage. His homer came off Tylor Megill, who said, “I just threw it into his honey hole and he launched it into the upper deck.” With runners on base, he is 7 for 9 with two homers and eight RBIs. “It’s important for Shohei, certainly, to build some confidence,” Roberts said.

     “I do feel OK at the plate,” Ohtani said. “I do feel like I (can) recall back to the times when I (felt) good and perhaps incorporate that into it. Regardless of how they are pitching to me, my plan is to stay with the same approach as much as possible and not really be too focused on how they attack me.”

     He was a subplot. The kicker: Buehler liked the fall weather in Queens.

     What?

     “Our relievers that came in, I was looking at their big-boy metrics,” he said. “I don't know the crosswinds and what happens, but all five of my pitches were kind of a little bit bigger or weirder or acted different than normal. I don't think it was just a curveball. Yeah, it's just an interesting environment to pitch in here. Honestly, the only point of pride I've had in the past couple of months has been trying to get deep in the games and be efficient. To only throw four innings is like the complete opposite of that. But I'm proud just for a different reason in terms of being able to get through some big spots and tough spots.”

     Trying to explain the daily turnover isn’t easy. The Dodgers are trying to win with a pitching staff, coached by Mark Prior, that doesn’t have stars. “They’ve all bought in. No set roles,” Hernandez said. “They’re all about the plan. They all want the ball at any time. We have a lot of real good arms and a lot of stuff.”

     And Kike? “My Latino blood, I don’t know,” he said.

     By now, the manager can say what he prefers. Everyone pitches the ball in a year of only 26 complete games in the majors, a record low. The sport has undergone jarring changes. Next time, just let Walker Buehler know before Ken Rosenthal.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.