SAN FRANCISCO -- A manager can go 10 seasons and not have the kind of gut-wrenching decision Dave Roberts had to make in his fifth game at the helm of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
How do you remove a kid pitcher from a no-hitter in his major league debut?
Roberts said it was not hard, really, and afterward had no regrets, only disappointment, after the move backfired. The San Francisco Giants tied the score one batter after rookie Ross Stripling was removed in the eighth inning, then won it 3-2 on a game-ending home run from Brandon Crawford in the 10th inning.
It is tempting to say nothing is strange when the Dodgers and Giants meet. This, though, was strange.
Only a few days ago, Roberts dropped the old axiom about losing the battle but winning the war. He could have tried it again Friday since the victory went by the wayside, while the future of a young pitcher was held in higher regard.
Who knows if Stripling will ever stare down a no-hit bid so late in a game again in his career? But even he said the decision to remove him from Friday's game, two years after Tommy John surgery and less than a year after he had returned to the mound, was a sound one.
"I just know I was getting tired and I had to think that I was probably visibly tired if I felt tired," Stripling said. "And it's not a 10-0 ballgame, it's a 2-0 ballgame in San Francisco against our division rival, and I think that's just the right choice. If we maybe have a little leeway, maybe we stick it out and see what happens, but I think in a tight game like that, that's the right call to make."
The young man not only knows how to pitch well, he is adept at diplomacy.
Roberts never did say afterward if Stripling's 100-pitch limit was a hard rule passed down from the front office. What he did say was that he almost pulled Stripling sooner than he did.
It might have reduced the drama a bit but wasn't likely to lessen the debate.
"We made that decision before the game," Roberts said. "The most he threw in spring was 70 pitches. He's coming off Tommy John. He threw 70 innings last year so at 100 pitches, that was our number. Obviously he has a no-hitter and we have a 2-0 lead. I think for me, the bigger question is, I was really contemplating, should I send him out there for the eighth with 91 pitches."
The way Roberts framed it, he was giving credence to the moment. He was letting Stripling go as long as the outs kept coming. When he walked Angel Pagan with one out in the eighth inning on exactly his 100th pitch, that was it.
"I made the decision that if somebody gets on base we will go to [Chris Hatcher]," Roberts said. "That's kind of how it played out. I think it's a great story, he pitched well, but under no circumstances am I going to even consider putting his future in jeopardy. Pretty much for me, it was a no-brainer."
Hatcher will be remembered as the guy who gave up the first hit and the lead all on one pitch to the most relieved guy in the building: The Giants' Trevor Brown.
"I hadn't even fouled a ball off [Stripling]," Brown said. "I know it was his debut, but honestly, I was surprised. It was a sigh of relief honestly to get a different pitcher out there."
Had Stripling continued, the Giants probably would have gone with Buster Posey as a pinch hitter anyway. When Hatcher got the call, Brown remained in the game.
"There is always a little give, but with five outs to get, the runner on first base, the tying run at the plate, the odds of him getting through five outs, and he's already at the number, that, for me, made the decision easier," said Roberts, who was ejected later in the eighth inning while taking up an argument for Hatcher, who wasn't a fan of plate umpire Jeff Kellogg's strike zone.
"After he got tossed, I came in here and he said that's a tough decision, but it's the first outing," Stripling said. "You have a whole season ahead of you, your whole career. That's just the choice I had to make. I obviously said no problem, that it was the right call. I just keep saying it was the right thing to do."
Shortly afterward, Hatcher was dealing with the heartbreak of what could have been, and how he could have helped his teammate to some history.
"He hung tough for seven [innings] and some change," Hatcher said of Stripling. "He threw 100 pitches. You can't write that up any better for him. Take away the home run and you can write it a little better."
Stripling was not going to argue. Of course he wanted the victory, but his day in the major leagues finally came, and it went off better than he could have planned. He will head into his second career start next week without having given up a hit, a rarity indeed.
"With it being a 7 o'clock game and my family was here, I was with them this morning, and my friends, it was like, 'Man, this day is going by slow,' " Stripling said. "I wanted to get going and start pitching. Once I got out there, it was a lot of fun. I think it was the start of the eighth inning when the crowd was singing some Journey, just jamming out. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it obviously."
Now that is one cool customer.
As for Roberts, his five-game managerial career has been memorable already. There were the 15 runs on Opening Day in San Diego, the three consecutive shutouts against the Padres, and then two games in San Francisco when his pitching moves were heavily second-guessed.
Does it feel like a year's worth of drama in five days?
"No, you know what, I think that's the great thing about baseball," he said. "Every game is different and we love the competition. This is what I signed up for. It's going to be a great year."