I feel like Roberts wanted the optics and drama of connecting Buehler to Kershaw in this game. The "heir apparent gives way to the legend". Etc. Makes for good TV... But baseball-wise, not so much. You don't need to use a starter in that situation. Not with a rested bullpen full of better options- Maeda. Kolarek. Baez. Heck, May. And bringing out Joe Kelly for a 2nd inning- which as has been pointed out he hadn't done in two months- was equally awful. Kelly was "rested", Roberts said. Yeah, rested because he'd been shelled his last appearance....

The Dodgers bullpen has been their only question mark all season but now the question is why Roberts didn't use them.

Awful. Just awful. The Dodgers may not have beaten Houston or the Yankees in the World Series and who knows what that narrative would have been. But to stumble in the NLDS is just pathetic.