NLCS Game 7 GameThread: Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee Brewers

Los Angeles Dodgers’ skipper Dave Roberts was forced to make some tough decisions in last night’s 7-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 6 of the NLCS.

Dodgers’ lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up four runs in the first, and five through two, but Roberts stuck with the southpaw through three knowing the early deficit made a decisive Game 7 more likely.

“That’s sort of the situation we were in,” Roberts explained. “They were taking good at-bats against him.

“There’s the thought of trying to go to your pen in the first inning or the second inning, but there’s a significant cost potentially for a potential Game 7.

“So I just felt that we needed to get some more innings out of Hyun-Jin to keep our highest leverage guys available for a potential Game 7.”

It’s safe to say, Roberts admitted, that he would have handled things differently if it was a Game 7.

“Yeah, if it was a do-or-die game then we would have went -- it would have been an all-hands-on-deck situation where we would have gone to the pen earlier.

“But, again, to be all-in in a game and to not come out on the winning side of it, then there’s a significant cost.”

Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell talked before last night’s game about the role the fans in Miller Park could play if Milwaukee’s bats got something going, and he said afterwards that they definitely were a factor, especially when things got rolling in their four-run first sparked by Jesus Aguilar’s two-out, two-run double after the Dodgers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening frame.

“I will tell you the only other thing I said is I thought it was important that we put a zero up in the first inning,” Counsell said after the 7-2 win.

“I don’t know if I said that to you guys. We obviously didn’t.

“But look, [Jesus Aguilar’s] hit, it was -- you couldn’t describe it as any bigger. It lifted the roof off the place, and the first inning was loud from then on. The rest of the game, whenever we got in a scoring situation it got really loud. And I thought it helped us. It certainly put a crazy amount of energy in the dugout and it made it a lot of fun.”

So what will the Game 7 crowd in Miller Park do to boost their team? Will the Dodgers be able to take them out of the game and make the crowd a non-factor?

We’ll find out at 8:09 PM EDT tonight...

HERE ARE THE DODGERS & BREWERS’ LINEUPS FOR GAME 7 OF THE NLCS: