NEW YORK – The Dodgers have tried to walk a tightrope this postseason with their bullpen, and although they came within one game of winning the World Series with that strategy, things didn’t go their way in their final postseason bullpen game in Game 4.

“It’s a challenge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team’s game. 11-4 loss to the Yankees.

Rookie Ben Casparius was the man chosen to be the team’s starter on Tuesday against the Yankees, and while he allowed just one run in his two innings, his three walks created a lot of high-stress pitches, which turned out to be the theme. of the game. first innings for the Dodgers arms.

Roberts then turned to veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson to be the bridge between Casparius and Landon Knack. The hope was that Hudson would make it through the heart of the Yankees’ lineup without sustaining major damage. However, Hudson didn’t have his best stuff, and the even bigger problem was that his lack of control quickly put hitters into favorable counts, setting him up for trouble.

Hudson began the third inning behind against Juan Soto, and after a Soto strikeout for the first out of the inning, things began to go wrong. The Dodgers right-hander allowed the next three batters to reach base, drilling Aaron Judge, allowing a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and walking Giancarlo Staton.

“Obviously, it was a mess of my own making in the third,” Hudson said afterward. “I made some good pitches to Juan to start the inning, and then he got away from me.”

Hudson almost found his way out of trouble. He induced a fly ball from Anthony Rizzo for a critical second out, bringing shortstop Anthony Volpe to the plate.

On the first pitch he saw, Volpe, 23, electrified the Yankee Stadium crowd looking for something to celebrate, smashing a slider into the left field seats for a grand slam and giving the Bronx Bombers a 5-point lead. -2 which would turn out to be enough to force Game 5 on Wednesday.

“I just threw a really bad slider,” Hudson said after the game. “Just one of those that just slips out of your hand and (you get) an instant feeling of ‘Oh, no’ in your stomach.”

Said Roberts: “I had Stanton 1-2 and I just couldn’t take him out. Then he gets a pop-up, and he’s one out away from getting out of it, leaving a slider next to Volpe’s arm. “That was the difference in that inning.”

The Los Angeles offense had taken an early lead Another Freddie Freeman home run and, even after the grand slam, he had chances to come back in this one, starting with Will Smith’s solo home run that made it 5-3 in the fifth. But the Dodgers couldn’t muster a big inning against the Yankees bullpen, which didn’t allow a run in five innings. Aside from the two big fly balls, the Dodgers offense managed just four other hits on the night.

Shohei Ohtani, still starting with his injured shoulder, seemed somewhat hampered in his at-bats, but hit a 102 mph fly ball and a 103.8 mph single.

“We’ve asked him many times and that’s not an impediment,” Roberts said over Ohtani’s shoulder. “He’s not sorry.”

The Yankees stepped up late in the game, scoring a run in the sixth inning against Knack and five more against cleanup Brent Honeywell in the eighth, opening Game 4 with New York’s biggest offensive outburst in the series by far.

“I don’t think anyone expected those guys to give up,” Roberts said afterward. “…Those guys unfortunately responded. “It was a good game until it wasn’t.”

Casparius added: “Obviously, we want to take care of every day. A win would have been great today. But that’s baseball.”

The only silver lining to the Dodgers’ loss in Game 4 was the work done by Knack to eat up a chunk of the innings, keeping the Dodgers in the game before things got too late. The right-hander got 12 outs with just one run allowed in his best outing of the postseason. As a result, Roberts was able to stay away from all of his senior relievers, notably Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen, who will be rested and available Wednesday.

“I was really trying to get by as much as I could,” Knack said. “I’m really just trying to mix it up well. Last time (against the Mets), I got in trouble just trying to throw two pitches. Today, I really tried to make everything work. The mentality after that was just trying to stay in the game.”

The Dodgers will now send Jack Flaherty to the mound for Game 5, facing Gerrit Cole in a rematch of Game 1. Flaherty, backed by Los Angeles’ best relief arms, will try to be the series closer for the Dodgers and avoid May this Fall Classic return to Los Angeles.

“At the end of the day, we’re still in a pretty good position,” Roberts said. “And we feel good. “We will be ready to go tomorrow.”