Did Game 1 of the NLCS get overmanaged by Cubs and Dodgers?

The Cubs win over the Dodgers was thrilling, but, man, there were a lot of managerial moves

The dust has settled in the NLCS after a dramatic 8-4 Cubs victory, chock full of late-inning heroics from both offenses. The big and most obvious storyline is Miguel Montero's game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, of course, but I can't just stop thinking about how much managing we saw.

In fact, one might say it was overmanaging. On both sides. Let's run through two particular half innings.

Bottom of the sixth

Javier Baez had doubled with one out and then was still standing at second with two outs with the pitcher spot due up. Jon Lester is a not a very good hitter, obviously, and Cubs manager Joe Maddon decided he really wanted the run to score. So he pinch hit with Jorge Soler.

Now, the Cubs had a 3-1 lead. If the score was tied or the Cubs were losing or, hell, even if they were only winning by one, it might have made some bit of sense to desperately try and tack on the Baez run.

Of course, what were the chances Soler was going to knock Baez in? Sure, he has immense power and the wind was blowing out to left, but he hit .171 in the final month of the season and was 0-4 in the NLDS. He's played sparingly. Quite simply: A Soler hit there really was a long shot.

Meantime, Lester had only thrown 77 pitches. He had only allowed four hits and a run through six innings. That one run was a home run by Andre Ethier that was unbelievably wind-aided, too. Having said that, we should point out that anyone watching the game didn't think Lester was dominating the Dodgers. They were squaring him up all night and were the victims of a combination of the Cubs' outstanding defense and a lot of "at-him" balls. It happens.

Jon Lester had a good outing in Game 1, though he only threw 77 pitches. USATSI

Still, Lester against that Dodger lineup seemed like a solid bet moving forward. At the very least, we can all agree Lester throwing another two quality innings was a better bet than a Soler hit, right? I'd take the Lester side in that wager.

Soler meekly grounded out to short and the inning was over with the Cubs still leading 3-1.

Aside from that move, I don't think Maddon did anything else definitively wrong the rest of the night. His counterpart, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, on the other hand ...

Bottom of the eighth

First off, let's note that setup man Joe Blanton has had an excellent season, but that Roberts also rode him very hard in the NLDS. Blanton appeared in Games 1, 3, 4 and 5. He threw 85 pitches, including 72 in the final three games of the series and then only had one day of rest before Game 1 of the NLCS. It's pretty likely his arm was tired when he took the mound.

Blanton gives up a leadoff double to Ben Zobrist and then induces an Addison Russell grounder. Next up, Jason Heyward. Sure, Heyward had tripled earlier in the game, but he hit .230/.306/.325 in the regular season and was 1 for 12 in the NLDS.

Roberts elected to intentionally walk Heyward.

Bear in mind, this is now a tied game. One run might not beat you, but the more runners you put on base, the bigger the chance that a possible deficit heading into the top of the ninth will be multiple runs.

Not only that, but Javier Baez was standing on deck. Throw out any numbers and just think for a quick second with our brains: Who would you rather face with the game on the line, Javier Baez or Jason Heyward?

This is where I think sometimes managers can out-think themselves. The answer is that everyone on the planet would rather be facing Heyward.

Now, the Dodgers dodged (oops!) that bullet. Baez flied out. Now there were two outs and Maddon was sending up lefty Chris Coghlan to pinch hit. Roberts again decides on the intentional walk.

Let's go back to Blanton's workload. Remember, his arm is probably already tired. He's now up to 14 pitches and Roberts is electing to put Coghlan on. So 18. Sure, eight of those were intentional balls which aren't high stress, but they are still pitches on a tired arm.

Aside from that, putting on Coghlan was all kinds of questionable. First off, you're talking about a guy who hit .252 for the Cubs during the regular season. He's a high on-base guy (.391 OBP with Cubs), but there are two outs and -- so long as you don't walk him -- the chances of a hit aren't outstanding.

Worse, Roberts decided to load the bases. This is a tied game and it's the bottom of the eighth, not the ninth. In a walk-off situation, the lead runner is the only one that matters and he's already in scoring position at second. In the eighth, now Roberts put another guy in scoring position and a third on base. Not only that, but now a wild pitch or passed ball gives the Cubs a lead. So would a walk or hit-by-pitch. A single gives them a two-run lead and a gapper puts them up three.

So there's no margin for error from Blanton. He can't try to make the hitter chase outside the zone, because there's a risk of a walk. Breaking balls low and outside the zone carry the risk of getting past the catcher and inside breakers could hit the batter. Again, remember that Blanton is tired and command leaves pitchers before velocity.

So forgive me for chuckling when I see "he hung a slider!" about Blanton's pitch to Miguel Montero here:

There's probably a reason he hung it. He's tired and he couldn't chance it being low and inside -- with the risk of it hitting Montero or getting away.

Blanton giving up a home run due to being tired wouldn't really be Roberts overmanaging, but Roberts walking two rather unintimidating hitters on purpose to load the bases definitely qualifies. Put that up against Maddon's lifting of Lester and it would seem that Roberts, the rookie, was only following the lead of the grizzled veteran.

Both of these managers are excellent. Each tried to do a little (or maybe a lot in the case of Roberts) too much in Game 1. Managers can still be aggressive without going overboard. It would probably behoove them to take a step back in advance of Game 2.