Joe Kelly, Miguel Rojas, and others on the World Series champion Dodgers have openly trolled and ripped the Yankees for their performance in the Fall Classic, particularly for their defensive and baserunning miscues in the five-game series.
Michael Kopech can be added to that list.
The Dodgers pitcher, talking on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast with Rob Bradford, called out the Yanks as well, this time going after how the team handled mound visits, particularly Anthony Rizzo.
“Man, I really didn’t want to say names here. I’m just gonna say it,” Kopech said. “Rizzo made hundreds of mound visits in the World Series. You can almost see the pitchers’ faces, just like, ‘What could they be talking about right now?’
“We had a running joke in the bullpen of ‘Rizzo visits remaining.’ It was like, every time there was a mound visit, it was Rizzo.”
Mound visits seem like a reach of a criticism, especially when the Yankees had other glaring problems, like their defense that cost them the tying run in game one and five unearned runs in the disastrous fifth inning of game five, but regardless, the Dodgers have clearly enjoyed teeing off on the Yanks, who imploded after setting themselves up for a chance to force a game six.
For Kopech, the difference in mound visits played a role, as a mound visit for him in the ninth inning of game three helped him settle down and lock down the win, and a 3-0 series lead, after allowing a two-run home run to Alex Verdugo.
“To put in perspective of how it was for us, our guys were doing it at the right time,” Kopech said. “And they cared about putting everything in the right perspective.”