CHICAGO -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made all the right moves in the previous playoff round. Sticking with Joe Blanton backfired in the NL Championship Series opener.Blanton gave up a tiebreaking grand slam to pinch-hitter Miguel Montero and a homer to Dexter Fowler on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning Saturday night, dooming the Dodgers to an 8-4 loss against the Chicago Cubs.Well be ready tomorrow, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. This game gave us a lot of confidence. We know we can beat them.Roberts was praised for his aggressive pitching moves in the Division Series clincher at Washington, where closer Kenley Jansen was summoned in the seventh and ace starter Clayton Kershaw earned a save.But against the Cubs, a big decision backfired.Gonzalez had just tied the score in the eighth with a two-out, two-run single on one of the 100 mph-plus darts from Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman.Blanton relieved to start the bottom half and gave up Ben Zobrists leadoff double. Addison Russell grounded to third, and Roberts had Blanton intentionally walk left-handed-hitting Jason Heyward to bring up righty Javier Baez for a righty-against-righty matchup.Youve got to walk Heyward with the open base, Roberts said.Baez flied to right. Lefty Chris Coghlan hit for righty David Ross, and Roberts decided to intentionally walk him to load the bases -- bringing up Chapmans spot in the batting order.Obviously, Im looking at the card and I see Chapmans still in the game, Roberts said. I felt good for us to win the game, if we could get out of that inning.Cubs manager Joe Maddon responded by sending up the left-handed-hitting Montero. Roberts chose to stick with Blanton -- Chicago would have batted righty Willson Contreras if the Dodgers brought in a lefty.I trust Joe. Ive trusted him all year long. Hes been great for us, and he got ahead 0-2 and left a pitch up, Roberts said. It just didnt work out. But it was -- our guys fought. It was a well-played game.Montero fouled off a slider and swung past another. Blanton came back with yet another slider on the 0-2 pitch. Montero drove it about halfway up the right-field bleachers.Bases loaded, I was going to go with my strength, Blanton said. I faced him earlier in the year. I kind of did the same thing and had success. Got ahead and tried to bury a slider and I didnt and got lucky on that one, actually. Probably the same pitch as the next one, or very close. Both backup sliders. Just didnt execute. Especially 0-2, cant do that in that situation.Montero took a curtain call, and the crowd was still roaring when Fowler sent a hanging curveball 362 feet to right.Kershaw will try to tie the best-of-seven series Sunday night for the Dodgers, coming off a heavy workload in the NLDS. The three-time Cy Young Award winner pitched in all three Los Angeles wins and earned a two-out save in the decisive Game 5 on Thursday.That was one of several unconventional moves by Roberts, who pushed Jansen to a career-high 51 pitches before Kershaw came to the rescue.This time, the Dodgers played from behind most of the night.Kenta Maeda gave up three runs and four hits before pinch-hitter Andre Ethier hit a solo homer batting for the pitcher in the fifth.Los Angeles managed just one run and four hits in six innings against Jon Lester before tying it in the eighth.Trailing 3-1, the Dodgers loaded the bases with none out when Andrew Toles beat Kris Bryant to third after he fielded Justin Turners infield single.Chapman came in to relieve Pedro Strop and struck out Corey Seager and Yasiel Puig before Gonzalez lined a 102 mph fastball up the middle.If it was a sloppy game and we didnt play or compete, you get a little bit more of a sour face, Roberts said. But we played hard. 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And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie. The field of sabermetrics has made a lot of strides in assessing performance and value, but one area where it remains difficult to peg whos good and who isnt is evaluating baseball managers. Every single one of them was hired for a reason, almost all of them will eventually be fired for other reasons. Some of them will go to the Hall of Fame, and others youll forget faster than you can say, John Felske. But what they do, who they play, what they ask players to do, how well they prepare them, matters. Everybody wants to improve and win, becausse flags fly forever.ddddddddddddThis isnt easy, though. Theres a big part of the job we cant describe well, if at all: Leadership or people skills, or whether or not a guy runs an effective management team with his coaches. Most of those things, all critically important to how good a manager might be, handling his players and working with his front office, are usually going to be opaque to reporters and analysts. ' ' '