The Los Angeles Dodgers have their backs against the wall on Wednesday as they face off against the St. Louis Cardinals in an elimination Game 5 in the National League Championship Series and whether the team wins or loses the NLCS, it appears that manager Don Mattingly will be returning to the bench.
Mattingly was reportedly close to getting fired early in the season when the team started off terribly and now according to CBS Sports, the manager will be returning to the team next season. The report from CBS Sports writes that sources have said that the franchise wants to bring Mattingly back after taking the team to the playoffs and the NLCS and while he is not signed for 2014 right now, the team plans on bringing him back, although they could pick up an option of $1.4 million for him for next season without an extension.
Mattingly looks like a lock to come back, but he has had some managerial decisions questioned over the year and when the team was near 10 games out of the division, he was almost canned. His latest decision came against the Cardinals in Game 1 when he pulled Adrian Gonzalez for a pinch runner early and that came back to bite him. After taking him out on first base when the team was down in the eighth inning for Dee Gordon, on the next play Gordon was tagged out and that decision reverberated through the game.
The Dodgers tied the game and went into extras and due to the switch, Michael Young was up at bat when Gonzalez would have been in the extras and on top of that, Gordon was not available later when Mark Ellis tagged from third and was thrown out at home plate by Carlos Beltran. While those decisions may have worked out in other cases, in this game it didn't and now the team is down 3-1 in the series.
Dodgers managing partner Mark Walter said in the CBS article that the team feels he has done a good job, but there has been no official word on his status. The Dodgers likely will bring him back and it's pretty amazing after he nearly was fired after the terrible start for the Dodgers.
