NEW YORK – As Game 4 unfolded and the margins tightened, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was faced with an interesting choice – the type you rarely face in the high-stakes environment of a World Series. The first was to use his best relievers in hopes that his offense would come all the way back, giving the Dodgers the best possible chance to capture a title. The other was essentially kicking, using lower leverage relievers to save his best arms for another day.

Roberts clearly took the latter approach in Tuesday’s 11-4 loss to the New York Yankees. The hope – with his team still up 3-1 and a win away from a championship – is that this will pay off in the very near future.

“It’s a challenge,” Roberts said. “I think you have to make sure you can score some runs. Any guy we put in tonight certainly wouldn’t have been able to throw tomorrow.”

The Dodgers burned six high-leverage relievers who threw a combined 100 pitches in Monday’s Game 3. It gave them a win that gave them a commanding lead in this best-of-seven series, but it seriously jeopardized the bullpen game that was to be organized. 24 hours later.

The Dodgers used unknowns Ben Casparius and Landon Knack to tackle six of the first seven innings of Game 4, giving up just two runs. When the eighth inning arrived, LA trailed by two. But instead of plucking from his group of powerful arms — led by Blake Treinen, who warmed up in Game 3 but didn’t pitch — Roberts handed the ball to Brent Honeywell, a long reliever who did the Yeoman’s work through the bullpen in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, but is nevertheless low in the pecking order.

Honeywell then gave up five runs, turning Game 4 into a loss.

Asked if it was tempting to chase a win in that situation, Roberts said: “No. Not 6-4 in the eighth, it wasn’t. No.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen limits first occurred much earlier. Freddie Freeman had once again provided an early lead for LA with a two-run homer in the first inning, setting a record for hitting a home run in six consecutive World Series games through 2021, when he joined the Atlanta Braves was. But the Yankees scored a run in the second and ran off four more in the third against Daniel Hudson, the lone high-leverage reliever the Dodgers ultimately used in Game 4.

Hudson, who also threw 22 pitches in Game 3, beat Aaron Judge, gave up a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr., walked Giancarlo Stanton and, after getting Anthony Rizzo to make the second out, was tagged for a grand slam by Anthony Volpe, giving the Yankees a 5-2 lead. That third inning, Roberts said, was Hudson’s job to take down no matter how it went.

“That was his inning,” Roberts said. “I think he was on 20 pitches, something like that. He had Volpe in hand, so I’m not going to get someone in the third inning to get Volpe when he was just setting up a man.”

The Dodgers successfully used a bullpen game to keep their season alive in Game 4 of the NL Division Series and then clinched another pennant in Game 6 of the NLCS. But it also failed in Game 2 of the NLCS and in Game 4 of this round. They’re done with that now. If the World Series extends far enough to return to Los Angeles, the Dodgers will have Yoshinobu Yamamoto ready to take the ball in Game 6 and Walker Buehler in line to start a Game 7 where the winner takes all.

Before that, Game 5 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night will be Jack Flaherty vs. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. But Flaherty will get help. Treinen, who has been used for four or more outs four times this postseason, will be four days removed from his last appearance. Brusdar Graterol, Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda, Ryan Brasier and Michael Kopech will be available after a day off, with another to follow if necessary.

The Dodgers essentially lost one game hoping it would help them win another.

“We knew it was a bullpen game,” Roberts said. “As far as the results are concerned: to have six boys in your pen who feel good and rested, I feel good about that. And that I am 3-1 ahead.”