With Game 2 looming, Dan Rosenheck has already seen enough of Joe Torre:

With six pennants, four world championships, and a lifetime .540 winning percentage as a manager, Joe Torre’s ticket to Cooperstown has already been punched. However, if this year’s Dodgers give him his first pennant for a team other than the Yankees, it will be in spite of Torre’s managing, not because of it. Just one game into the N.L.C.S., he has already made three mystifying choices.

Gosh. Strong words.

Among Torre's three mystifying choices: starting Vicente Padilla in Games 2 and (probably) 5, which is indeed mystifying. Another (according to Rosenheck) is using Jonathan Broxton Thursday night when the Dodgers trailed by two runs in the ninth inning. Rosenheck:

Well, OK ... But maybe Broxton actually needed the work. He hadn't pitched since last Saturday, throwing 21 pitches in the Dodgers' clincher against the Cardinals. Four days off isn't a big problem for a closer, but what if the Dodgers don't need him in Game 2? Suddenly you're looking at almost a full week of vacation.

Which, again, probably isn't much of a problem. The more relevant argument is that managers don't need to worry much about resting their closers in the postseason because of the forgiving schedule. Game 5? Game 5 is preceded by an off-day. Game 6? Also preceded by an off-day. This best-of-seven series -- if it goes the distance and the weather cooperates -- will last 10 days; plenty of rest for everyone, including the short relievers.

Rosenheck's No. 1 complaint, though? Leaving Clayton Kershaw in the game for too long:

But after delivering four scoreless innings to start the game, Kershaw lost it in the fifth. He surrendered a leadoff single, a wild pitch, a walk and a three-run homer to catcher Carlos Ruiz to start the inning, leaving the Dodgers trailing by two runs. He then proceeded to walk the pitcher on four straight balls, induce a ground-ball out, notch a strikeout on another wild pitch and then toss a third wild pitch to Chase Utley before walking him, too. The electric but erratic Kershaw has struggled with his control all season, and by the time Ryan Howard strolled to the plate with two men on, it was obvious that the Kershaw had no clue where the ball was going.

In the first game of the division series, Torre gave starter Randy Wolf an admirably quick hook, yanking him with the bases loaded and two out in the fourth inning, before he could allow a crippling blow. Torre’s trust in his deep and versatile bullpen paid off with a 5-3 win.

But that move’s success clearly did not inspire Torre to repeat it in the next round. With two out and the pitcher’s spot due up in the next inning, his reluctance to yank Kershaw was understandable, particularly since Howard has a big and consistent platoon split. Nonetheless, Torre was allowing a rattled young starter, who was suffering a severe bout of wildness and who had already thrown 31 pitches in the inning, to face a fearsome slugger like Howard with men on base in a close game — a reckless display of faith.

It's those 31 pitches that give me pause. That's a lot of pitches for one inning, and it's expecting an awful lot of any pitcher -- let alone a young pitcher with control issues -- to retire a hitter like Howard with runners on base in a big and close game. I don't recall if Torre had a left-hander warming in the bullpen, but he's carrying three lefty relievers in this series; in addition to George Sherrill and Hong-Chih Kuo, who both pitched last night, he also got strikeout machine Scott Elbert.

Pitching changes are tricky things, and it's easy to second-guess Torre now. I think the second-guessing is appropriate because of those 31 pre-Howard pitches, but considering 1) Elbert's inexperience and 2) Sherrill's performance later in the game, I'm only going to assign Torre one-half a mystifier for this one.

Which isn't to absolve the Dodger manager. That's one-and-a-half mystifiers already, and we're only one game into this thing.