Tanner Scott removed from NLDS roster due to abscess incision, Justin Wrobleski added

Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott was removed from the team’s National League Division Series roster on Thursday after having a lower-body abscess incision the night before, manager Dave Roberts announced before Game 4 of the series.

Scott was replaced on the roster by left-hander Justin Wrobleski, and will be ineligible to play in the National League Championship Series under MLB’s postseason injury rules if the Dodgers do advance.

Coming off a dismal regular season in which he had 4.74 ERA and MLB-most 10 blown saves, Scott had yet to pitch, or even warm up, at any point in this postseason.

Then, this week, he began dealing with an abscess in an unspecified area of the lower half of his body.

Roberts said signs of the issue first popped up during the team’s Tuesday night workout. However, leading up to Game 3, general manager Brandon Gomes said the team “thought he was on the other side of it.”

That did not prove to be the case. Scott was not only in too much pain to even report to Dodger Stadium for Wednesday night’s contest, but instead went for an incision procedure that Roberts described as an “urgent matter.”

“He was planning to come [to the ballpark],” Gomes said, “but was like: ‘I gotta go. This is too painful.’”

Gomes said it left the Dodgers with too little time to replace Scott on the roster for Game 3 — and insisted that, even if they had, any of the pitchers they would have replaced him with would have been either unavailable or not “all that fresh” for Game 3 after the team’s extended live batting practice session at Tuesday’s workout.

“[It was a] tight window, and factoring that in, it was like, ‘Let’s just see where we’re at today,’” Gomes said. “And then made the move.”

Of course, not having, or replacing, Scott came with some unexpected consequences in the Dodgers’ Wednesday night defeat; effectively contributing to their need to pitch Clayton Kershaw in relief for a second — and what proved to be disastrous — inning of work in the eighth.

At that point of the game, Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer had already pitched. The club’s only remaining relievers (Roki Sasaki, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen, who ultimately pitched the ninth) were of higher-leverage variety.

Roberts would have loved to keep what was a 3-1 score at the time close, and force the Phillies to bring closer Jhoan Durán into the game for a six-out save — one that, Phillies manager Rob Thomson acknowledged postgame, would have left him available for only one inning in Game 4.

“If any,” Thomson added with relief.

But, Roberts didn’t want to use his better relievers in a losing game either.

Thus, Kershaw returned to the mound following a shaky but scoreless seventh inning, and immediately wrote another ugly chapter into his haunting postseason history, giving up five runs that put the game out of reach and allowed the Phillies to stay away from Durán for the final two innings.

“Would have loved to get Durán in the game tonight,” Roberts said.

Gomes attempted to downplay the impact of the team’s delay in removing Scott from the roster, reiterating the notion that — given the live BP before — any replacement would have been unable to make a notable contribution to Game 3.

Still, the situation loomed over the team ahead of another close-out opportunity in Game 4 on Thursday, with the Dodgers only able to hope that their inability to get Durán into the game the previous night wouldn’t end up costing them.

As for Scott, both Roberts and Gomes said the left-hander could be an option for the World Series if the Dodgers get there. His timeline for recovery is roughly 1-2 weeks.

“Obviously, if we advance, it takes him off for the CS,” Gomes said. “And then we’ll see where we’re at after that.”