	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS CUBS

October 15, 2016

Dave Roberts

Chicago, Illinois - Postgame 1

Cubs - 8, Dodgers - 4

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. Can you walk us through the thought process in the 8th, especially walking Coghlan and then also staying with Blanton against the lefty?
DAVE ROBERTS: It's just one of those things where obviously in that situation you got to walk Heyward, with the open base, and he gets Baez to fly out and then right there obviously I'm looking at the card and I see Chapman's still in the game, and where we're at on our side coming up, hitters coming up, didn't love the matchups. It's hard to love the matchups against Chapman anyway. But we had some left-handers coming up. So, for me, Coghlan is their first left-handed bat off the bench, I know Joe's going to throw strikes, and so to then walk Coghlan, to then bring up Montero, if I go to a left-hander they bring in Contreras. So, right there there's really no matchup advantage, it's more of I trust Joe, I've trusted him all year long, he's been great for us, and he got ahead 0-2 and left a pitch up. So, again, at that point in time you know they got to bring in Rondon, and so I felt good for us to win the game, if we could get out of that inning. And it just didn't work out. But it was -- our guys fought. It was a well played game.

Q. Adrian Gonzalez's big hit off of Chapman, what's going through your mind in that inning and then just seeing Adrian get that big hit in a spot where you needed it?
DAVE ROBERTS: Adrian's been -- throughout his career he's gotten so many big hits. When it gets hot and stressful, he finds away to calm down and take a good swing. Obviously you got a guy throwing a hundred miles an hour, left on left, there's no panic, and he just took a nice swing. Big hit. And right there, yeah, I thought we were going to win the game.

Q. What did you see with Maeda today?
DAVE ROBERTS: I thought Maeda was good. There was a couple balls that found the outfield grass, but I thought he competed well. I thought he gave us everything he had, and he gave us a chance to win. Right there, third time through, I felt good going to Baez, but again, Kenta was a victim of a little bit of bad luck. And that's the beautiful thing about this game, you can square balls up and get nothing to show for it, which I felt we did tonight a lot, and you can hit some flares that find outfield grass. So Kenta pitched well.

Q. This is your first postseason as a manager. Obviously there were a lot of decisions. When you make decisions like you made tonight, and you know in your heart in the moment that they're the right decision but they turn out like that, when you put your head in the pillow, do you second guess yourself at all?
DAVE ROBERTS: No. I think that's the thing is that as long as you think through things and put guys in the best position to have success on your team, a chance to win, you can do the right things, but they can't always work out, but I think the process for me, I felt really good about it. And I would do the same thing over again. 10 times out of 10 I would take Joe Blanton against Montero, and he took a good swing on a 0-2 pitch. And it's going to happen. That's baseball.

Q. Just in general, after the Adrian Gonzalez single, you say you felt like you guys were going to win, it was a winnable game, but don't win. How costly -- how much does it hurt to be 0-1 instead of 1-0?
DAVE ROBERTS: It stings a little bit, absolutely, but I think that just the way that we kept fighting and kept playing and whether we lose by a run or four or five runs, it really doesn't matter, but I thought that our at-bats all night long were quality. There was some very good defense played on both sides, some good pitching on both sides. So, yeah, I thought we were going to win it, but we'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. Going back to the second inning when Heyward was on third with none out. What was the thought process in moving the infield in there with Baez at the plate?
DAVE ROBERTS: I just felt that where they were at in the order, I didn't expect a big inning where they were at in the bottom of the order, so I felt that it puts a little extra pressure on a player to drive a run in to hit a fly ball. And Kenta made a good pitch, 1-2, and he stuck his bat out there and it was a flare. And honestly, if he was playing in regular depth, I don't know if he would have made the play anyway. So it's one of those things that you just can't -- you just don't know where the baseball's going to end up.

Q. At what point did you start thinking about Chapman, getting him out of the game? When did that kind of process begin in your head?
DAVE ROBERTS: As we started -- as they started getting some guys on base and started to see where they were at, it was an aggressive move by Joe. He brought him in for six outs, and for us to get to him and stressed him in that inning, but as they started moving down and you see the pitcher's spot up and you're trying to -- as the game was tied you're trying to figure out a way to win it. And what's the best way to win that game? Is to get him out of the game. So, I felt that if we did that, then the game was ours.

Q. You mentioned the hard-hit balls all night. You had at least five line outs, a bunch of great plays on the Cubs' side. How encouraging is it to know that Kershaw is lined up for Game 2 and the offense was clicking the way it was tonight?
DAVE ROBERTS: It was great. If it was a sloppy game and we didn't play or compete, you get a little bit more of a sour face. But we played hard. We played well. And we do have Kersh going tomorrow, so that's a good thing. So I know that he'll be ready, and I know that there will be 24 other guys in that clubhouse that will be ready to go.

Q. With Lester bunting when you guys had Baez there, what was your thought just watching that? Did you think that you got him?
DAVE ROBERTS: Excuse me?

Q. On Lester bunting and Baez took the big lead off third, wound up stealing home. Did you think you guys had him there?
DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, yeah, it was one of those -- it's -- Baez was in the middle of the baseline, and I don't think Carlos could see the depth. And so we had him hung up. But it's hard for the catcher. The visual is right in line with the base. And so, yeah, he reacted and thought he was closer to third base, and obviously he wasn't. So, yeah, it was kind of a miscue on their part, but obviously benefited them.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297