NL WILDCARD GAME: DODGERS VS CARDINALS

October 6, 2021

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Have you had a conversation with the team, and if so, what was it?

DAVE ROBERTS: I did not. I think that there's a time and place, and I just felt that our guys are in a good place. We've got a lot of guys that have been in this situation and know what's at stake.

Our focus is to win a ballgame, and I don't think they need to hear me emphasize that.

Q. With Mookie Betts, he talked about this year has been challenging and frustrating for him. How have you seen him bounce back?

DAVE ROBERTS: Very pleased, more so, of his willingness and openness to do whatever it took to get him back on the field. You look back a couple months, I can't believe we're here with him playing every day. It's amazing.

A credit to the doctors and training staff and Mookie most important. He's playing good baseball. To have him on our club certainly makes me a lot better manager and makes us a better club.

Q. What lead to the decision to put Matt Beaty at first base?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think for me it was kind of starting initially with who's on the mound for us, and that's Max Scherzer. He's typically a high strike-out guy with a high volume of right-handed batters, so I think that center field defense, outfield defense is really important.

And if the ball is on the ground, it should be the left side of the infield. So now to have somebody that can catch it from the left side of the diamond is -- I'm good with Matt over there and also Matt is swinging the bat well, so to have him take a couple at-bats against Wainwright and potentially be able to pivot out of that if we need to -- I think Gavin is a great option, but just hasn't played a whole lot of outfield, so to introduce that variable, I think it just gives us the best chance to win tonight, having to deploy him in a spot.

Albert, I like Albert. I trust him. Certainly the range factor, and I just think that the ability to have him on the bench against a lefty outweighed that decision.

Outside of that, there were some other options, but on the margins, that was kind of it.

Q. With all the kind of players and the two great players starting at the mound, how would you describe tonight for baseball fans?

DAVE ROBERTS: How would I describe it? I think they got to see Red Sox-Yankees last night. They get to see two of the best baseball franchises in sports over the long decades in the Dodgers and the Cardinals go at it.

So we're going to be covered -- the U.S., we've got the midwest, we've got the northeast covered and we've got the west covered. I think as a baseball fan, it's an elimination, it's one game. You've got Wainwright, who you can't not root for and love and appreciate, and you've got Max Scherzer, who I feel is the same.

It's going to be a great game. As a baseball fan, I think I can be a fan for a minute, but soon I'm going to go into manager mode. But it's great. It's great for the game.

Q. How different was it preparing for a one-game playoff like this compared to years past?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's different in the sense of it's one game. There's no guarantee for the next day. There's not always-tomorrow mindset. There was a little bit of kind of figuring out the extra players because of Max's injury, Max Muncy's injury.

Obviously having your best arms, that makes sense against potentially a heavy right-handed lineup. Kind of going through scenarios of how we can come out of things, what gives us the best chance to win this ballgame.

But I think overarching, overall, it was actually really easy because from day one all we've talked about is winning one game. So here we are. We've got to just win one game.

Q. (Regarding bullpen.)

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it just speaks to -- this is a very talented team, in particular against left-handed pitching. So I just felt that talking to our guys, coaches, front office, what gives us the best chance to prevent runs. Love David, what he does, but I just think that the skill set for one game, just for David and Justin on this roster just didn't make as much sense.

Q. I know you typically like to split up lefties as you did today with Bellinger and Beaty. What was the thought process there?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think there's a point where if I feel that -- well, just specifically I just felt A.J. deserves to be in that spot. He's played well all year versus left, versus right, and he deserves to be there.

There's a right-handed run certainly; there's a left-handed run, which I can come out of it with the two lefties. But I think that having A.J. in the 6 today gives us the best chance to win.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Trea Turner, just generally what did him coming here do for your team, and how do you think he compares to the other most valuable players in the National League this season?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think how does he -- yeah. I think that the other most valuable players, he posts, he plays every day. He plays and has played a premium position in shortstop. He changed positions to a position he hadn't played in years to -- and getting traded in a middle of a season, to not have those numbers go down or get depressed or suppressed. They got better, actually. So that speaks to him.

What he's done for the clubhouse, he's just added stability, a dynamic of being able to hit the ball line to line, steal a base, score from first base, pencil him in at the top of the order. He's got a really cool outlook on life in the sense of -- like I heard the other day, he's like, One game Wild Card, sudden death, do or die, this is fun.

So I think guys understand that as opposed to kind of going into a deeper level of what this game means.

Q. Did you see yourself using Julio in a high-leverage, one-inning situation?

DAVE ROBERTS: Julio would be used -- certainly it would be late, and I say late. I can't foresee anything before the eighth inning, ninth inning. If the game gets funky, which we've all seen a lot of baseball games, that they can get funky.

But that's kind of where I would see him.

Q. I'm not sure it matters given the length of time, but has he thrown his bullpen since he last started on Saturday?

DAVE ROBERTS: He did. He did.

Q. Where is your confidence level with Chris Taylor right now, and how he's played the second half, how did that play into whether or not he would start today?

DAVE ROBERTS: My confidence in Chris as a baseball player hasn't changed. I think that he certainly -- he's been grinding the second half. He really has.

But he's going to -- we're going to need him. We're going to need him, and I can't predict what spot, whether it's to get a bunt down, take an at-bat, play defense, start a game. I can't predict that.

I do know that he's one of my favorite players. I trust him as a ballplayer, as a person.

Like I said, we're going to need him this postseason.

Q. Does what you did last year make it any easier for this group to not get too wound up at the prospect of an elimination game?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know what, I don't think so. To be quite honest, I thought it would, but the expectations outside of this room, or that room, the expectations inside that room haven't changed.

No, that hasn't changed.

Q. So it's not like, we've done this last year...

DAVE ROBERTS: No. Absolutely not. Not at all.

Q. Cardinals' speed a concern, or how much of a concern is it tonight?

DAVE ROBERTS: I trust Max as far as controlling the running game. I like Will behind the plate. But when you've got Edman in particular, Bader at the bottom, and a little O'Neill, I think it's a heavy ballclub. They're a heavy ballclub, and they're opportunistic on the bases. They're aggressive.

Guys on second base, we've got to be mindful of signs and keeping guys and not giving away bases. It's certainly been a topic that we've discussed many times, yeah.

Q. You've obviously managed in a Game 7 of a World Series elimination; in that scenario you saw him six different times. How does this feel different in particular with the pressure that's outside?

DAVE ROBERTS: The first -- well, the Game 7, it's a different starting pitcher. It's two different teams. I'll even say, our team is different. It's an elimination game.

It was certainly unknown to us at that point in time, but the guys that are kind of carryovers, I think that the experience certainly helps, but you've still got to go out there and play.

I think that sometimes you can say that naïveté of the experience and go out there and roll the balls out there is the benefit, is beneficial.

I can't say that until after this game is over. I think we can say that all the time.

For our group, I'll say the experience matters, and I like our guy taking the mound tonight.

Q. What's your feeling after a run of winning a division, now you're involved at this end of the playoff format? Do you like it? Would you rather see it changed? Last year you had two out of three first round and the anomaly of the COVID season. What would you prefer to see on this going forward?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I did lose a bet to Bruce Bochy. I lost a dinner and a nice bottle of bordeaux because we didn't win the division. He had the Giants, I had the Dodgers. Outside of that, I just haven't spent a whole lot of time on what would be -- for me I look at things and what's the solution.

I haven't done enough work on what's a better solution. Can I sit here and say this is not ideal after you win X amount of games? Not ideal, but it is what it is, and I just don't want our guys and expect our guys to think otherwise.

Until they change it, this is the way the format is. I'm sure you have better insight than I do. I just don't know. I don't have a better solution right now.

Q. What was the bottle?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's his choice, so knowing him it's going to be some type of first growth, so it's not going to be cheap.

Q. (No microphone.)

DAVE ROBERTS: When they had a -- sometime in August, so he was out ahead of it, maybe July.

Q. If it would have been April...

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, that would have been like -- yeah, exactly.