NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 13, 2021

Dave Roberts

Oracle Park

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. I know, obviously, there's still another day for you to set your lineup, but do you have an idea of where you're going to have Gavin Lux play tomorrow?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know what, I don't. I think it's narrowed down to two positions in the outfield, but I still want to think through it more, so I haven't made that decision yet.

Q. How much of a factor is it, just the big center field at Oracle Park?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, it's a factor, but I still trust the play and the foot speed and the ability to catch the baseball, so I guess I look at it as really there's no bad option.

Q. And then with Julio, I know you sort of talked about him wanting to be that guy. Was there a point this season where you sort of realized that he was going to be able to -- that you could see him push through some of those barriers and sort of like keep going in the way that maybe surprised you?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't know if it was necessarily this year. I think early on in 2016 in the postseason we saw glimpses of the big moment and seeing the pulse. And then obviously at the height of it was last year and what he did in the NLCS and the World Series.

And this year I think he just continued to build on that experience, that confidence, and it's kind of propelled him to this season to just be an outstanding performer all year for us.

Q. Is there anything with the workload though that maybe surprised you? Like, maybe he was able to get past sort of some of the barriers. Obviously you guys kept him to a certain amount of, a certain extent since he came back from the shoulder, but I mean coming into this year and his ability to try to handle a full season's workload.

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's just one of those things that he was all, he's always been the player that's wanted more, where I think that we have been very, for his benefit, short- and long-term, probably been conservative and I don't think that we regret that at all.

But I think that when you have a player that wants more and expects a lot from himself, so I think it's one of those things that there's no one way to do things, so where we could have kind of ideally maybe curtailed some innings, but where we were at, we needed him, we needed his innings and he embraced it.

Q. I know you talked about after Game 1 wanting your hitters to have different clubs in their bag when they were facing Logan Webb. What do you believe they have taken away from seeing him the first time and the adjustments that they may make tomorrow night?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that you look at what Webb's done to us and obviously he's thrown the baseball really well against us and I think it just goes back to that big part of the field mindset. He's got really good stuff. The ball has a lot of action. And when he's right, he has really good command, and even when he's not, the ball kind of moves a lot.

So I think it's just the idea of staying short, use of the big part of the field, because most guys really, he doesn't give up a whole lot of slugs, so to kind of play for the slug is just a bad approach.

Q. I know there's been times this year where it's been Jekyll-and-Hyde with your offense. What do you see when things are going well for the offense and what do you guys have to do tomorrow?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think for us when it's going well we are taking our walks, we're getting into counts, we're essentially making the pitcher get himself into trouble, and we're not overly aggressive, but aggressive in the strike zone. So that's kind of the yin and yang. You want your hitters to be aggressive but to their zones and, when we start expanding. And Logan is a east-west guy, so just trying to get us to expand east-west. So if we can stay locked in on our zone that's when we're at our best.

Q. You've talked a couple times in this series about Dodgers-Giants, this is what baseball wants. Is it just the rivalry or is it something else about that, and maybe more importantly, how can baseball leverage this, now we've got a Game 5 with these two historic teams, to maybe develop some news fans?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think that's a great question. I think for me it's a lot of, we talk about the East Coast bias a lot here on the West Coast and Yankees-Red Sox.

But I think for me in any sport when you've got generational rivalries playing a meaningful series, and in this case, a very meaningful game, it just brings the old, the new, the rivalries, and all that kind of talk back to life. So I think that where baseball has kind of gone, you know, you're playing to the younger players, the fan base, but those generational rivalries are kind of the foundation of this sport and what made it America's pass time.

So I think that -- and there's just, on both sides of the ball clubs there's just tremendous men, tremendous ballplayers and for us as an industry not to leverage these guys and, it's just a missed opportunity. So how do you do that? I really don't know. I just know that I have a respect for a lot of these guys playing, as ballplayers and as men.

Q. Yesterday you said you're known to kind of change your mind on some things. Have you kind of given it some more thought on Max and if he is going to be available tomorrow out of the pen?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, it's highly unlikely. The goal is still to win the World Series and have Max starting Game 1 in the NLCS, if we get there, increase that chance, but obviously I'm not immune to the fact that you don't get there unless you win Game 5.

But how he feels matters because he's still got to be effective. So we'll have a conversation with him, I'm sure, today, tomorrow, and kind of gauge it, but in no way are we going to press him and put him in a position that we don't feel comfortable across the board.

Q. I guess I was just going to ask, so you guys haven't had a conversation with him. He hasn't trade to lobby, saying, I'm going to be ready to go or anything like that?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not yet, not yet. And I don't expect him to. So I think it's something that obviously people are talking about, I'm sure he's aware of, but again, we have a lot of good players, a lot of good guys, a lot of good arms that are fresh and are ready to go that I feel very confident can prevent runs tomorrow night.

Q. You mentioned last night that you thought that that was Mookie Betts' best swing. What have you seen, why did you think that was his best swing? I was just curious when you said that.

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it was just the balance throughout the swing, the synced up of the mechanics, getting a pitch to his nitro zone. Really to go backside like that is really hard to do and you've got to leverage a baseball the right way. And I think Mookie is a pull hitter. He's been very good for us this postseason. But to be able to take a ball backside like that and stay through it, it just allows you to cover a lot of different pitches if you can do that. So I just think overall it was picturesque.

Q. And when you see him take that swing, he obviously hit that ball hard off the Crawford the other night, do you sense that he's really locked in right now after that tough season he had with the hit?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, Mookie's in a really good spot. He is. He's confident. And any hitter that has conviction and you're not caught in between, that's a good sign, and I think right now he's in as good a spot as he's been all year.

Q. How different is your lineup when Cody is more of a threat like he has been the last few games?

DAVE ROBERTS: It just adds that different dynamic, obviously, of length to the lineup on the bases when he gets on there. Obviously the crowd feels it. His teammates want success for him. They feed off that energy. And you can see, when we really scuffled at times this year, the bottom third of the lineup just wasn't productive, and when we've sort of had success, we've had production all the way throughout and that's kind of how we're built.

Q. Are you seeing success, this success just breeding confidence in the guy. He seems a little looser right now than maybe at any point this season?

DAVE ROBERTS: As far as Cody or the Club?

Q. Cody.

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, Cody, I think Cody has got -- I think all year he was kind of trying to play catch up. Right now he's kind of, he's present. And to live in the past, to live towards the future, that adds extra anxiety. So right now when you're in the moment it's a lot easier to kind of manage that.

Q. Did it feel inevitable that you guys were going to play a Game 5 against these guys after chasing them all year and it's like 12-11, the scoring's pretty close, everything is pretty close, did it seem inevitable that this was going to happen?

DAVE ROBERTS: I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. I was hoping we would win in three straight. But I think if you're talking about baseball, it's the first time that this has happened, us playing in a postseason series. The way that the regular season played out, absolutely, I'm sure it was inevitable, yeah.

Q. You saw Logan Webb, I think it was twice in July. What was different about him then versus Game 1?

DAVE ROBERTS: I really haven't watched the game recently, so -- the other game, the other two games. I think it's just, I think a similar attack. It's kind of the same attack, the sinker slider. There's a changeup in there to the lefties, to the righties, and he's a hard guy to kind of pin down because the ball moves a lot.

But I think as far as him and Buster's plan against us and each individual hitter, it's sort of kind of doing what he does, just kind of mixing quadrants and mixing velocities.

Q. Kind of following up on the other question, you guys have each won 109 games and you're going to play for a 24th time. What's it going to take to separate these two teams?

DAVE ROBERTS: I like the way that our guys have been there, so I think the emotions that we'll be able to manage, I think is great. I love our players. And now I think it's just going out there and executing a plan offensively, preventing runs from Julio to the guys behind him, and doing enough to win a ball game. It's fun that all that we've gone through, both sides, comes down to one game.