NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 14, 2021

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 5 Press Conference

Los Angeles Dodgers - 2, San Francisco Giants - 1

Q. Obviously pretty intense game and serious to kind of watch. You managing, how can you kind of sum up this five-game series against that team?

DAVE ROBERTS: It was a great series. First thing, I want to congratulate the Giants on a tremendous season. Best record in all of baseball and it was just great every time we played those guys, just bringing that rivalry back to life, really playing for relevance, and that was great.

So to Gabe, to the organization, to Farhan, the players, coaches, staff, it was, congratulations.

As far as the series, it's kind of what we expected. To come down, every game could have went either way for the most part, and coming down to a Game 5 and the 9th inning. So just a great series and the energy here was a lot of fun, and just to see our guys step up and win a ball game obviously was huge.

Q. To what extent had you had in the back of your mind maybe I'll go to Max in the 9th or was that something that kind of happened as the game wound its course, I guess?

DAVE ROBERTS: It was just kind of seeing the flow and how the game was going to play out. Knowing you have, I guess, an ace in the hole is a good feeling. I just wanted to try to find the ultimate leverage spot to deploy him, to use him. Just kind of how the game played out, it just made a lot of sense.

Q. How did your kind of pitching plans go along with the way the game unfolded tonight with Julio getting those four innings in the middle and the first two guys coming in, the right-handers?

DAVE ROBERTS: Well, I thought Corey did a really nice job of getting out of that inning. I don't think he had really good fastball command and they took some good swings, but fortunately we got out of it.

I liked the run right there that Brusdar had, and for him to put up a zero and kind of get, clear the pitcher's spot, which we did, and give Julio a run. And he went four innings and went deep into the game, got us deep into the game, and he pitched his tail off and certainly unconventional, but I give him so much credit for taking the baseball when asked to and pitching really well.

So after that it was more of, I just felt that part of the lineup, Buster looming and Ruf and just those guys, I just felt that to kind of go to Treinen right there to shorten the game, I felt that was the right decision. And after that I was trying to shorten the game and that's why I went to Kenley after that.

Q. What can you say about Bellinger's at-bat there to drive in the go-ahead run?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, and even for me, it's like going into that last at-bat prior where he punched and I think you saw close to 10 pitches and he grinded and competed and that last at-bat there was just fight in there. It wasn't about mechanics. It was just about a fight. It was me versus you, Cody versus Doval, who's got tremendous stuff, and he got a slider that backed up and stayed through the middle of the field and got a huge hit.

So, like I've said, Cody's grown a lot because of this adversity and for him to come up with a big hit, very happy for him.

Q. To kind of compare this series, back in the '90s the Niners and the Cowboys used to have big playoff games that were bigger than the Super Bowl. Did you feel that this series in a what played out like a World Series even though it's the first round or Division Series?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think what great ball clubs have the ability to do is understand the gravity of a moment, a series in this case, give everything they have to that moment or series, which we did, which it was a huge series, but also understand that our job's not done.

So we poured everything we could into this series and it took everything we had to beat these guys. But we have a day to reset and now our focus turns to the Braves.

Q. Back to Bellinger. It looked like he kind of really choked up on Doval right there. He did the same thing against Littell back at Dodger Stadium. Is that kind of a change you guys have been working on just kind of with two strikes, anything like that?

DAVE ROBERTS: That might be more of a hitter guy thing in Cody, but I do think that shortening the swing, choking up, controlling the barrel, gives you a better chance for contact.

Right there we didn't need a homer. We needed to move the ball forward and get a base hit and that's exactly what he did.

Q. I think I know what Max would say, but is he still going to be able to start Game 1 for you? Have you made that decision?

DAVE ROBERTS: That's the plan, but you know, we knew going into this if we used him tonight there might be a cost. So that's the plan. Obviously we'll talk to Max tomorrow and just kind of see where he's at. But as of now that's kind of where we're at.

Q. And then the second one, after such an emotional series, a high-intensity series with the tension and everything going on, how do you not have some sort of letdown going into this Braves series with just the mental exhaustion?

DAVE ROBERTS: There's no letdown. Like I said earlier, we put everything we could into this series. We talk about it -- I've talked about it for six years. Our expectation every year is to play through October.

So you're going to have highs, low, some tough games where you got to kind of pick things up to win a ball game. So, yeah, I have no doubt our guys are going to come ready to beat the Braves in Game 1.

Q. Logan was pitching very well against you guys, but Mookie Betts just constantly giving you the good at-bats, giving you some leadership through this, how important is it to have a guy that calm and that accomplished in the playoffs?

DAVE ROBERTS: This is when the stars are stars, and he's a superstar. He had great at-bats. He's played great defense for us. He set the table. He competed. And when a night that other guys didn't swing the bat well, he kept turning the lineup over, creating havoc and stress, and the hit by pitch, and ultimately set the stage for Cody, and that's what good teams do.

Q. In what ways did Max lobby for that inning tonight and why him over two innings from Blake or --

DAVE ROBERTS: Max was lobbying for the last couple days. So with him sometimes you just, a lot of times you just got to trust the player. And, like I said, there's a cost, but the most important thing today was to win this game and so I felt he was our best option.

Q. Just with the check swing right there, that split second of waiting for him to call strike three, I mean, what's going through your head right there? It has to be pretty emotional.

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm trying to sell it as much as I possibly can. So it's baseball and, it's baseball, and ultimately we won a ball game.