NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 15, 2021

Dave Roberts

Truist Park

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. First of all, do you have a Game 1 starter yet?

DAVE ROBERTS: We don't. The guys are actually at the ballpark right now while we're getting ready for some staff meetings, from Max to Julio to Walker, relievers, they're going there. They're going to play catch, get some treatment, and see how they feel, so I should know later tonight how Max feels. If not we're going to have to bullpen it and probably push guys back.

Q. When you say push guys back, like what's kind of the situation with Walker? Obviously he pitched on short rest, can you kind of see him getting pushed back to maybe a Game 3 to get him an extra day?

DAVE ROBERTS: If Max were to be pushed back, yeah, that could happen.

Q. With Clayton not being available, obviously in a five-game series you can deploy some different options, but in a seven-game series you probably need a fourth starter. How do see that playing out? Is it more of a bullpen game or do you see a guy like Tony Gonsolin stepping up?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think Gonsolin would be a big part of that.

Q. You mentioned yesterday after the game how confident you were that there wouldn't be, that your team wouldn't have a letdown. Just kind of wondering, as a manager, when you know your guys are kind of battle-tested like we've talked about before and that they're going to show up and maybe they get beat on that day because maybe the approach is wrong or whatever, but you kind of seem know that your guys are going to show up, they're not going to choke, how much does that make it easier as a manager knowing that you kind of don't have to guess who might be able to handle the moment and who might not be able to?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think that's something, that's like the X factor, because I think that with baseball you just don't know who is going to be the better team that day.

But I think that the variable of a letdown emotionally, the moment getting too big for a potential player, I do believe that, I have all the confidence that we wouldn't be a victim of that, so I think that that certainly, we can prepare all we can for a particular game, but knowing that I don't have to worry about that is a huge kind of confidence -- it just gives me added confidence in our guys.

Q. Just a couple of questions about matching up against the Braves. Do you feel like in their mind this is some sort of redemption series for them, considering how you guys came back to beat them? And how different of a club are they from a year ago?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't think that -- I mean, they might not say it, but truth of the matter is that they get another opportunity to get to the World Series and they got to go through us.

So I think that it is another, whether you want to call it opportunity, redemption, certainly it's on their minds. A lot of the same guys that we saw last year on the same club, but certainly when you don't have Acuña, Ozuna, it's a different, big pieces that they don't have this year, but they have, Riley's had a huge year and obviously Joc's in the mix and they potentially could get Soler back later in the series. So it's a different Club but it's still a lot of the same pieces.

Q. With it being a longer series, do you expect there to be a need to be, to maybe have more length in your postseason roster for the CS?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't know about length, but I think that potentially going with 13 position players and 13 pitchers is certainly a viable possibility.

Q. What's the latest with Max Muncy? Is he an option for the CS?

DAVE ROBERTS: He is, I think Andrew said it best, he's moving around, but it's going to be our last-minute bullet. So if he feels that he can do something at any point in the series, then it's certainly something we need to consider. Still unlikely, but we're holding out hope as much as we can.

Q. What do you have to hear from Max or see, I guess, maybe or hear, see from Max to have him start or not start tomorrow? I'm sure he's going to tell you he's ready to go no matter what.

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's more of a training staff feeling like he's able to swing a bat. So I think we're going through that exercise. I'm not sure, and I'm just waiting for the green light.

So I think for me, and trying not to put pressure on Max, because I do, like you said, he'll do anything for the ball club, even if it's to his detriment. So I think, yeah, I'm trying to put pressure in waiting for the green light from the medical staff.

Q. I was asking about Scherzer. I forget you have two Max's on the roster.

DAVE ROBERTS: Shoot. For Max Scherzer, it's just he's going to go out there, play catch, get treatment, and if he says he's good enough to go and feels like can he take down a start, then he'll be our Game 1 starter.

Q. If he isn't your Game 1 starter is Gonsolin going to be potential tomorrow?

DAVE ROBERTS: He'll be in Game 1, yes.

Q. And just how different does this postseason feel now that you guys are playing in front of fans, a lot of fans, and then traveling?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's certainly, it's much different. I don't want to say better because, I do think that having fans is certainly better, but being in one location, not having to travel and having everyone's family, players, and coaches and staff in one location was a lot of fun, to be quite honest.

But certainly the net is it is way better having fans and going into crazy hostile environments and being also being at home with our fans. So a lot different. And it's been a lot of fun and I think we fed off the energy at Dodger Stadium, certainly.

Q. Justin said that the music wasn't as loud last night after the game at the hotel as it was in Texas. Is that true?

DAVE ROBERTS: (Laughing) yeah, we had -- I think it was one of those, I don't know if it was a Braves guy or a Rays guy that was very, very loud with the radio after hours.

Q. And then when it comes to the Braves, Joc Pederson is on the other side now, do you think you have the inside track on shutting down Joctober?

DAVE ROBERTS: Gosh, we'll see. I think it's real, he's always come up with big hits in October. He's going to be tough, we're going to have to find a way to get him out.

Q. Just going back to last year's series real quick, the spot you guys were in, trying to chase down that first title as a group, to come back in that series the way you did, I mean, how much did that just help you guys, do you think, eventually get over the hump and go on and win the World Series last year?

DAVE ROBERTS: It was, you know, I think that the World Series was the World Series and you still got to win four games and to not take that lightly at all. But that NLCS and coming back from that 3-1 deficit was everything. And that Game 7 was just as important if not bigger than Game 6 in the World Series. So, yeah, I think that getting through that certainly gave us that momentum and confidence that we can win four more games with our backs against the wall as they were.

Q. Were those three of the kind of just more kind of high pressure, stressful, but ultimately kind of rewarding days that you've had in your entire baseball career?

DAVE ROBERTS: Absolutely. To be that, to look at how daunting that was against a very good ball club in the Braves and to know that essentially everything has to go your way to win three in a row, probably the most proud I've been of a team and an organization, staff, to kind of stick together and find a way to win one game each night, to come out the other side, yeah.