NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 12, 2022

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 2 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: First question for Doc in the back.

Q. Dave, just first, we spoke with Tyler Anderson. Do you have an idea as to what the plan is going to be for him, whether it's Game 3 or potentially even a Game 4?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not right now. I think we're contemplating and want to leave it open-ended. We've had conversation with Tyler and kind of checking his pulse on being open to either start one of those games.

He was completely all-in compliant, so we'll see how tonight goes and decide if it's going to be Tyler tomorrow -- or Game 3 or Game 4.

Q. Just with Clayton Kershaw, when you think about everything he said going into this year, how he wanted to be with the Dodgers for a chance to win another World Series, for him to be taking the mound today, how important and how special do you think this moment is for him being healthy and being here right now?

DAVE ROBERTS: It is certainly special. He is not going to admit it certainly right now or maybe not in the short near future, but considering what he has gone through when you look back a year ago where he couldn't participate. It's been a long period of time for him to kind of go through being injured, rehabbing, contemplating coming back this year, being on the IL again a couple of times.

And then now here we are where he is starting a playoff game. He is healthy, feels good, throwing the baseball well. A lot of work has gone into that. I'm sure at some point he is going to look back, but right now he is laser-focused.

From my perspective very happy for him.

Q. Real quick with Tyler, he is going to start for sure, or is there a chance --

DAVE ROBERTS: He'll start one of these games, yes.

Q. Are Vesia and Phillips both down today?

DAVE ROBERTS: Probably try to stay away from Evan, but Alex is available.

Q. With Vargas, even though he didn't play a ton in September, it seems like he made an impression with some of the guys in the clubhouse. What was he doing behind the scenes just in talking to guys, soaking things up that kind of helped him get to this point and make the roster?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think what allowed him to get to the point on being on the roster is his skill set. He has extremely good bat-to-ball. He takes a quality at-bat. Even kind of looking at the at-bat quality in the small sample that we did see, I saw some good things.

In the live BPs, the simulated stuff, everything. We did those a lot. He always showed well against some of our better pitchers. And also the foot speed was a factor.

Q. Dave, with Clayton, take away the backstory of the whole injuries. How great was he down the stretch, and was this one of the best down-the-stretch Claytons that you have seen?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't have a good ability to recall every kind of down-the-stretch from every player, but knowing what he did for us this year, I mean, he had an All-Star season. Obviously, it was shortened, but you look at what he did in the second half, the surface numbers, the numbers below that you just -- the underlying numbers, all that stuff was incredible.

He posted and the strike-outs to walk, the E.R.A., the wins. All that stuff. He was fantastic. He is throwing the best -- he is throwing the baseball as good as I have seen in recent years.

Q. As much as we chew on the pitching in the postseason, there have been times in the past where the offensive production kind of dried up and really cost you. What do you see in this year's lineup that you think is better equipped not to have that kind of drop-off?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think I'd say experience. I think that you saw it last night from Trea. I thought he did a great job of controlling the strike zone. I thought Max did it. Will has had postseason experience, and I think that you see that up and down the lineup. I think that Gavin even getting his feet wet the last couple of years has shown that and continued to get better at that.

We sort of dried up there the last five innings, but -- six innings. I just feel that the moment is not going to get too big for any of our guys. Every at-bat, every big situation there's going to be points where you've got to take a tough pitch or shorten up to make a good swing or to fight a pitch off and not expand.

I think the experience certainly helps that.

Q. Dave, you mentioned last night how much their bullpen started to really spin you guys. How much do you expect that to sort of continue? Especially considering the success you've had against fastballs this year?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's going to happen a lot tonight. Yu has had a lot of success against us. It's some fastballs, a lot of cutters, it's a slider, it's a split. A curveball once in a while. There's certainly going to be a lot of spin.

It's just kind of hunting mistakes and see who executes and who doesn't.

Q. Last night Trea obviously with the home run double, what are you seeing at the plate that's different than maybe a month ago? I know September was rough for him and the playoffs in general have been rough for him.

DAVE ROBERTS: I thought last night he controlled the zone. There were pitches. He won a 1-0 count -- or an 0-1 count to get to 1-1, then hits a fastball for a homer. Got into a 3-1 count. The next at-bat.

Even the strikeout, I thought it was a really good at-bat. A really good pitch was executed for the strikeout, but for me it's the mechanics are sound. But it's controlling the zone. If you don't control the zone and you're not swinging at balls in the hitting zone, it's hard to have good mechanics.

Q. Just how different is his offense when he is productive on the bases really?

DAVE ROBERTS: It just changes the whole dynamic of our ball club. This is a guy that can steal a base. He can hit for power. He can get a swinging bunt with the best of them. When he is on base, it creates tension.

When he is on base and Freddie is up, I don't think there's anybody better in baseball hitting with guys on base than Freddie or let alone in scoring position.

When Trea is taking the at-bats seeing pitches like that, it just -- it's death on a starting pitcher on pitching.

Q. Yesterday Brian Snitker and both Dusty Baker said the layoff kind of made those guys rusty to start with offensively. You guys were shut down by that bullpen. How much do you attribute that to just the five-day layoff?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I don't, Bob. I think that we got off to a great start. I thought we were going to kind of run away that one. Didn't happen once they went to the pen. It was good for us to see a couple arms -- a few arms last night out of the pen that I think will help us later on.

But I talked to some guys, and we felt really good. I just don't think we made the adjustment out of the pen. I don't think it was the layoff at all in this case.