MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 25, 2024

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Andrew was just sharing with us kind of what went into the decision with Evan Phillips not being on the roster and how he's doing. Considering being without him, obviously he's been excellent this postseason run, but having now Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol, what do they add to the bullpen?

DAVE ROBERTS: Obviously losing Evan, not having Evan available for this series certainly is disappointing. We've got to make sure we protect him, short term, long term. But being able to add Brusdar and Alex to this roster is a huge addition. I think they match up well with this ball club, and they've got experience.

So I think that obviously losing Evan was a blow, but getting two nice additions is big.

Q. It's like the 40-year anniversary of Fernando pitching a complete game, 147-pitch Game 3 of the World Series. You guys now obviously struggle to get a guy through four or five innings. On reflection, what has changed in baseball from that era to this era? Why is it so dramatic?

DAVE ROBERTS: That's a longer conversation, but I will say this. I think that the game, you can see by the slug in the game, I think that there's a lot more slug. It's more high scoring, whereas in those days a lot of balls in play, not as many strikeouts, quicker games, pitchers obviously going deeper in the game.

So those days of the 147-pitch exercise are not going to be coming back. I don't know. I think right now it's just trying to figure how to get 27 outs and score more than the other team. There's just different ways to do it. Like I said, I would love to have that nine-inning complete game shutout too.

Q. What do you say about Fernando and what he meant to this organization?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think if there's two people that probably impacted this organization most, I think you would say Jackie Robinson and Fernando Valenzuela. No disrespect to anyone else, but if you're talking about currently the fan base, there's a lot of people that are here and support the Dodgers south of the border because of Fernando.

That was obviously when I was younger, really young, but his legacy continues to live on. He was a friend of mine. And so to not see him up in the booth or to say hello is sad for me and his family. But Fernando was a gentleman, a great Dodger, and what a humble man.

Q. Flaherty today, from his experiences this postseason from pitching seven scoreless to the NLCS Game 5 where he said his biggest lesson was wanting to make adjustments earlier, how do you hope all those experiences culminate to allow him to have the best outing today?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think experience, I think that his pitch mix, his ability to command the baseball. He has weapons to get lefties out, righties out, pitching to all quadrants. I do think the lesson of being able to read and react in-game is huge, where I think that's where the experience piece is kind of beneficial. Because you don't know what's going to be working that particular night, you don't know what those guys are hunting that particular night.

So to be able to sometimes go off script is important in games like this.

Q. With Freddie back in the lineup at third, Teoscar batting cleanup, what do you hope to see from those guys today?

DAVE ROBERTS: I expect to see good at-bats. I expect us to grind Gerrit and make him earn every out. Freddie's in a good spot physically. Gerrit's a neutral guy. There's velocity, there's experience. He's a number one. We have guys that have a lot of experience against him.

So I think I want to see good quality at-bats and grind him.

Q. You talk about just the resilience of your bullpen and what we've seen the last couple of series. What specifically have you seen enhanced as far as their preparation, as far as their confidence going into now a World Series?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't think the preparation has changed. I think that they've been very consistent with that. I think certainly the confidence has grown with each one of those guys. I think the openness to pitch whenever I asked him is big.

I do think that they understand how valuable they are to preventing runs in the postseason and they've come through. Yeah, so I think a lot of it is the confidence they've gained throughout the season and throughout the postseason.

Q. I've noticed also too throughout the postseason you guys used a couple of Kobe Bryant quotes, as far as philosophies and things of that nature. To you, if Kobe was still around today, what do you think he would say about this Dodger team right now heading into the World Series?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think -- yeah, obviously to pull from what Kobe did, what he said, I think it rings true to a lot of people. So for us to use some of his quotes, I believe in him. What he would say, there's work to be done.

I think that the thing about him is that not only being uber-talented, but he was a killer, and the job's not done. So I think that that's something that -- and I understand that I think our guys -- I know our guys understand that too.

Q. What role do you anticipate for Miguel Rojas now?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, so I see him playing short tomorrow, I see him starting against Rodón. And then I see him coming into -- whether it be a pinch-hit in Gavin's spot, which I could use him or somebody else -- I see him coming in potentially to play defense at short. He's in a good spot, and we're going to need him.

Q. Does Kiké stay in the everyday lineup?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yes.

Q. And can you quantify how much good a week off has done Freddie?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I can't, but I do know that he's kind of in the position he was when he started the DS the time before that series. So I'm just hoping -- we're all just sort of hoping that we've got out of the woods and we can kind of maintain where he's at now. Because what happened as the series progressed, prolonged, then it went south.

I'm going to try to pick spots to -- whether it be get him off the field at times if I can. But right now he's in a good spot so we're just hoping that we can kind of sustain it.

Q. Sort of building off that, what do you see from Freddie behind the scenes in what he's having to go through to be out there at all? How close is he to the Freddie Freeman healthy guy we know?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think he has a very good way, like most great ones have a way of compartmentalizing. Once they're playing, they're playing. There's no excuse.

So when he's in the batter's box, Gerrit's going to know, those pitchers are going to know that's still Freddie Freeman in the batter's box, and I trust him taking an at-bat.

I think for me it's he's in there until he's not. And he's very excited about our guys picking him up when he wasn't in the lineup to give him time to kind of recover. But I also know that he wanted to be a part of things. When he's not, it hurts him, but he's doing a good job of keeping on a pretty good face.

Q. How do the bullpen additions impact the overall usage of everyone else in the bullpens and the various lanes that you envision going into the games?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it just adds a little bit of variance. We don't have to lean on the same guys. Now we have two lefties in the pen versus the one. Brusdar has a different repertoire than, let's say, Brasier. So I think that just being able to give these guys different looks is important.

Q. And is going into two days in a row a big change in how you try to map out usage rather than the three days in a row?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it is in the sense because coming into the two days, we've had four days off. After going into the three days, it's going to be a 2 out of 3. So that -- I can't tell you how it looks, but I can tell you that I'm going to manage to win tonight, and then whatever happens tonight, that's the same game plan.