MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 29, 2024

Dave Roberts

Yankee Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Yankees - 11, Dodgers - 4

Q. Just for the third inning with Daniel, what did you see from him that kind of led to the struggles?

DAVE ROBERTS: The two free passes, the hit by pitch, the walk, and he had Stanton 1-2 and just couldn't put him away. Then gets a pop-up, and he's one hit away from getting out of it and leaves a slider arm side to Volpe. That was the difference in that inning.

Q. I know you talked pregame about you're going to have to be careful picking your spots with guys. Is that a situation, especially when he's struggling to find the zone, where you think at all about maybe getting somebody else up for the rest of the inning, or is that going to be his inning the whole time?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think that was his inning. I think he was at 20 pitches, something like that. He had Volpe up. So I'm not going to go get somebody in the third inning to get Volpe where he just popped a guy up. Uncharacteristic with the hit by pitch, the walk. So, yeah, it was his inning.

Q. Just to follow up on that, you had Volpe, but also Wells and Verdugo were lined up. Was that too early to use Banda or Vesia? Or are you trying to stay away from them completely today?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm not going to use him in the third inning right there. No, I just wasn't going to use him in the third inning, no.

Q. Choice number one was to win tonight, but since that didn't happen, did this outcome in terms of pitching play out as well as you had hoped?

DAVE ROBERTS: Absolutely. I don't think anyone expected those guys to lay down. We had some at-bats that I thought could have been better, but we knew it was a bullpen game. As far as outcomes, to have six guys in your pen that are feeling good, rested, I feel good about that. And being up 3-1, yeah.

Q. Just piggy-backing off of that, how do you feel about the bullpen for the rest of the series? Especially since you -- I think you used more guys last night than you did tonight.

DAVE ROBERTS: I feel great. I feel great. It's about the guys that you have available. Some of those guys are -- they're all rested. So we have guys that can do up down.

So where we're at tomorrow, knowing there's an off day tomorrow, we're in a great spot with leverage receivers.

Q. I'm sure you're grateful this is the last time in the playoffs you have to do this. You have actual starters for the next three games?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.

Q. After that fifth inning, you guys are only done a run. How challenging is it to balance out whether you want to ride Knack for a couple more innings as opposed to maybe going to some leverage guys?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's challenging. I think you've got to be certain that you can score some runs. Certainly any guy we use tonight would have not been able to pitch tomorrow. Landon actually threw the ball very well, and then when they got -- I thought his work was done, four innings is the most he's thrown in quite some time. And being down to going into that last half, it just doesn't make sense to use one of your leverage guys.

Q. Then with Ohtani, what are you seeing from his at-bats? Is the shoulder kind of messing up some of the mechanics?

DAVE ROBERTS: We've asked him many times over, and it's not impeding. He doesn't feel it. I just think it's the chase. You see it. There's some big at-bats that could result in a walk, and not taking the base and chasing hasn't been good.

Q. Just following up on Ohtani's as well, how about on the base pads? How do you evaluate his base running with the shoulder?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's been fine so far. He actually slid tonight. So I don't think that it's been a problem. He's not going to be stealing bases, I wouldn't think, but I think it hasn't been too much of a problem right now.

Q. Just with your experience with being down 3-0, you were on the other side like you mentioned yesterday, what's the feeling in the clubhouse on your side now? Do you guys kind of feel like you maybe lost one? Obviously you did lose one, but let one go today?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I think that they beat us. Volpe took a good swing. They took advantage of a couple free passes. They tacked on later.

I do think that -- at-bat-wise, I think we could have done some things to get in their pen a little bit earlier. Again, at the end of the day, we're still in a pretty good spot, and we feel good. We'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. Could you see what happened with Mookie on that fly ball in the first inning? I don't know if you've gone back and watched it since, if you had a reaction to when he went up into the crowd.

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I thought he had a bead on it, and he was -- fan got in the way, and the umpires got it right.

Q. Just to reiterate, there was really no circumstance today where you would have chased the game in a sense? Was it at all tempting 6-4 in the eighth to think --

DAVE ROBERTS: No, not 6-4 in the eighth it wasn't, no. No.

Q. How sky high is the feeling in the dugout after Freddie's homer there in the first inning? And even though you don't have to remind the guys there's 27 outs to go, do you still have to remind them?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't. I think that we were very high. We were excited. Those guys unfortunately answered back. It was a good ballgame until it wasn't.

I don't need to remind them there's 27 outs. We do a very good job of playing 27 outs.