MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 28, 2024

Dave Roberts

Yankee Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Dodgers - 4, Yankees - 2

Q. That couldn't have gone any better for you guys or for Shohei. What was your assessment of how he was able to weather through swinging at the plate and what you saw and all of it?

DAVE ROBERTS: I thought he did a really nice job of competing. I don't think that it got any worse. Obviously just him in the batter's box starting the game off, getting on base by way of walk. Yeah, I just really appreciate him posting tonight.

Q. What can you say about what Walker did tonight and really what your rotation has done all series when I think some people on the outside considered it maybe a weakness coming into it?

DAVE ROBERTS: Walker was fantastic. I think, if you take out that second inning where we didn't play good defense behind him, he would have thrown up nothing but zeros in the postseason.

Tonight I thought his stuff was as good as it's been all year. I thought the fastball had life. The cutter was good. The curveball was good. He pitched all quadrants and kept those guys honest, kept them at bay. There was no stress. Just to get through five innings the way he threw the baseball, I felt that's all he had. Obviously there was a little bit of emotions, adrenaline, and I couldn't have asked for anything more from Walker tonight.

Q. Given all the conversation about your rotation all postseason, did you realistically expect that you'd be getting over 11 innings from your starters in Games 2 and 3 of this series?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that certainly there was a lot said about the rotation given the injuries we accrued coming into the postseason. But I think that we just kind of came together collectively feeling the 13 guys on our roster as far as pitchers were going to do a good job of preventing runs.

Obviously it doesn't matter how you get them, and we're doing a nice job of kind of piecing it together, though.

Q. Obviously Walker has the October track record and looked a little bit better at the end of the regular season, but have you been surprised with just how well these last couple starts have gone for him and what he's given you guys?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not surprised. I think there's certain players, Kiké on the position player side, Walker on the pitcher side, that just really thrive in the postseason. I think guys like those two, you can essentially throw away the regular season and know that you're going to get the best of them in the postseason.

Certainly their track record speaks for itself, and just the confidence when he's on the mound in the postseason, there hasn't been many better.

Q. And how important was that sequence with Mookie's catch and Teo's throw in the next at-bat?

DAVE ROBERTS: The Teo throw was huge. It obviously killed the momentum. Then Mookie's play on the sinking liner from Jazz, it just kind of -- I thought Walker was kind of feeling it a little bit. There was starting to be a bit more hard contact. So to make a defensive play on a sinking liner and then the play at home plate was huge for all of us.

Q. Freddie hit a foul ball off that ankle pretty hard late in the game. Any effects of that going forward?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't think so. It's his ankle and that's happened many times over. But it wasn't the foot, the toe. It was higher up on the ankle. So I think that he's going to be fine.

Q. You are one of the few people on earth who know what it's like to come back from a 3-0 deficit.

DAVE ROBERTS: Don't talk about that. Wrong guy. Way too early.

Q. What do you remember about your mindset going into that, and what did you learn that you could take from it now that you're on the other side?

DAVE ROBERTS: From the other side -- I don't want to divulge any secrets, but from the other side, I just think that we have got to stay focused, stay urgent. I think offensively, to be quite honest, we left a lot of runs out there tonight. Still found a way to win a ballgame.

There's just got to be urgency. I just don't want to let these guys up for air.

Q. Dave, we saw Ohtani wincing a couple times after some of those swings. Did you get a sense of like how much physical discomfort he was in tonight?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't know how much, but yeah, balls that were away that he chased a little bit, I saw a couple winces. I think it's sort of pointless for me to even consider it because he's going to be in there tomorrow.

Q. With Freeman, in the Mets series it seemed like he could barely run, and now he's lagging out triples, hitting homers. What is it he's done to get to this point, and just how surprised are you that he's performing at this level?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not surprised he's performing at this level. He's been very good in the postseason throughout his career. I think it's just the six days before this series was huge -- or the five days, I think it was -- that gave him a chance to kind of get out of the woods.

So now that we're out of the woods, I think it's manageable, sustainable. Even going first to third, he did a good job going first to third. I don't think we cashed that one in. Just I think that he's in a really good spot. Obviously with the swings that he's taken, he can stay firm on his front side.

Q. Mookie came into this series as the only Dodger with an OPS above 1.00. He's done everything you guys have asked of him this season in the catch, push run across. Can you talk about how valuable he is from a consistency standpoint?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's one of the best players on the planet. I'm really excited for the postseason that he's had on both sides of the baseball.

That was one of the at-bats that set the tone. Tommy did a great job reading the ball off the bat, going on contact, scoring right there. But that at-bat to just kind of win pitches, get down with two strikes and to keep fighting to still drive in a run -- we did that all night. I thought we took really good at-bats. Mookie kind of sets the tone with that.

We did a great job of getting into their pen early, seeing a lot of familiar arms, and taxing those guys too.

Q. I'm not asking you to divulge secrets from the other side from way back when, but what do you tell your players? Do you tell your players, listen, I know teams can come back from a 3-0 deficit. Is there going to be a moment that you try to make clear to your team that it's not over?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I won't. I won't. I think that they're very familiar with 20 years ago and what can happen. I mean, anything's possible. Our guys are very heady, very hungry for a championship, a parade. So nothing is going to get in the way of that, nothing.

Q. I want to just ask is Shohei allowed from sliding?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think he can. He would have to be careful, but ideally no.

Q. Your players are so hungry to want this World Series because of what happened in 2020. Everybody talked about it was a short season, and you have a chance to do this against the Yankees in one more game.

DAVE ROBERTS: I think for some of the guys that were here -- Kiké, Clayton, the coaches, Austin Barnes, I think Blake Treinen, just some guys that were here with us -- we want that parade. We never got a chance to celebrate with the city of Los Angeles. That's something of incentive.

But outside of that, you have an opportunity to be a world champion. So we're right there. That's more than enough incentive and motivation.