NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 14, 2022

Dave Roberts

Petco Park

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Dave, heading into Game 3, I know you're not necessarily one to sit down and have conversations with the team, but how are you guys approaching, and just what is the mindset, considering you have two here and hopefully you want to take those two, but if not, forcing a Game 5 back in LA?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, for me it's just knowing kind of the heartbeat, the pulse of the guys. We're in a good spot. The only focus today from our guys is tonight.

They're coming off a nice win, a big win, and I thought honestly we played -- offensively we were fine Game 2. I think that we feel good, have a good game plan for Snell tonight.

The only focus is tonight. The bullpen is raring to go. Tony feels good. Kind of the mindset for him is to go as hard as you can for as long as you can, and what that means, time will tell.

Q. Dave, has any of your neighbors brought to your attention that you were leading off for the Padres the last time they had fans in a postseason game, and what do you expect as far as the environment tonight?

DAVE ROBERTS: Actually, it was closer than my neighbors. It was my son, who sent me something, a young Dave Roberts, and kind of put the lineup together that was there. And Josh Bard, our bullpen coach, was in the lineup, as well. It was crazy just going back into that period of time.

It's going to be fun. I know that Blake said it was -- Snell said it was going to be insane. It's going to be electric.

That's why we do what we do, to have the fan interest, excitement. We feel it in the dugout, both dugouts. It's going to be a heck of an environment, and it's going to be a heck of a ballgame.

Q. Speaking of your neighbors, have any of them said they're with you this week, or you know what, next week we'll be friends again?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, this is where you find out who your real friends are. Yeah, I've kind of made some new lines with people. But no, it's all good.

Q. With Tony tonight, kind of how short is the leash, and then what are you going to be looking for when he gets out there to kind of tell you if he can go a little longer or kind of what are you going to be watching with him?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think with Tony, I think with any pitcher in the postseason, it's stuff, it's command, and that's about it.

Do we have the leash to run him out 75 pitches? No. But that's okay.

I think that just early on, just kind of -- I don't expect -- I expect him to be, you know, as far as he's prepared, he feels good, I expect him to go out there and execute pitches.

But I think for me, just kind of the stuff and command is what I'm going to be looking for.

Q. Stuff-wise, how close did he look, in the last start and some of the sim games, to where he was before he got hurt?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think we should see two to four. I think two to four is what we should see. If he reaches back, there might be a five in there.

The slider in the sim game and the split, really good, and he's got a curveball. What we've seen, his last turn against our guys, was really good.

Q. What do you remember about that 2006 game, whether it was in the game, maybe living in San Diego, the atmosphere?

DAVE ROBERTS: What I recall is we won the division. There was a lot of anticipation going into that series. We had just won three of four, I think, in St. Louis, and we were the favorite I think in the National League.

We couldn't get to Carpenter, and I think Piazza hit a three-run homer off Peavy, so I get on Peav about that one -- or, sorry, Pujols did. Pujols hit a three-run homer against Peavy, and we laid an egg against Weaver in the shadow. I think Chris Young won a game for us maybe. Yeah, unfortunately we couldn't do it.

Q. Three-game playoff baseball in San Diego --

DAVE ROBERTS: I'll tell you, I remember going to Qualcomm and waving my -- as I tell my good friend Trevor Hoffman, I used to cheer for him when he was growing up, so waving the white towel and watching Trevor come into games from '84 on. So to play here and to see that here at Petco Park was great.

It's interesting, I'm wearing a different uniform, but I can still appreciate the excitement that this city is kind of feeling right now.

Q. On the topic of postseason experience, you've seen a lot of guys get their first experience and then subsequently kind of add to that. How much value for hitters do you think those experiences are worth?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, you know, I think with most hitters, experience matters more. Just calming the nerves, slowing the game down, where I think that certain times hitters with not a lot of experience come off and start off to a good start in the postseason, certainly that's baseball.

But I think for the most part, if you look back, kind of the more at-bats guys take, the better at-bat quality, the more success might have.

I think with pitchers it's not as much the case as with hitters, and that's just my thought.

Q. What was your reaction when Buck had Musgrove checked the other day? And as a manager, how do you weigh that cost/benefit of doing something like that?

DAVE ROBERTS: I was surprised. I'm sure Buck had his reasons. I was surprised, and I don't know if I would have taken that approach.

But again, Buck knows whether it's gamesmanship or whatever it might be, that was a decision he made. But I was a little taken aback.

Q. Over the last couple years you've said as Mookie goes, the team goes. Does that change with the depth of the lineup you have now, and what do you see him struggling with?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's not all -- it can't all be on Mookie. It certainly makes life easier on everyone when he's going. We feed off his performance, his energy. When he gets on base, it creates tension. Getting a guy in the stretch certainly beneficial for the rest of the guys.

I think with Mookie, it's just -- and this is going to be a good test today in the sense that it's big stuff, and it's kind of touching all quadrants of the hitting zone.

I think the key thing for Mookie is to just kind of lock in on his nitro zone, and I think that that -- I guess it's fair for any hitter, but the last thing I'm going to impress to Mookie is if he didn't go, then we have no chance to score runs. I don't believe that, but certainly it makes life a lot easier for everyone, and Mookie knows that, too.

Q. Chris Taylor said he feels 100 percent. Just curious what you'll be watching for or looking for in him to make sure that that really is the case.

DAVE ROBERTS: You know what, I'm just going to run him out there. This is a point in time where you go out there and you perform, and other guys aren't feeling, let's say, maybe 100 percent, and you're just going to go out there and play and compete. I'm expecting him to go out there and do a job for us.

Q. I would like to know how is Victor Gonzalez nowadays? Do you plan to come with him?

DAVE ROBERTS: Victor is doing great. He threw last week to our guys. He was fantastic. He's in kind of the Stayhawk camp. He's in Arizona at Camelback Ranch. If we're fortunate enough to move on, he'll be in the conversation for the next round.