NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 16, 2025

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Dodgers - 3, Brewers - 1

Q. Obviously a lot has been made of Shohei's struggles at the plate. How big is it that teams are game-planning their pitching around him and doing things like starting a lefty reliever just to try to get him out in the first?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think he's one of the best players in the game. And how do you neutralize him? You throw some lefties on him. That's what they're doing.

I think he's going to come out of it. He's grinding, working through it. But, yeah, as far as kind of their approach, makes sense.

Q. Coming into the postseason, obviously we talked about the issues you guys were having in the pen. Between Vesia, Treinen and Sasaki, it seems like you guys kind of have a blueprint, so to speak, moving forward here. How comfortable have you been with, I guess, how that's been coming together?

DAVE ROBERTS: Very. I think the thing about our guys is they're battle tested, and they know that I've never lost faith in them. They've never lost confidence in each other. So to see what they're doing right now, I'm not surprised.

We knew all along we were going to need these guys. And these guys are delivering, which is huge. We're doing a great job of preventing runs. And the bullpen deserves a lot of credit.

Q. You obviously kind of needed that extra inning today and you went to Banda there. He's pitched, what, pitched once in the last three weeks. How were you comfortable going to him in that situation?

DAVE ROBERTS: I just think that Anthony's grown a lot. I think the moment now is not going to be too big for him. I just feel that he's ready for whatever is asked of him. He's in a good mental space. And the stuff is obviously very good. So for me, regardless of inning, I trust him.

Like I said, he's throwing the baseball. Has a lot of confidence right now. To run him out there against the middle of the order, I had no problem with that.

Q. Could you just talk a little bit about just Mookie's defense and what you've seen, how it continues to evolve and elevates and really comes in clutch?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's made big plays. That play going to his backhand just to kind of let Roki settle in, he just continues to make great plays. It's rightfully so he's in the Gold Glove conversation at shortstop.

That was a big play. You just never know, get the lead-off runner on, how that inning could have evolved.

Earlier, that play by Muncy was a heck of a play. Infield drawn in, going to his left, spin, make an accurate throw to get that out at home, that was a big play as well.

Q. Earlier this season, after one of his early outings, Roki, there's a visual of him looking emotional. It wasn't the performance he wanted to have. But for him to go through his rookie year, come back from injury and now deliver in these high-leverage situations, what can you say about his growth?

DAVE ROBERTS: His growth has been certainly not linear. At that point in time, where he was scuffling and emotional on the bench, and there's a lot of video and photos of that, and for him to kind of self-reflect, get healthy and put himself back on the radar for our 2025 ballclub speaks to his fight.

And I don't think anyone could have foreseen him in this role in April or May.

So, I give a lot of credit to Roki to kind of get to that point. And now he can look back at 2025 and look fondly at it.

Q. I know you have a 3-0 lead, so this is a tough question, but you seem to be leaving a lot of tack-on runs on bases, not moving runners over, not getting runners in from third with less than two outs, not moving runners over. Does that concern you at all?

DAVE ROBERTS: I wouldn't say concern. But we've got to be better. I think you're always trying to figure out how you can improve as a ballclub.

I do think that Tommy's at-bat was huge -- runners in scoring position. I thought Freddie's at-bat to get him up, was a huge at-bat. But, yeah, the situational, we can be better at that for sure. We've got to be better.

Q. A lot of pitchers for Tyler through the first two innings. What change did you see in the third that allowed him to get to five and two-thirds?

DAVE ROBERTS: I thought the curveball got better. The curveball started to become more of a pitch for him. And they went heavy left today. That was a pitch that was able to neutralize those guys.

I thought Will did a great job, the sequencing, using the fastball enough.

But, yeah, I think for me that's, really proud of Tyler in the sense of the pitch count was early, and knowing we still needed length from him.

For him to kind of stay, keep his wits about him and to keep making pitches, keep competing and shorten the game, that's what we need from him. And he's done that the last, call it, six or seven starts.

Q. Just back to Shohei, I'm just paraphrasing but I saw you said that you didn't think you could win the World Series if he's not hitting. Now you're up 3-0 in this series. He's batting .104. Do you adjust that at all?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, he's a big part of what we're doing. We're pitching really well. We're playing very good defense. Obviously Shohei's not performing the way he would like or we expect. But I just know how big of a part he is to this thing.

We've got a long way to go. But I just like the work he's putting in. And I'll bet on him all day long.

Q. Tomorrow you've got him starting to try and wrap this up. The work that he has to put in to prepare for a start like that, plus the work he has to put in, how does he manage it?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's a unicorn. I don't know how he manages it. Every minute of the day is accounted for. He's very prepared.

His last outing in Philadelphia was a good one -- six innings, I think he gave up three runs. So I expect him to be good tomorrow, be focused and put forth a good effort at the bat, too.