MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 27, 2025

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Los Angeles Dodgers - 6, Toronto Blue Jays - 5

Q. Can you put into words the range of emotions that you and your team have just gone through in playing in probably one of the greatest World Series games ever?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it's one of the greatest World Series games of all time. Emotional. I'm spent emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.

Yeah, there's just a lot of heroes tonight. Obviously, Freddie put the exclamation mark on the game, but you see what Will Klein did, you know, saw what Edgardo, Wrobleski. Clayton comes in. He was up for three innings and comes in and gets a huge out for us. Just across the board everyone just had huge nights. Big nights, just kept kind of fighting, kept fighting.

Those guys over there, they gave it everything they had. Unfortunately, somebody's got win that game and fortunately for the Dodgers we got Freddie Freeman on our team and, yeah, I'm just so proud of this group of men.

Q. John Schneider just told us that there would be more walks in Ohtani's future, so how do you have to sort of navigate that?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I get it. He's the best player on the planet, and he was on the heels of a huge offensive night, and John smelled that and wasn't going to let Shohei beat him at all, obviously, and even when nobody's on base and putting him on to make the other guys beat him. Respect it and, fortunately, we have other guys behind Shohei that can still do some things and, yeah, I mean, a hard-fought game.

Q. Can you just talk and describe how you viewed it. How exhausted were the players as you sensed it?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, they were exhausted. Will Smith caught 18 innings. Just to continue to try to grind, and we took some good swings. A marine layer kicked in, and I thought Will's ball early was gone. Freddie hit another ball that I thought was a homer. Teo hit a ball that could have been a homer. But we kept going. But you saw what Lauer did tonight. That guy, man, he laid it out there. So just a heck of a ball game.

Q. Two things quickly. To follow-up on her question, you played with Barry. Is Shohei at Bonds level now where you expect this every night to get that kind of treatment?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's all relative. Barry's the greatest hitter I've ever seen, but this day and age there's just him or maybe Judge. But, yeah, I think that we're just fortunate we have Mookie and Freddie behind him. But you just don't see that type of behavior from opposing managers and that's just the ultimate sign of respect.

Q. How did you balance -- Will hasn't gone this far at any point this year and then all of a sudden Yamamoto is throwing. How did you balance when you were going to use each one if you had to?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, you don't ever plan on playing 18 innings and you just kind of ask more from the player. He delivered. He threw probably three times as much as he's ever thrown before, and certainly with the adrenaline on this stage what did he was incredible. That's not even enough of a credit to him on this outing.

Yamamoto with a day off, potentially taking the baseball, he was in the next inning. So it just speaks to guys will do anything to win a championship and they're laying it out there.

Q. If you did have to turn to Yamamoto there, do you know how long you would have potentially let him go?

DAVE ROBERTS: He would have gone as long as we needed. He would have been the last guy.

Q. You talk about your roster, all the superstars, all the high-priced talent. For Will to have the moment that he did, what can you say about that moment and that performance and also Henriquez?

DAVE ROBERTS: Both those guys' performance for the ages, and, you know, Will went four innings tonight, filled up the strike zone, competed his tail off. And in the postseason people talk about the superstars, but a lot of times it's these unsung heroes that you just can't expect, and guys, you know, come to pass and pop. Tonight was will Klein's night, and obviously, what Edgardo did was just as paramount.

Q. Shohei was very active tonight. He's your Game 4 starter tomorrow. How is he feeling after all of this?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's spent. He was on base eight, nine times tonight, running the bases. He's elated. But, yeah, he's taking the mound tomorrow. He'll be ready.