MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 28, 2025

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. First off, is will Klein available today?

DAVE ROBERTS: (Laughing.) I would say he's down today. What a performance.

Q. Obviously, Shohei was dealing with the cramping last night. Is that something that you expect to keep a closer eye on him, especially as he's pitching tonight, or is that anything that changes with his workload just considering how long last night's game lasted?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, you know, I think with Shohei, you know feels good today. I think it's one of those we're just going to read and react. No expectations, just kind of see how he feels, how he looks, and then go from there. Obviously, last night was taxing on both clubs' pens, but it's kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation. You kind of figure out who is available and who feels good enough to pitch tonight.

Q. How close did you get to having to use a position player on the mound last night?

DAVE ROBERTS: So if Roki or if Yamamoto couldn't have taken the ball in the 19th, it was probably going to be Miguel Rojas. So that's kind of where we were at.

Blake Snell just threw a bullpen earlier yesterday, and then Shohei dealing with the cramps that night, last night, wasn't going to pitch. So it was one of those -- you know, it was either Yamamoto or Miguel Rojas in a World Series game.

Q. And you guys use a lot of pitchers over the course of each season. To see somebody like Will who is kind of in that depth group not only kind of perform like that, but sacrifice and give so much to the team, what does that tell you about him, and kind of what has your relationship been with him over the years he's coming back and forth and just what you had learned about him even before last night?

DAVE ROBERTS: Will Klein? Yeah, you know, great young man. He has been to a couple different organizations. He's been all in with the Dodgers, and up and down our player development guys, you know, he was a guy that wasn't really a strike thrower, but really challenging him here at the big league level, I think our coaches have done a fantastic job of cleaning up the delivery, challenging him to be in the hitting zone, working on a slider.

Great young man, and it's one of those things that you don't really know until you know, until you throw somebody in the fire and see how they respond. So it was just really good to see how he responded last night.

Q. As the adrenaline of last night kind of wears off, how quickly are you able to go to sleep? When you wake up today, is there an extra cup of coffee? How do you kind of bounce back from something like that?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think everyone's certainly different. I took a little sleep aid to get off my high and woke up with clarity, freshness, and excited to go tonight.

Q. After watching how last night played out, would you ever want them to consider the ghost runner in postseason?

DAVE ROBERTS: No. No. I think that it's baseball in its truest form and part of winning a seven-game series is if there are games like that, then to have to go through the battle of attrition with pitching. It's hard once you get into the extra innings to not play for one swing, which you saw both teams certainly doing. That's a strategy in itself. We had our chance, a couple chances, and couldn't come through.

So I do like the way it is, and also for the regular season the way it's structured.

Q. After watching also last night with Blake in the future, would you think twice about maybe holding off the off-day bullpens just in case you need some guy in reserve?

DAVE ROBERTS: No. You can't plan for 18 innings. You've got to plan for what's certain, and his start is certain.

Q. When you're managing the bullpen tonight, how much do you have to take into account Game 5 tomorrow, and how does that affect some of the guys whose pitch counts got a little higher yesterday?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's managing a plus game, managing a lower-leverage game, how I decide to do it. It's all kind of contingent on who is available. But if we have a chance to win tonight, we're going to put the best guys capable to do that and pick up the pieces.

Q. Tommy Edman finished yesterday in center field. How much of an option is he out there for you? Could he potentially start a game out there?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm not saying it's zero percent chance. That was kind of where we were at with the game, trying to keep guys in there. But, yeah, it's certainly a possibility and, obviously, it's kind of heading towards Andy, but I did think that Andy still took some good at-bats, I really do, and it's just -- he's having a hard time having anything to show for it, but the defense is still good, and I just still feel the fight, the compete, and when he gets good pitches, he's just got to find a way to finish it, but I'm not there yet.

Q. The last two years we've learned so much about Shohei Ohtani and this year I know you've talked about how just who he is as the DH and who he is as the pitcher. Last night when you guys went and checked on him just kind of managing that cramping, what do you learn about a guy like him on the stage like this when he wants to stay out there and also understanding that he is going to be today's starter? How have you learned to kind of manage him in these moments?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's trust, it's kind of getting to know the person, the player, and what his limitations are. He was not going to come out of the game at that point, but if later on in the game, if there was a run-scoring situation, I potentially would have taken him out. But I didn't want to just kind of take him out of the game for fear that his spot was going to come up again, which it ended up coming up three or four times.

But, yeah, he's in great shape, very well conditioned. I expect him to be ready for today. This guy is a different kind of athlete and a different brain.

Q. If we told you a month ago that you would have been considering the idea of putting a position player in to pitch in a tied World Series game, would you have assumed that you were under the influence of one of those sleep aids?

DAVE ROBERTS: (Laughing.) Absolutely. Yes, I would have thought I was under the influence of something, for sure.

Q. Will Smith caught all 18 innings last night. What did you think of that effort? How much consideration did you give to, A, pulling him last night; or B, not starting him today?

DAVE ROBERTS: So I texted him this morning and said, How do you feel? He said he felt great, which I would expect that. I was trying to hold as long as I could because I felt -- again, certainly when we got to the end over there with their pen, there were just left-handed pitchers, and they were going to run Lauer, so to have him in there, potentially, we still needed to find a way to score.

But if there was a situation where I needed to run for him, I had a couple guys ready, and Ben was ready, but I was trying to hold on him as long as I could.

Q. To follow-up on that, do you have any degree of concern with his hand? And is that something that you're watching and seeing how he responds?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I haven't heard anything about his hand in a couple weeks. So I'm sure it's not a hundred percent. But, yeah, yesterday's 18 innings was certainly incredible. So that's something I'm probably going to keep more of an eye on than the hand.

Q. For casual or international viewers, even, how would you convey the mental and physical challenges of what Shohei Ohtani is achieving on a regular basis?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I don't have a good answer. I can try in the sense of you're talking about two people -- I guess two people in one who have to realize crazy expectations, probably unattainable for a person, to be in one. And then to kind of have the body and mind work together to perform at the highest level with all eyes on him. I just don't think there's a comparable if you're talking about one human being.

Q. Put yourself in Mookie's shoes. What's it like, do you think, for him -- is it different when the guy ahead of him gets intentionally walked that often compared to just getting on base through a single? Like, what's his mindset, do you think, with these opportunities after Shohei walks?

DAVE ROBERTS: Mookie's very matter of fact, understanding the game and the strategy behind it, and the way Shohei's swinging the bat, the way Mookie's swinging the bat right now -- he even said it, He's like, I can't blame them. He would do the same thing. There's a certain competitor that comes out, certainly, and you want to make the other team pay for that decision, and that's certainly in there.

So I'm going to keep betting on Mookie hitting behind Shohei and if they keep giving him opportunities, I know he's going to come through.

Q. Being the student of the game, as you are, what are some of the lessons learned so far in this series?

DAVE ROBERTS: The lessons are you've got to just believe in your players, hope that they're prepared and going to perform well in big spots. I guess you don't know until you know. And Henriquez, Wrobleski, Will Klein, you know, Will Smith catching 18 innings, there's just a lot of things that until guys get in the fire, you don't know about a guy, so it was just really good to see. And so that's probably a takeaway.