NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 2, 2026

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Dave, obviously Game 1 of the NLDS is tomorrow. How are you feeling with how you all used this bye week to reset physically, mentally, but also to keep that togetherness as the key focus for the group preparing for this exciting, hopefully, postseason run?

DAVE ROBERTS: We're in a good spot, excited. I thought we got our work in. It was good intent, came out of it healthy, accomplished everything we wanted. I liked, as you alluded to, there is a watch party that guys stuck around for, spent time together. Yeah, I think our guys are in a good spot, ready to go.

Q. What went into the decision to have Skubal be your Game 1 starter, and how does the rest of the series lay out for you?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think it was one of those things where, if you're looking at Tarik's ability to go on regular rest this series potentially, looking out -- I think that's probably kind of the start of it.

We still haven't -- we're not ready to say who Game 2 and 3 are, but I think a lot of it this series, the possibility of usage, as well as, as we look out, who's best lined up. So for us, I've always said with the four guys it doesn't really matter who, but I think we feel good about Tarik taking the baseball tomorrow night -- tomorrow afternoon.

Q. When do you expect to have a Game 2 starter announced?

DAVE ROBERTS: I would assume, I would like to think tonight after the workout.

Q. When you're fine tuning the rest of the roster, now that you know your opponent, what decisions are you weighing specifically with the bench bat off left-handers -- or with left-handers and then your lefty relievers?

DAVE ROBERTS: I do know we're going to go with 14 and 12, and now trying to figure out the bench bat, who are the extra players, is it going to be a pinch runner. Yeah, I think that's kind of where we're at, and then finalizing the last reliever is always front of mind.

Q. Can you take a lefty bench bat and a potential pinch runner?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's possible.

Q. When you're talking about the rotation and you're saying look out, I'm assuming you're talking about to the next series. Just how much of a luxury is it to have the depth of staff and quality of staff where you can focus both on the best way to win this series but also line things up looking further ahead?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's a good process, appreciating that the most important thing is this series right now. But if you have talented arms at your disposal, it's prudent to kind of map out potentially how they could line up, and that's just doing your due diligence.

But we are very fortunate because we have four guys essentially that you could really kind of pick through to figure out what's the best way to deploy all four starters, and that's kind of what -- that's the exercise, but it starts with having four talented guys.

Q. And Tarik said that you delivered the news as you took him out in San Francisco. What was that moment like for you, kind of knowing -- he went through a huge change for the first time in his career and has performed the way he has?

DAVE ROBERTS: I loved delivering that message. I don't always get to deliver good messages, and that was a good one, a fun one. And he was great because obviously with this ball club it's an easy kind of thought that Yoshi would be the Game 1 starter, absolutely. So Tarik was very respectful of Yoshinobu, but we have thoughts on why we do things, and all these guys are all in for whatever we decide.

Q. Shohei said that he is expecting to have to manage a little kind of the lingering injuries this postseason from your end. Like how does that process look?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think from my end it's similar to Freddie. He's not 100 percent either, but he's going to be in the lineup. Shohei's not 100 percent, but he's going to be in the lineup. I think that most players that are performing now are not 100 percent.

Obviously with Shohei it's a bigger deal because of the player, but there's a lot of players that are not 100 percent, and they've just got to manage it.

Q. After seeing these last few days of workouts, what do you think you can realistically expect from both Shohei and Freddie?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yesterday was a big step for Freddie, in my opinion, just seeing the at-bats that he took against our guys and swung the bat really well. So that was encouraging.

With Shohei, I'm not so sure. I know that once the lights turn on, the postseason starts, the focus will be heightened. I expect good things. I really do. We just haven't seen it enough to really -- for me to forecast it. I'm expecting him to play well.

Q. Just a quick follow-up because you guys have had a chance to have Shohei be down for a few days and then get him back in the lineup and hasn't really gone a hundred percent the way you hoped. In terms of expectations, is it more of a hope or a firm expectation based on, like you said, his past and his playoff past?

DAVE ROBERTS: Honestly, I don't see how it's not anything other than a hope for any player. I hope Mookie plays well. I hope Freddie plays well. I hope Max Muncy does. I hope Tarik throws well. It's just you don't know. It's unpredictable.

So I think for me I stand by I hope that Shohei plays well. I hope they all do.

Q. Obviously the Braves had to kind of use a lot of pitching just to kind of get by Philadelphia. You've had a team in that position before where you kind of had to shoot a lot of bullets just to kind of get by that round. What parts do you feel like you guys have an advantage with them coming in like this, and also what kind of makes a team like that dangerous?

DAVE ROBERTS: What makes a team like that dangerous is they've already been in the fight. They've already got their intensity up. They can manage emotions. They've come out of the series with some momentum, coming out of winning a series.

The advantage for us is we have an opportunity to not let their pitching staff come up for air, and how do you do that? You have to exhaust the starter tomorrow. You have to get in their pen, and you have to have them deploy arms as soon as possible and get that carousel going and continue to beat starters. Then you can suffocate them.

But if you sit back and let that starter go six or seven innings, that now resets pen, and it changes the dynamic of a series. So yeah, we have an opportunity to really expose them if we take the right at-bats and the right approach.

Q. How do you envision, especially the back end of the bullpen, kind of managing that, and is there going to be one set guy, at least in your mind, that you would want to have in the ninth inning ready to go? Or would it be based more on matchups, flow of the game, whatever else?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not sure. I think the one guy I feel that it's easy to say I see finishing games is Tanner, but if it's a different lane that I feel that he's the best option in the eighth inning, then we're going to use him.

But as far as Evan, Roki, Diaz, I feel very comfortable with any of those guys closing out the game.

Q. You've been in a lot of these series now over the last ten years. How would you characterize the importance of Game 1?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it's important. It's important. Just to hold serve at home I think is important. To take on a team that's coming out of a series with momentum and then to kind of gain the momentum by winning Game 1, very important. Maybe not as important as a three-game series, like we've been in before, but Game 1 is important. I think it just certainly sets the tone and gives you a lot of momentum.

Q. We saw Glasnow last night in the scrimmage, but when we weren't here, did Yamamoto and Snell also face hitters in a similar situation?

DAVE ROBERTS: They faced hitters two days ago.

Q. Just wanted to circle back on the Skubal decision. You said that starting him in Game 1 was partly because he could come back and pitch Game 5 on sort of normal rest. I guess he could have started Game 2 and been on four days' rest for Game 5, and then Yama starting Game 1, five days' rest for Game 5. Just generally speaking, in these early rounds, do you prefer to give guys extra days between starts? I imagine your rotation depth affords you that luxury in some way?

DAVE ROBERTS: That's part of the math because, as the series goes on, if you're fortunate enough to keep moving on, things start to get more unpredictable.

So I think that at the outset, if you can kind of line it up in such a way to giving guys ample rest, it just, I guess, puts you in a better position for more options down the road. That's kind of some of the math we had.

Q. How was the matchup between Yoshi and Shohei two days ago?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yoshi won the matchup.

Q. So he struck out?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, I think he just got him out a couple times.

Q. How many pitches did he throw?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm not sure.