NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 4, 2026

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Braves - 3, Dodgers - 2

Q. What did this game show you about how Atlanta is going to challenge you the rest of the series?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it showed that they're going to use any pitcher, try to get every matchup possible. Obviously them pushing Fuentes to four -- almost four innings, 40-something pitches shows they're going to ride certain guys, and obviously they use their bullpen accordingly.

It's a good team offensively. They're going to fight. Harris is swinging a good bat. We knew it was going to be a battle. So we knew those guys weren't going to go down.

Expecting to see Sale Game 3. We've got our work cut out. So now it's a three-game series.

Q. Is Blake feeling okay? Is he bothered at all by the groin?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, no, it wasn't that. He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game. Yeah, today it was just -- because I think the fastball was really good. The change-up was good at times. I think in total didn't have fastball command, didn't have slider command, and the change-up wasn't there. He was pulling it.

I think that just overall it wasn't the groin. He just wasn't sharp tonight.

Q. Can I also ask about Edwin Diaz?

DAVE ROBERTS: Edwin was great. I think if you look at tonight, try to find some silver linings, that was a silver lining and certainly a positive.

Q. Shohei looks out of sorts. Any concern about that or anything you're --

DAVE ROBERTS: I think with Shohei, it's just -- I think, if you look at the at-bats, there's a lot of chase. I think that it's like -- it's hard to square up, put good swings on balls that are out of the zone. That's kind of what it boils down to.

Certainly Sale is going to be tough because there's a lot of strike to ball, it's high velocity. But just trying to get him back in the hitting zone.

Q. Yeah, it's a small sample for Shohei, chasing a lot of bad pitches, but health-wise, how did you see it?

DAVE ROBERTS: I haven't heard anything other than he feels fine. So I don't know if he's trying to do too much because he doesn't feel perfect. This time of year, everyone doesn't feel -- no one feels perfect. He's doing the best he can.

Yeah, he'll be in there Game 3, and we've just got to, again, take good at-bats and expect the best.

Q. Dave, in those middle innings you had some traffic on the base pads. How much more critical is it to take advantage of those opportunities in the postseason?

DAVE ROBERTS: That's what it is. I think, if you look at Dubón in the first inning puts the barrel on the ball, puts the bat on the ball to drive in a run, infield hit. You look at Harris, 3-2, puts the ball in play in the gap, Olson running. We had opportunities. We just couldn't get a hit when we needed to.

We didn't throw out a bunch of hits, but there was still traffic. We didn't need many hits tonight to have a different result, and we just couldn't get it.

Q. Fuentes, if I remember right, shut you guys down pretty good a couple times in Atlanta. What is so difficult about him? How key was that three innings of scoreless --

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it was 3 2/3. I think it was just the fastball. Tonight you could see the fastball, it was 99, 100. There was a lot of balls we're just missing as far as lazy fly balls, and we just couldn't hit the ball flat against him. Then he was mixing in his split once in a while.

We had the guys. We saw him -- I think at one point he retired nine straight guys. I think even after that Suarez came in, we didn't get a guy on base until the Muncy homer.

Yeah, tip my hat to him, two days off and doing what he did was pretty impressive.

Q. When you woke up this morning and got the text they were going with a bullpen game and you had Blake Snell lined up, how good did you feel about that matchup?

DAVE ROBERTS: Felt great, felt great. Any time I feel I have Blake Snell lined up against any pitcher felt good. Going to getting Kerr out of the game and getting Holmes out of the game, I felt really good where we were at, I really did. We just couldn't execute as the game progressed.

Q. Two home runs so far in this postseason for Max Muncy. At his age doing this in the biggest of moments, what does that say about him?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's a big-time player. He's an all-time Dodger leader in postseason homers, came off the bench tonight willingly, being a great teammate. Miggy gets a big hit, don't cash that one in with the leadoff double.

Yeah, two homers, very underrated player, and certainly goes unnoticed a lot given the star power we have on our team.

Q. I wanted to ask you with Blake was there concern before the start? Did he have any indication that he might be a bit wobbly tonight?

DAVE ROBERTS: Not at all. I thought that he wasn't that sharp in San Francisco, but we got him out of it, felt great coming out of that outing. He had an inning this past week, felt great. Then going into the start, there were no concerns.

Q. Do pitchers ever tell you if they are feeling a bit concerned, or is that something they usually keep to themselves?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, they do. Even in Cincinnati, Blake let on that he didn't feel great. So we got him out of the game after one inning. You can tell when a pitcher, certainly with the lower half, isn't right, where tonight the fastball was 97, 98. So it wasn't -- and that was the left adductor. So it wasn't compromised.

Q. Could we see Edwin closing?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think I've been very consistent in the fact that I wanted to get him an outing, and this was a big spot. He did what he needed to do. It looked great. So absolutely, you could see him closing, yes. I could see him closing.