NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 6, 2026

Dave Roberts

Truist Park

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Dodgers - 3, Braves - 1

Q. I think we should start with Yoshinobu. What stood out to you about his performance today?

DAVE ROBERTS: Wow. What a performance. I think it was that fifth inning where they started to get a little bit of stress. But managed the situation, limited damage. And to go out there and give us two more, pretty impressive.

He just has a way to just make pitches, calm his heartbeat. And I think he made two mistakes all night -- the first pitch to Olson; Lane Thomas, that cutter that just didn't get there. But outside of that he was awesome.

To get through seven innings, our bullpen is in a good spot as far as Game 4. Can't say enough about Yoshinobu.

Q. After the game, Mookie told me that when you can get three runs off of Chris Sale that's basically like scoring 10 runs in a game. What did you see from your offense that allowed them not only to put really good at-bats together, boost the pitch count, but ultimately get the results off of him?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think I was most proud of we played tonight like an elimination game. You can see from the outset Mookie's at-bats, even just pushing the ball his first at-bat kind of set the tone.

As far as just the fight, we spoiled a lot of pitches, took a lot of really good pitches that we normally don't do.

And you know anytime you can get Chris Sale out of a game after five innings you're doing something.

And so tonight I think collectively it was probably one of our better performances, certainly with the starter, as far as 1 through 9.

Q. Kiké obviously has been somebody that's been a spark for this team just off the field and on the field. For his first postseason at-bat to be against Chris Sale and him to get the result that he got, what does that say about him?

DAVE ROBERTS: He's a big-time player. I said earlier, we needed a little bit of that Kiké dust. And he's always prepared. And he loves moments like this. He has a way to lock in.

He went to change-up. He doubled up on a change-up, and he put a good swing on it and made a couple of really nice defensive plays as well.

It's just one of those things that having him in a lineup in the postseason just adds that extra sort of urgency, that kind of grit that you need.

Q. With Freddie, to watch him get booed and then almost put two over the fence, just what was that like to witness?

DAVE ROBERTS: It was great. Not many people have success against Sale. And I thought Freddie took great at-bats. And I think he's got him a couple times as far as homers.

And Dubon made a great play on the one at-bat, and he finally got him on a sinker that was kind of in/off. But he just takes great at-bats. And no moment's going to be too big for him.

The home crowd certainly is rooting for their guys. But, yeah, it's part of the game. But there's still I'm sure a lot of love for Freddie.

Q. Did it look to you like the first one was going to go out? And what does that tell you about his swing where he has that much power in the opposite field?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that it says where his swing is at. His swing's in a good spot. I was hoping it was going to go out, and Mauricio made a heck of a play.

Even with that, there some other good at-bats. Miggy had a good at-bat and we were hitting the ball hard and didn't have anything to show for it for a minute there. But we broke through.

Again, just happy with the way we competed tonight. It was fun to watch.

Q. When you talk about the collective effort of the offense, especially against Sale, how much of that speaks to the experience you guys have to put a plan against him, and then also to just keep going after those first three innings you create so much traffic but don't get anything out of it there?

DAVE ROBERTS: It certainly speaks to the experience, the buy-in, because if you don't get results when you're committed to kind of grinding, sometimes it's easy to come off of that. But I thought tonight from start to finish we did a good job of grinding.

And it speaks to how important this game was.

And we have Mahle tomorrow, who in the second half has been one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. We have our work cut out. It's going to be another grindy game.

Excited to have Glas tomorrow. But we've seen those guys in the pen a lot, which is a plus advantage to us. But we've got to beat the starter, and that's kind of where our head is at.

Q. With Diaz in the ninth, how much of that was match-ups just liking him in that spot? And what did you see from him working out of that situation?

DAVE ROBERTS: I've said all along that once he starts throwing the baseball like he's capable of, I have no problem putting him in the ninth to finish a game.

Tonight it was probably Henriquez, Phillips or Diaz. I just felt that, in this environment, he's done it many times over. Wanted to bet on that as well as kind of how he's throwing the baseball.

Q. The top of the Braves lineup has been struggling a bit. But struggling or not, what sort of threat do they pose on a game-by-game basis?

DAVE ROBERTS: They're still very talented players. They're still the Braves. You can never take these guys lightly. This organization is one of the best organizations, and it's because you've got players that have talent and high character. They're going to fight.

Acuña can always break out. And Drake is a special young hitter, young player. And Olson is such a pro and he can hurt you at any time.

We're not going to let off the gas, and know it's going to be a fight tomorrow.

Q. Wanted to ask about Freddie's defense and how nice it is to have someone so sure-handed there, the pick at the end and whatever?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, he does whatever it takes to win. That was a tough play. Yaz runs decent. Mookie coming to his backhand, getting rid of it, a side spin throw, and dig it out of there.

You never know. I might have had to make a pitching change. You get Riley who has come up with big hits. Just to be able to make that play was big.

Q. Two questions about Shohei. He got the first walk his last at-bat in this series. What do you think about this? And also he called the challenge after 3-0 count. What do you think of that?

DAVE ROBERTS: I like the fact that it was a lead-off hitter, but being 3-0, you could probably maybe stand to let the count build. It's not really a leverage count. I understood the challenge.

I was happy to see him take that walk versus Suter. He got a catcher's interference tonight.

I still thought his intent, the at-bats were better. It's good to know that we can still win games without him doing a whole bunch. But he's going to come to life. It will happen.

Q. I was going to ask about Shohei. You correctly predicted that he would have at-bats that were important with runners on base. Did you feel overall that your lineup tweaks worked the way you hoped?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah. We talked about it like there was going to be some things that fall to him, and that's what happened. I like the insertion of Kiké right there and obviously with the big hit and a couple nice defensive plays.

I liked the way we kind of constructed to make it a little bit tougher on those guys to navigate. And at the end of the day those guys did a great job against Sale.

Q. Miggy said that he's hopeful that the back pain won't be too much of a problem going forward. How do you expect him to be available going forward?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think that's kind of how he comes in tomorrow. He probably won't be in there tomorrow against Mahle. But just to have him available. Hopefully he feels better tomorrow.

But I give him credit for conceding that at-bat because he wasn't feeling right. So hopefully got it treated up and will feel better coming into tomorrow.

Q. Some managers have talked about how it's easier to be in the moment in a baseball game as a manager than it is as a player. When Kiké hit that home run, can you walk us through your thought process on the crack of the bat as you watched it, thinking it could go out and when it finally went out and you heard even the Dodgers fans in Truist Park celebrating?

DAVE ROBERTS: I was just happy that it went out. To get a lead on the road is huge. Playing from behind, you start to add a little bit more anxiety and anxiousness. And so to get a lead was big. And you can kind of put them under the gun a little bit and put a little pressure, frees up Yamamoto a little bit.

Also, I felt that the first three innings we stressed them and didn't come up with anything. So to break out with a homer, two-run homer, kind of a little sigh of relief.

Q. Yamamoto talked about the meeting that you had with him in the fifth inning. Can you talk about that? And also he said that you encouraged him and you used a bad word.

DAVE ROBERTS: I encouraged who?

Q. Yamamoto. You encouraged him, had a meeting with him in the fifth inning.

DAVE ROBERTS: That was more Pryor, Mark Pryor. I just tried to encourage him. He knows how much I believe in him, how much I trust him, and I was more encouraging him and trying not to use too many bad words. (Laughter).