NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 11, 2026

Dave Roberts

American Family Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. As you were thinking through roster options, what did you like about adding Wrobleski?

DAVE ROBERTS: With Justin, it's certainly there's a length component. There's a he's been there, done that, and had a really good postseason for us last year. So to get him on some lefties in certain parts of the lineup, we feel good about.

I think at the end of the day we just trust him and felt like going 13 and 13 was the best way to do it. Obviously Hyeseong was a guy we kind of had to have off, and we lose that, as far as that bullet off the bench with the speed.

Q. How were you thinking through pinch hitter versus pinch runner, and how did Miggy's health factor into all of that?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's 13 and 13, we feel good about where Miggy is at. We have the depth with Kiké, Tommy, Miggy as far as infield and versatility with the outfield too. It's just too difficult to not have Josue, his at-bat quality come off the bench. That's something we were determined to do.

Q. You've had a lot of success on the road in the postseason, and now that it is Game 1 here in Milwaukee, what is it about being on the road, what makes you guys so successful?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't have one answer. I just think we've had a lot of experience winning on the road, elimination games, feeding off the energy from the home crowd ironically. I just think that we do a good job of minimizing kind of the noise and just kind of staying in the moment.

But I don't have -- it's not easy to win here. These guys are clearly very good at home. We've won big ball games here, but we've got our work cut out. We've still got to play a good baseball game, but I just think at the end of the day there's a lot of energy from the home crowd that you feel.

Q. Looking at Shohei's BP yesterday, it looked like he was to the big part of the field, a little bit to left center. What did you see that makes you encouraged about where his swing is right now?

DAVE ROBERTS: I liked the connectivity to his swing. I thought he wasn't trying to do too much. When you don't try to do too much, you're seeing the baseball a little bit better. Also, to the point you made about going to the big part of the field, which I liked, it was a concerted effort to do that.

Trying to get big and slug Mis is very difficult. So just to kind of shorten it up, see it a little bit longer, I think is a better plan.

I think for Shohei it's just kind of getting back to the basics, and I feel good where he's at. Certainly not 100 percent, but it's good enough. I think for me it's just try to stay in the strike zone.

I think that it was clear last series that the Braves weren't going to give in. I think that he expanded more than he needed to.

Q. And you referenced Mis, his last outing. Jacob's pitch count got pretty high, the Padres fouled off a ton of pitches. Was there something you saw in scouting that could benefit your approach here tonight?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think it's more a little bit conceding the slug, hitting the ball out front, to then seeing the ball a little bit longer to spoil pitches, to shoot the ball the other way. That's how you've got to beat this guy. To think you're going to catch him out front and pull it in the air is bananas.

The Padres, I thought, had the perfect plan to get him. They got him out after four innings, which was a huge, huge win.

Q. With Rojas, is he available tonight? And is there anything you need to continue monitoring with his back?

DAVE ROBERTS: He is available tonight. So it will be essentially a spot to take a pinch-hit at-bat to stay in the game defensively, but yes.

Q. You've had Kiké in your lineup the past several games. What do you like about what he brings, and do you kind of consider him to be part of your typical starting nine moving forward?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that tonight specifically I like -- Mis is -- Jacob is really tough on left-handed hitters. So to get another right-handed bat in there, certainly love Kiké's defense, and I feel like his ability to spoil pitches, to get a big hit is there.

Tommy is still part of the big plan, and I don't know if it's tomorrow, if it's Game 3, but he will get a start. So we have to make sure we keep him in the fold.

Q. One more on Shohei. We've talked extensively about the chase and him probably wanting to do too much with his swing. The more that this slump continues, do you worry that that will compound even more?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, yeah. I think that -- no one wants to chase. He wants to perform and do well. He's been mired in these struggles for a minute here. And certainly when you don't have success, you start to lose some confidence, and that's natural for anyone.

Today is certainly a tough one to build confidence with, but I think for me it's what to focus on, and I think that's the messaging for Shohei and all the players is just control the zone and have quality at-bats. Whatever that means is hit the ball hard, see a lot of pitches, make outs or have at-bats on your terms.

If we can do that, those are wins. I think from that point on we can start having some real success or slug or whatever anyone wants to say. But I think with Shohei where he's at right now, we've just got to get back to simplifying take good walks, take good at-bats, and throw out some knocks.

Q. Tell me a little bit about how you evaluate the Brewers from the other dugout. They've won a lot of games, more games than you guys in the regular season, but like they do it a different way. What makes them difficult as an opponent to beat?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think the organization is fantastic. I think they do a great job of drafting, developing. I think Murph does a fantastic job with their team, their coaching staff.

To your question, I think they play baseball. They play baseball the way it was intended. They value 90 feet. They take extra bases. They defend well. They're athletic. They prevent runs with really good pitching and then with the defense layered in. They don't give pitches away. They hit to all fields.

And with that, they're in every game. So how do you combat that? You try to get them to play from behind, to get them out of their game. You've got to be sound fundamentally to not give them extra outs. Yeah, they're very consistent in how they play the game, and that's a credit to all those guys.

Q. You recently surpassed Tony La Russa on the all-time postseason win list. What does that milestone mean for you overall, just seeing what you've done in your tenure here with the Dodgers?

DAVE ROBERTS: Honestly, it's flown by. I remember my first postseason win in '16. Now you're talking about Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, and that's just mind-blowing for me. I think right now I don't appreciate it as much as I probably should. I'm just so focused on just winning tonight.

But any time you're in a conversation and mentioned along those guys, people that I've really respected and admired because they love the game and were great leaders of men, it's pretty humbling. I'm choked up. I don't know what to say. It's crazy.

Q. You talk about how much you admire the organization, and everyone talks about the matchups, pitcher, hitter, all that. Is there a matchup between managers? Do you guys study each other? Is there sort of a chess game that goes on, like you anticipate what he's going to do so you do something different?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think the thing is with Pat it's very clear that there's certain players that he trusts in certain moments. It's not a matchup thing. With that, that's knowledge that I have versus going on the numbers and things like that.

So I think that that's kind of his default is just going with the players that he trusts, which I love. He's going to do things, get guys running, he's going to bunt. He'll do things a little bit more unconventional in the modern day of baseball, but again, that goes with being tied or having the lead. So you can quell some of that by taking the lead and having them play from behind.

Yeah, I study and watch, and we'll kind of look at each other across the field when he's giving his numbers to the catchers, and I'll kind of mirror that when it doesn't even matter just to kind of see him watching me. Yeah, we have little kind of interactions too.

Q. In your time here, you've had experiences of both repeating as champion and failing to do so. Just kind of wondering when you guys were able to do that last year, what do you feel was the biggest catalyst for that? And what maybe separates the teams that are able to repeat from the ones that don't?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think the ones that are able to repeat can match the intensity, the hunger of the teams that are chasing them. In a vacuum, they're hungrier than we are because they haven't done it. So then how do we kind of manufacture that ourselves? And I think we've done that.

Certainly after that Chris Sale game last year, we saw a different intensity from our guys, which was good to see. I think you can see the dugout more kind of outgoing, more emotional than we typically are. I think that's how you can do it.

To kind of play it straight, I've learned doesn't work. You've got to match that intensity of the teams that you're playing.