NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 14, 2026

Dave Roberts

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Brewers - 6, Dodgers - 2

Q. A couple here from the sixth inning. As you're watching that rally start and you've seen Abner's ineffectiveness, what made the decision for you to pinch-hit Muncy there?

DAVE ROBERTS: I just felt Muncy against -- Abner is death on righties. You're trying to guard against -- you want to keep the inning going, and you don't want a double play ball. Muncy's not starting, and you want to fire that bullet in a leverage spot. First and second base, nobody out, it gives us the best chance to keep the inning going, in my opinion, and it gets Shohei up, and you have a chance to build an inning.

Q. Obviously the Brewers bullpen has shown to be very effective throughout the postseason. When you're seeing the potential of Pat Murphy maybe coming in and taking Uribe out, how do you weigh when to go to De Paula, when to go to Kiké, and how did that decision play out for you?

DAVE ROBERTS: Right when they brought in, we hit De Paula, and they bring in Hall. And I thought right there Kiké was a better matchup.

De Paula has been great. He's had two postseason at-bats, both against right-handed pitching. For me, all the experience that Kiké's had, I feel very confident with Kiké taking a bat with a guy on second and third, infield in.

Q. Blake Snell obviously when he was on, he was one of the best lefty pitchers in baseball. He also hasn't pitched a lot of innings, and I don't think he's gone into the seventh inning all season. What did you see from Snell to put him back out there?

DAVE ROBERTS: I just saw that through the sixth inning, and then once we got to the seventh inning, I think he retired 13 or 14 in a row and his stuff was really good. I don't think they were seeing him well. I was trying to get him three more hitters. We had Evan for that fourth hitter. He had his way with those two lefties and took care of Vaughn.

Obviously the leadoff walk hurt. Hasn't given up a homer all year, but it just -- it's baseball. For me, I felt good with where Blake's stuff was at. You've got to give Bauers credit. He put together another good at-bat, which he did at their place and spurred that rally, and then right there saw eight, nine pitches and ended up hitting a homer.

Yeah, I had Evan ready for Pratt right there.

Q. Uncharted territory. Do you make any changes tomorrow?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'm not sure. I haven't digested this one. They're going to run a bullpen game. Just trying to figure out which guys we want to be in there, how you kind of construct the lineup, but I haven't thought about that one yet.

Q. Do you talk to players tonight or talk to them tomorrow?

DAVE ROBERTS: I'll talk to them tomorrow. They know what's at stake. We've won four in a row a number of times this year, ten times, I think, something like that.

Again, we've got to win tomorrow. That's our only focus.

Q. More to the fan base, your message, down 3-0. Show up tomorrow, what's your message?

DAVE ROBERTS: The fans were great tonight. They came out with energy from pitch one, and Blake gives up the leadoff homer, but then after that he was dominant. The fans were there till the end.

We've got to give them something to cheer about and kind of play downhill for a little bit, where I think it's just this whole series they've outslugged us, outhit us, and we've got to get a lead and find a way to tack on and have those guys behind us.

Q. You say you've got to win tomorrow. What does that entail pitching-wise? Could Skubal, Yamamoto be available? How does that play in?

DAVE ROBERTS: No, because you've still got to win four to advance. I think that everyone in the pen should be available, probably outside of Wrobleski. So as far as kind of covering innings and suppressing runs, I feel really good about that. Then you've got to win tomorrow, and then you've got Skubal going, and I still feel behind him we'll be good to go.

Expect to see Diaz. We haven't gotten him into a game. Yeah, I feel good, again, about us preventing runs. We've still got to, like I said, catch lead, build it, and win a ballgame.

Q. Dave, you had Edman up twice with a runner on first and nobody out. Any thought of bunting him and moving runners around into scoring position?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I thought about it, but it's just he had good pitch to hit. Flew out. I just didn't feel giving up an out right there. Early in the game, I felt -- I wanted Tommy to hit. I thought about it, but again, you're giving up an out to have one chance with Mookie and Freddie.

Again, yeah, he could have bunted, but I felt I wanted to give Tommy an opportunity to drive in a run. I think that first time we had first and second base with one out, and when we couldn't get him across.

There's certain ways, obviously when you look back, would it have changed? I can't tell you.

Q. Just to follow up on a couple of things. When you sent Josue up, at that point since the Brewers look like they're sticking with Abner, you're expecting them to do that, are you surprised that Hall was coming in, or you figured I'll just take my chances and see what they do?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's a decision do I want Uribe facing Rojas? Then I chose De Paula, and they made the move. At that point in time, I felt we had the matchup advantage with Kiké. Certainly being in the right-handed batter's box, the experience, all that.

Q. In terms of Snell, obviously you're having a great run, and you've got Evan there, and I know you're worried about left-handed and right-handed, but with the at-bats to Vaughn and to Bauers with how they were and making them work, did you think after either of those to make the move?

DAVE ROBERTS: The Bauers at-bat, it's the middle of the at-bat, so he's going to finish that at-bat. Then he gives up a homer, you're down a run. For me, I just don't think it made sense, given where he was throwing the baseball, pitch count, all that stuff, to allow him to get through Mitchell, where I thought he took -- he was throwing well against him, yeah.

Q. Just generally with Tyler tomorrow, he hasn't obviously pitched in a while because the way your schedule goes. What do you see and what do you expect from him?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think he's going to pitch well. He's fresh. He's got a lot of arm talent. He's got experience certainly in the postseason. We've got a lot of guys behind him.

Again, I think it's just more of letting him do what he does, have guys behind him, and try to catch a lead.

Q. What's the difference between this current Brewers team to last year which you swept? What's different between this team?

DAVE ROBERTS: I think they have more experience. They're really taking great at-bats. They're taking better at-bats than they did last year. Their ball-in-play averages, gosh dang, it's got to be .400. When they put the ball in play, it's a hit. They're also slugging, which they didn't do last year. Those are good combos.

Defensively they're everywhere and making plays, and it's hard for us to certainly create, build innings and score. Where I thought last year we did a better job of slugging and having those guys play from behind.

Q. The Dodgers are 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position in this series. What's been going on there?

DAVE ROBERTS: We're just not getting hits, getting timely hits. I thought the Will ball, it was a big hit for us, a lot of momentum. Hoping it hit a homer. But, yeah, we're just not getting those timely hits. We've had some opportunities with guys on base but can't get that hit.

Q. Dave, you've alluded to it, whether you've rolled out your bench, whether or not to bunt Tommy, but how much of the scoring position woes maybe dictated an aggressive or urgent approach to manage the way that you did in that inning?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that's kind of -- you see we haven't been getting hits with runners in scoring position. To give up an out, to bank on getting a hit with runners in scoring position, I'd rather just try to maybe slug, hit a double. And I think with their pen, I felt it was important to try to get a lead, which we did with Will, and then get an opportunity to get some breathing room to tack on.

Yeah, there's certainly urgency where you want to keep their back end of the guys in the pen. Unfortunately, we didn't do that.

Q. Obviously on the brink, history's against you, but at the same time, history was against you many years ago. What are your thoughts now being behind 0-3 but knowing, from personal experience, a team can come back?

DAVE ROBERTS: It's certainly possible. I've lived it, and I think the thing is that our guys have been battle-tested, as was that team I was a part of. I think the mindset has to be -- and teams have been down before 0-2, 0-3 -- it's just you've got to win tomorrow. It's an elimination game. We've played in a lot of elimination games. We've just got to get a win. We've got to find a way to build some momentum, and it takes all of us.

Q. Are you going to maybe reminisce with your team tomorrow about the time you came back from 0-3?

DAVE ROBERTS: I don't think so. I think they've seen the documentary. They know it can happen.