MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 24, 2025

Dave Roberts

Rogers Centre

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Blue Jays - 11, Dodgers - 4

Q. This is kind of a different-looking team than what you're used to playing, isn't it? I mean, they make a lot of contact, they don't strikeout a lot, they put the ball in play. What do you think about even it in your first look at it?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, actually, they're a lot as far as putting the ball in play like the Brewers. I just thought tonight Blake just didn't have fastball command. He was working deeper counts. When he had count leverage, he really couldn't put 'em away because they were putting the ball in play, and there were just a couple bad walks in there. But you got to give those guys credit. They certainly fought.

Q. What did you see go wrong in the 6th inning both with Blake and then the guys out of the pen?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, it's just Bichette's a tough guy to walk. You walk him, then Kirk does what he does, shoots the hole, and then you walk Varsho. Right there that was going to be his last hitter, Varsho, but obviously, he put him in a tough spot, and then he gets strike one on Clement, then a breaking ball is a little bit higher, and then the changeup to Giménez sort of was a big hit, and then obviously trying to keep the game close, and Barger hits a hanging slider. So we just didn't make pitches when we needed to to keep that game close.

Q. Obviously Emmet and Anthony specifically, given the state of the pen are probably going to have big roles to play this series. Is it concerning to see them kind of struggle like they did in that inning right there? How do you need them to bounce back?

DAVE ROBERTS: They need to bounce back. I wouldn't say concerning. Anthony's been very good for us, and he left a breaking ball up. But, yeah, with the construct of the pen, we're going to need 'em, and so we got a long way to go, a lot of baseball, but they certainly got to make good pitches.

Q. Having done this several times, would you prefer to go straight into it without the week layoff, looking back?

DAVE ROBERTS: You know, honestly, I really don't think the week layoff had anything to do with tonight. I really don't. We were rested. I thought we were in a good spot. We had a 2-0 lead and then Varsho hits a homer and we didn't pitch well after that. So I really honestly don't think that had anything to do with it.

Q. With the offense, what's kind of missing in your guys' inability to turn some of those scoring chances into bigger innings like you were earlier or coming down the stretch of the regular season?

DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think even you look back at last couple of weeks, there's some pivotal at-bats that can flip games I think that we can be better at that. At times, I think that the offense looks great as far as building innings, but there's some key at-bats that you got to win pitches and use the other side of the field, get a hit, take a walk, whatever it might be.

But I think that we can be better, we need to be better. Gausman, these guys are fired up. They're playing good baseball. So just 1 through 9 we just got to continue to take good at-bats and play good baseball and then we'll be fine.

Q. What did you think of Shohei today? I mean, he hit the home run, but the overall it was kind of mixed.

DAVE ROBERTS: The homer was nice. Hopefully he can kind of build on that one. But, yeah, he's going to be all right. Obviously you like him with the bases loaded, and Yesavage made a good pitch with the split down below. But yeah, he's going to be fine.

Q. You guys had a lot of plate discipline in the early innings against Trey. Was that deliberate going in, knowing just, make sure it's in the strike zone, trying to let him fall behind?

DAVE ROBERTS: It was, it was. He lives and dies by that split, certainly versus left. We really tried to stay stubborn in the hitting zone. We got to their pen in the fifth inning, so I thought on that side of it we did a good job. But we just couldn't get that one or two at-bats to really create a little bit more distance.