TORONTO — The Dodgers opened the World Series with a rough one at Rogers Centre, falling 11–4 after a sixth-inning spiral erased an early lead. It was the sort of game that looks close until it isn’t. Dave Roberts met it straight on. He praised Toronto’s contact, owned the pitching mistakes, and kept the focus on tomorrow.
“They’re a lot like the Brewers as far as putting the ball in play,” Roberts said. “I just thought tonight Blake didn’t have good fastball command. He was working deeper counts, and when he had count leverage he couldn’t put them away because they were putting the ball in play. There were a couple of bad walks in there, but you have to give those guys credit. They certainly fought.”
The turning point was obvious. “In the sixth, you walk Betts, then Kirk does what he does and shoots the hole, and then you walk Bo,” Roberts said of the Blue Jays’ rally. “That was going to be Blake’s last hitter, Varsho, but he put Emmet in a tough spot. He gets strike one on Clement, then the breaking ball is a little higher, and then the changeup to Giménez is a big hit. Trying to keep the game close and Barger hits a hanging slider. We just didn’t make pitches when we needed to to keep that game close.”
With the bullpen asked to cover big outs, Roberts kept perspective. “They need to bounce back,” he said of Emmet Sheehan and Anthony Banda. “I wouldn’t say concerning. Anthony’s been very good for us and he left a breaking ball up. With the construct of the pen, we’re going to need him. We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of baseball, but they’ve got to make good pitches.”
As for any rust from the long layoff, Roberts didn’t go there. “I really don’t think the week had anything to do with tonight,” he said. “We were rested, in a good spot. We had a two-nothing lead, Varsho hits a homer, and we didn’t pitch well after that. I honestly don’t think the layoff had anything to do with it.”
Offensively, chances were there early, but the one swing to stretch the lead never came. “There were some pivotal at-bats that can flip games that I think we can be better at,” Roberts said. “At times the offense looks great building innings, but in some key at-bats you have to win pitches and use the other side of the field, get a hit, take a walk, whatever it might be. We can be better. We need to be better. Gausman and those guys are fired up and playing good baseball. One through nine, we have to continue to take good at-bats and play good baseball, then we’ll be fine.”
Shohei Ohtani’s late homer was a bright spot, even if the overall line was mixed. “The homer was nice,” Roberts said. “Hopefully he can build on that one. He’s going to be all right. Obviously you like him with the bases loaded and Yusavage made a good pitch with the split down below, but Shohei’s going to be fine.”
The plan against Toronto’s rookie starter worked to a point. “It was deliberate,” Roberts said of the early patience. “He lives and dies by that split against lefties and we tried to stay stubborn in the hitting zone. We got to their pen in the fifth. On that side we did a good job, but we couldn’t get that one or two at-bats to create a little more distance.”
No alarms. No excuses. Just the next pitch, the next game. “We’ve got a long way to go,” Roberts said. “We need to make good pitches, take good at-bats, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
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