Dodgers Interview: Doc Reflects on An Emotional Night at Chavez Ravine
LOS ANGELES — On an evening layered with ceremony and strain, Dave Roberts managed the game and the moment. After the Dodgers’ 6–3 win over the Giants, the manager walked through Clayton Kershaw’s emotional farewell home start, the decision tree that shaped his exit, and a clubhouse that kept one eye on October.
Roberts didn’t brush past the obvious: Kershaw wore the weight of the occasion. “It started yesterday with the emotional press conference and bled into today,” he told us. “It wasn’t his best, but like he does, he found ways to compete, get outs, and put us in a position to win.” Roberts added that the script allowed for a proper curtain call. “I don’t think it could have been any better in the sense of giving him an opportunity to get a strikeout, face a hitter, and let the fans appreciate him for a moment.”
That moment was no accident. Roberts explained that his original target was to squeeze Kershaw through five, but the live calculus changed. “As the game played out—where he was at, where his stuff was at—I wanted to make sure he didn’t get stressed too much and we still kept the game in mind,” Roberts said. “Looking at the fourth inning and how it started, I was really hoping he could get Adames so he could get Devers for that last hitter. I went down and told Clayton to give us one more hitter. That was all he had, and it felt fitting—empty the tank and give him the rightful opportunity to be acknowledged.”
The human side broke through when Roberts took the ball. Asked if there were tears, he didn’t hesitate. “From him, yes,” Roberts said. “I’m still trying to win the game. But for him, that was it.” Kershaw’s walk to the dugout delivered a long embrace with teammates and a wall of sound from 53,037, a final regular-season salute at Chavez Ravine.
The night also came with a milestone beyond one pitcher’s goodbye: the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth. For the manager, it’s never routine. “Quite the accomplishment. It never gets old. Never take it for granted,” Roberts said. “It takes a lot of hard work to get there. It’s not a right of passage for any club. That’s one step. The next step is to win this division. We’ve still got some work to do. Once we do that, we can focus on the postseason. But we earned a ticket, an opportunity, and that’s great.”
There was, briefly, a toast. “It was a champagne toast,” Roberts said when asked how the club marked the clinch. “I wanted to make sure we raised a glass to Clayton on this day—his career—and then acknowledge what we’ve accomplished this year to get to the postseason. That was about it. We understand there’s still a long way to go.”
On the field, the game pivoted with Shohei Ohtani’s two-out thunder in the fifth, a three-run shot that flipped the score. Even Roberts admitted to a rush of relief. “I was still hoping we won the game,” he said with a grin. “That was a great at-bat by Sho. Robbie Ray pitched a heck of a ballgame—plus fastball, plus slider—he was having his way with us early. That Sho at-bat surprised him too. I thought it was a pretty good pitch.”
Pressed on Kershaw’s place in the franchise arc—a constant through lean years into perennial contention—Roberts zoomed out. “Ownership, Andrew [Friedman] and his crew have done a great job surrounding Clayton with a lot of talent. We’ve talked about depth my entire tenure,” he said. “For a good part of his career, he took on the burden of being the clear-cut staff ace and everything that comes with it. He’s been a stalwart. He’s seen where the organization was—there were some lean times, 18 years ago—to where we’ve been the last 10–12 years. He’s been right in the middle of it.”
Roberts also offered a window into Kershaw’s pregame state. “He was way more emotional,” he said. “On a typical start day, he’s very intense. Today, understandably, he let his guard down because it was the last start at Dodger Stadium. He wanted to take in what was to come—the emotions, the finality—and still try to compete and win a baseball game. He was a little less stoic, which I think was a good thing.”
The pregame tableau included an indelible image: Kershaw taking the field alone. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Roberts admitted. “I thought it was a great nod to Clayton. When he looks back, he’ll appreciate how special that was. I’m sure people got some good shots of him on the field by himself.” Later, the two shared a quiet mound exchange. “I just said, ‘Congratulations on a great career,’ and he said, ‘I’m sorry I pitched so poorly tonight,’” Roberts recalled, then added with a chuckle, “He might have said ‘poorly.’ I don’t think he curses very often.”
Is this truly the last start of Kershaw’s career? Roberts left a door cracked. “We haven’t decided that yet,” he said. One memento is already secure. “He kind of pocketed the ball,” Roberts said. “He asked, ‘Can I keep it?’ I said, ‘You can do whatever you want. It’s your night.’”
As for the logistics of the celebration, Roberts credited a collaborative effort. “We talked to Major League Baseball, and they gave us carte blanche to do whatever we felt was needed to celebrate him tonight,” he said.
In the end, Roberts balanced nostalgia with pragmatism—savoring a legend’s ovation while stitching together the outs to win a ballgame and move closer to the division. It was a manager’s night in full: orchestrate the tribute, manage the pitch count, trust the late-inning plan, tip a glass, and then point everyone back to the bigger target. “That’s one step,” he said. “Now we go win the division—and then we go from there.”
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