Dodgers Interview: Roberts on Tough Loss to Phillies, Ohtani Usage Plan

LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts didn’t sugarcoat where this one slipped away. Asked whether the series has turned into a referendum on the bullpen, he went straight to mindset and execution. “Um, yeah. Uh, they clearly, you know, they’re lacking confidence. Um, I think that it’s uh, you know, it’s kind of they all want to pitch well. They all want the opportunities and, um, you know, they’re just kind of, uh, they’re not making good pitches when they need to and a little careful uh, at times,” Roberts said. The opponent magnified those misses: “So it it I think for me, I believe in the talent. Um but right now they’re just kind of uh you know just don’t have the confidence that uh they need to have um to to be consistent. And so when you’re facing a team like this that’s you know won a division that’s going to grind at bats um you’ve got to continue to make good pitches and um when you don’t they’re going to capitalize.”

With roughly a dozen games left, Roberts still sees a path to stabilize the group. “Yeah, I I I absolutely think they can. Um there’s a lot of guys that have experience. Um there’s some guys that have had nice years that are young players. Um so I do believe that there’s time,” he said. The message now is mental hygiene and aggression: “I I think for me it’s trying to, you know, get these guys to understand that what’s done in the past, uh, has to be behind them and they’ve got to have a short memory. And I think that’s the thing that they’re having a hard time, you know, getting past the short memory of today’s a new day, it’s a new opportunity, and go out there and and, you know, impose your will. um be aggressive and not be afraid to fail.”

Roles aren’t the focus; readiness is. “Um I I think as as a unit um and so, you know, there’s no roles. It’s just kind of when the phone rings and that’s their mantra, be ready to pitch. And so that hasn’t changed. And so when when they get the opportunity, just feel good about it and and go out there and compete,” Roberts said.

He also explained the fifth-inning dugout conversation with Shohei Ohtani—and why there was never a sixth. “Well, he wasn’t going to go back out. Um, we haven’t um we haven’t we’ve been very steadfast in every situation as far as inning for his usage from one inning to two innings to three to four to five. We haven’t deviated from that,” Roberts said. He checked Ohtani’s status not for tonight, but to calibrate the road ahead: “I was trying to get his pulse on for going forward where he’s at continuing to go to the sixth inning. And he says, ‘Feel okay.’ And so that was that was good. Um, but I’m not going to have a, you know, plan for five innings and then he pitches well and say, ‘Hey, now you’re going to go six innings.’ And then, you know, he’s too important. And if something does happen, then that’s on me for changing. And we haven’t done that all year. So I’m not going to do that right now.”

For October, the door opens to a different discussion—carefully. “Yeah. I mean if there’s conversations that of the powers that be and and show included if everyone’s in the conversation saying hey we’ll push him that’s a different conversation. Um but you know what I knew going in is that he was going to be five innings. So that’s where it stops,” he said. On whether that’s more health than baseball: “Well, his his thing is going to be a health decision the whole way until we get to next year. Is is I mean it well, it’s actually going to be a health decision going forward. But, you know, say it’s October now. The guys have conversations about can you go six, right? Put the health a little bit more at risk. There is some risk involved there.” Ohtani will have a voice, but within a plan: “it would definitely um you know certainly has weight um but I think that that’s something that is is good for all of us to talk about beforehand and then evaluate stress of innings and you know up downs.”

Back to the bullpen, Roberts acknowledged how tough it is when even trusted arms wobble. “Yeah, I mean the the the the group is is sort of going through it right now and they’ve got to kind of find a way to remain confident and like I said just kind of let go of, you know, the recent baggage because at times that each one of these guys has been fantastic,” he said. He walked through the ninth with Blake Treinen: “you know, Blake had five pitches and two outs and then he gives up uh, you know, a double and then, you know, he goes three and 0 and starts a contact guy and then you got the nine hitter up. So I figured I’d take a chance with the nine hitter and, you know, he makes a bad pitch to him. So it’s like, you know, he’s still Blake Trinan, you know, but I think that he’s still got to go out there and impose his will and make good pitches.”

If there was a silver lining, it was a fresh confirmation of Ohtani’s effectiveness against elite bats. “Did today… teach you anything about the viability of Ohtani as a pitcher in the playoffs? … Yeah, it did. It did,” Roberts said. “I thought uh he and Ben did a great job together. I thought the fast ball command glove side was fantastic. Um the sweeper was great… He was he was dominant. He was dominant.”

The takeaway from Roberts’ postgame: the bullpen’s issue is confidence plus execution, not talent; the marching orders are short memory, aggression, compete; and the Ohtani plan remains the Ohtani plan—until October conversations, and only then with health at the center.

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