Q. A little unique schedule here this year with an extra day off in the best-of-five series. How does that change your pitching strategy? What options does it open?
DAVE ROBERTS: I think it's beneficial. Obviously getting Blake on his regular rest, I think with the guys that we used out of the pen yesterday, they're all back online outside of Glasnow.
I think we kind of reset, and I feel good with, obviously, Snell going tomorrow and kind of having whoever we want to deploy behind him.
Q. Does it free you up with Roki, in particular, since this is his first experience trying to bounce back, two out of three, one out of three, whatever it is?
DAVE ROBERTS: No, actually, fortunately that was something we did intentionally towards the end of this season. We got him a two-out-of-three. And we've kind of checked that box. So, I feel good, if needed we could use him tomorrow night as well.
Q. I asked you last night, I'll ask you again; can we call him your closer?
DAVE ROBERTS: I think he's earned -- I just don't want to be pigeonholed into the ninth because with the way this lineup is constructed, there could be different ways where the eighth could present itself where he could be the best option. But I do consider him one of our top highest-leverage relievers for sure.
Q. How did Will come away from catching the end of the game last night?
DAVE ROBERTS: He's here right now getting treatment, going to go through the workout. I haven't talked to him today yet. He's going to go out there and take batting practice. So once I kind of have the conversation, talk to the trainers, watch him go through his work, then I'll have a better idea.
But I think even making the decision tomorrow whether he's in the starting lineup or not is going to not be until tomorrow, kind of late morning once I hear from him and hear how he feels.
Q. Do you think there could be some value in possibly Ben continuing to start some games and Will coming in to pinch-hit and then staying in to kind of manage the workload as he eases back into action here?
DAVE ROBERTS: Absolutely. Absolutely. He hasn't had the normal buildup as far as getting his legs back and catching and all that kind of stuff that he normally would, coming back from an injury.
And, so, to then you layer in the intensity of the postseason, the games are a little bit longer, all that. So to have him catch four innings and then to potentially run that same playbook, certainly there's value to that.
But if he says that he feels great, there's no remnants of Game 1, it might be hard for me not to kind of pencil him in. But certainly there's potential upside in having him catch four or five innings.
Q. I know we've talked about just with Roki Sasaki and how these big moments, they don't necessarily faze him. But was there something maybe you learned about him just last night being in the atmosphere here in Philadelphia and how he was able to manage himself and his emotions on the mound?
DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, you know, we saw him pitch in leverage as a reliever. Then we saw him go on the road. We saw him give up a double in Seattle -- see how he responded to getting hit, to having a guy on base, to then be thrust into on the road, in a save situation, give up a double. And how he continued to attack the zone, get the grounder, get the pop-up was very valuable information. Not surprising from I don't think any of us, but it was still good to see that.
I just felt confident in him that he'd be able to handle his emotions in any circumstance. But I think it makes us all feel better once you see him in certain spots and how he responds.
Q. Why do you think you guys had so much success against the top of their lineup yesterday? And how do you kind of sustain that moving forward in the series?
DAVE ROBERTS: I thought yesterday Shohei did a fantastic job of moving the ball around. You've got to kind of change locations. You've got to use the front to back. I thought his curveball was as good as I've seen it.
But you have to have these guys honor the fastball. They hunt locations. They hunt velocities. And you've got to keep them guessing. You just can't be predictable. And I thought yesterday we did a fantastic job of not being predictable. And I thought Tyler did the same thing.
Q. With Clayton, do you see him pretty much if a starter gets knocked out earlier or if the game goes extra innings, or do you have something else in mind?
DAVE ROBERTS: I think those scenarios certainly play into one, two potential uses of Clayton. I trust him. I just think there's other opportunities he might have to pitch. But I also do feel that there's other guys, whether it's lanes or spots, that I feel we're more comfortable with. But it's not a slight on Clayton, but I do think that there's various roles -- up, down, early, late -- that I could use him.
Q. Just to follow up on the question about facing the top of their order, is there a lesson you guys can take from how aggressive you guys were in zone against those guys and how effective that could be with the stuff that you guys have?
DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I think that like we've talked about, our two teams are very similar. We mirror one another. Speaking on the offensive side, I think that when teams, pitchers nibble and get behind, try to be too fine, that's where offenses like ours and theirs feast.
You've got to go at these guys and attack them in the strike zone. Once they get count leverage, they get better, even better than most hitters do.
So, yeah, I think if you look at last night, first -pitch strike, whether it's the breaking ball, fastball, going after these guys certainly is beneficial, yes.
Q. And Tyler, would he still be online to pitch Game 4 for the rest he'll have between that? And is there any temptation to, if there's a situation in Game 3, keeping him in the pen if that's the spot to kind of close the series out right there?
DAVE ROBERTS: He's still in line for Game 4. As I sit here right now, coming out of the pen the rest of the series is not on my radar. But you just never know how things play out. But having him lined up for Game 4 is kind of where we're at.
Q. Shohei struck out four times yesterday. How did you see his swing last night?
DAVE ROBERTS: I just thought that Sanchez was really good with the sinker, with the change-up. Then he faced Strahm, who made some good pitches on him, and got the walk. But I just thought that he was chasing out of the zone, and then when he was taking -- he was taking strikes. It was kind of a bad combination, just a bad night. Expect him to be better in Game 2.
Q. Any concern about the lefty tomorrow? You don't have any concern?
DAVE ROBERTS: About what?
Q. Another lefty tomorrow.
DAVE ROBERTS: No, no concern.
Q. To follow up on that, did you feel like yesterday, just the pitching -- I know you talked about how well Ohtani compartmentalizes stuff -- but did you feel like yesterday the amount of focus that went into the pitching maybe took away from, especially like those early at-bats in the game, or did you look at those as kind of separate situations?
DAVE ROBERTS: I think Sanchez was really good. But I do think that on days that Shohei pitches, a large amount of the focus is on the pitching, which I understand.
But I think that last night, in particular -- yeah, I mean I know Sanchez was good -- but yeah, I mean kind of trying to weather that three-run inning and kind of stay in there on the pitching side, I'm sure has some kind of bleed in to the effect on the bat. But Sanchez was really good, though, regardless.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports