Blue Jays - 6, Dodgers - 2
Q. You're always talking about learning in every experience in every game. What did you learn from your experience so far in this particular series?
DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I think that we knew it was going to be a great series. This team is talented, they're resilient -- talking about the Blue Jays, and they came back fighting, caught an early lead. Bieber does what he does and used the cutter, spun us, minimized damage, limited traffic, and we really didn't get a whole lot of good swings.
Conversely, you see these guys grinding and using the whole field and putting some hits together and, obviously, the homer by Vlad and, you know, that 7th inning, they built an inning right there. We just didn't have an answer.
So I think the takeaway is we saw Yesavage not too long ago, and so that's certainly information that we're going to use and expect Blake Snell to be better than he was in Game 1.
Q. Do you think there was any carryover offensively from last night just how long that kind of dragged on for guys?
DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I don't know. I think that you got to give credit to Bieber for making pitches, getting ahead. Those guys had the same kind of -- went through the same thing as we did. I felt like we were prepared tonight. Guys came in fresh, you know, starting off with the play from Kiké in left field. I thought we had some good kind of energy early, and then it just kind of petered out a little bit.
Q. Do you feel like offensively as a whole this postseason you've been able to find a good enough rhythm or do you think there's more that you guys haven't been able to tap into there?
DAVE ROBERTS: We haven't found our rhythm. We haven't. It sort of draws dead at certain parts of the lineup and different parts, different innings, different games. Guys are competing. Certainly, in the postseason, you're seeing everyone's best.
But, yeah, my hope is we regroup tomorrow, gather the information that we had from Yesavage, and keep him in the hitting zone, and understand what that split does, which is certainly helpful, and when we get the fastball, really get on it.
Q. Between the game last night, the nine times getting on base, the heat today, how much do you think all that had an affect on Ohtani physically?
DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I don't know. Mark asked him in the 6th inning how much more he had. He said he had three more innings. So he's very self-aware of his body. I thought that the 6th inning was one of his best innings. And where he was at, the way the ball was coming out, I felt good and just kind of happened right there where -- you know, it was Varsho gets a base hit and then Clement hits a ball in the gap, and it just kind of happened right there where I just felt we needed to find a way to get a punch-out. And trying to get Banda on three lefties, obviously, they hit France right there at the top for Lukes.
But yeah, he gave us a good effort. He really did.
Q. You've talked over the past couple weeks about deciding do you change the lineup, do you not change the lineup. As you balance patience versus now only two or three games left in your season no matter what, do you think it's time to maybe act on some of that?
DAVE ROBERTS: I think so. I'm going to think long and hard and it might look a little bit different tomorrow.
Q. We get used to like the last two games Ohtani played here, where he was spectacular. Is it kind of weird when he has sort of a mortal night like tonight? He was good, but he's not outstanding the way he was the last couple of times.
DAVE ROBERTS: He's mortal, but there's also a lot of energy, obviously, on the pitching exerted. But they made good pitches. There were some backdoor cutters, some breaking balls crowding him a little bit, and I thought his intent tonight at the plate was good. But you look back at those at-bats, they made good pitches on him. They really did.
Q. Do you think it's unfair to put that much pressure on him to expect him to do those extraordinary things every night?
DAVE ROBERTS: You know, I know he doesn't see it as pressure. I would say that's what he expects from himself. It's part of being a fan and seeing great things from great players. So every time he steps up I expect great things to happen, and maybe unfairly.
Q. You had to put Tommy in center field last night out of kind of necessity. Did you see enough to make you be comfortable with the actions out there to potentially put him out there?
DAVE ROBERTS: Yeah, I mean I've got to make a decision. Essentially am I going to, you know, play Andy, am I going to play Call, or am I going to play Miggy Ro. So just kind of trying to think through all that stuff and net it out and see what gives us the best chance tomorrow.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports