LOS ANGELES – Dave Roberts walked into Friday night’s postgame press conference with a cigar between his fingers, his voice cracking with pleasure. As a starter in 2004, his steal helped the Red Sox overcome a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series en route to winning the World Series. As manager in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, his Dodgers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the National League Championship Series against the Braves en route to snapping the franchise’s 32-year drought.
And yet he put the National League Division Series back against the Padresincluding back-to-back shutout victories in the playoffs and 24 consecutive scoreless innings from a struggling Dodgers pitching staff, in the same conversation as those accomplishments. After losing to a low-ranked opponent in the first round the past two seasons, it wouldn’t happen a third time as Los Angeles blanked San Diego 2-0 on Friday to advance to the NLCS against the New York Mets.
“This is right there,” Roberts said. “For us to win this series the way we did, the setback — and those guys coming into the postseason with a lot of momentum — speaks to the character of our guys. That’s right there.”
Before Game 5, Roberts told his players that he believes in this team more than any team he has ever coached.
“I just think there’s a relentlessness, a refusal to lose,” Roberts said.
Their first baseman, Freddie Freeman, was playing on one leg. Their shortstop, Miguel Rojas, left Game 3 early and did not return for the series, hampered by a torn adductor he had tried to play through. Injuries had decimated their first round pick, enough that they only had one member of their Opening Day rotation still available in October.
For many of those reasons, the Padres, who lost the division but finished with the best second half record in baseball, were viewed by many as the better team. Inside the Dodgers clubhouse, a mantra began to take shape, stemming from a message Kiké Hernández delivered when the team was down 2-1. It continued to spread throughout the clubhouse as Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” blasted through the speakers on Friday night.
“F— ’em all,” said Max Muncy.
The one starter left, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, missed nearly three months with a rotator cuff strain and pitched five innings just once in his four regular season starts with the injury. He got hit by the Padres in his big league start in March and again this past Saturday in Game 1 of the NLDS, enough for the Dodgers to think he might have been tipping his pitches. They tried to fix the issues before Game 5, when they decided to go with Yamamoto again.
“Talking to him, you could get the sense that he wanted the ball,” said baseball president Andrew Friedman.
But the pick wasn’t awarded and wasn’t announced until 9:31 pm PT the night before Game 5. They could have selected Jack Flaherty, their key acquisition at the deadline. Or they could use another bullpen game after a good performance against the Padres two nights earlier. All of their keys are also available in another elimination game.
But not giving Yamamoto the ball with the season down the line would send a bad message to the newly-made highest-paid pitcher in the sport.
“At the end of the day,” Roberts said, “we’re making a bet on a guy who’s going to play the game of his life tonight.”
Yamamoto has had experience in big games before, from earlier this year and his career around the world. His best outing as a major leaguer came in the Bronx, when he held the Yankees to seven innings on June 7. The 26-year-old also played in the World Baseball Classic. Roberts considered setting Japan, and the country of players, “the highest stakes you can have.”
In addition to winning the Nippon Pacific League MVP and triple crown for three consecutive years, Yamamoto also led the Orix Buffaloes to the Japan Series for three straight seasons. Last year, he went undefeated in Game 1 where he gave up seven runs. He picked up the ball again in Game 6, with the Buffaloes up 3-2 in the series, and struck out 14 batters in a 138-pitch game.
He won’t need to throw nearly as many pitches to give the Dodgers what they need.
“Yoshinobu is here to be a great starter,” Robertse said, “and this is his time.”
Before Yamamoto reached the top step in his final outing on the mound Friday, Roberts reached out and hugged him. An animation show was expected. Shohei Ohtani rubbed Yamamoto’s head and laughed. The Dodgers had gotten to this point without needing a start to get going, but at some point that had to change. They gave Yamamoto 12 years and $325 million to bring him to these conditions. With the relievers behind him, they didn’t need eight goals. If he can give them even three solid innings, the Dodgers figured they could cover at least six with their bullpen.
Instead, he pitched five scoreless innings of work.
“He’s got a little Walker Buehler in him,” Gavin Lux said. “When the game is big, the moment is big, he will give his best.”
In the past two years, the Dodgers have never had this chance.
In 2022, the Padres took care of Game 4 before the series returned to Los Angeles. Some questionable pitching decisions killed the Dodgers that night. Tyler Anderson was cruising when the bullpen took over. Their best reliever at the time, Evan Phillips, watched from the sidelines as disaster struck in the fifth inning that decided the series. At one point, Yency Almonte missed a sign coming out of the dugout in an attempt to allow Alex Vesia more time to warm up. Instead, he threw the ball. Vesia, who said afterward that he had already warmed up, entered the middle of the at-bat and gave up the hit that ended up being the hit. By the time Phillips entered the eighth and struck out, it was too late. Roberts was upset by the moves, as he did in 2018 by pitching Rich Hill in the World Series and in 2019 by pitching Clayton Kershaw to a win against the Nationals.
This was both redemption and relief.
Roberts delivered a masterclass throughout the 2024 NLDS as the Dodgers outscored, outscored and outplayed their opponents.
In Game 4, the Padres’ decision to use Dylan Cease on short rest for the first time in Game 4 didn’t work out, and Roberts’ accuracy in striking out eight shortstops led to the Dodgers’ biggest shutout win in postseason history.
In Game 5, San Diego manager Mike Shildt decided to let starter Yu Darvish continue in the seventh inning and third in the Dodgers’ lineup, instead of turning to one of the game’s scariest bullpens. . The move proved to be very expensive. Teoscar Hernández has been as clutch as he has been all season in Los Angeles after signing a one-year deal with the club, putting a no-doubt shot in left field and giving the Dodgers’ nursing procession a little breathing room.
The first meeting between two Japanese starting pitchers in MLB playing history did not disappoint. In six innings, the only damage for either team came off the bat of Kiké Hernández. Roberts played a role player with the season on the line because of his passion for October.
“It’s the type of person, then,” said Roberts, “and you have to bet.”
On the eve of deciding Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS against the Cubs, Hernández decided to start realizing his success. He was thinking about how the next day would go, the pitchers he would face, and how he would pitch in the clutch. He went on to hit three home runs the next day to send the Dodgers to the World Series. He’s continued that streak and is hitting .394 with six home runs in the playoffs since the start of the 2021 postseason.
“There’s anxiety and things like that, that we deal with as athletes, especially in big situations, big games, especially in October,” he said before Game 5. “And whenever you feel that little bit of anxiety or whatever creeps in, just go back to seeing yourself succeed.”
On Friday, he wore a shirt before the game that read “Good Vibes Only.” He then delivered a solo shot in the second inning, giving Yamamoto the only cushion he needed.
Roberts would allow Yamamoto to go 63 pitches through five frames. The starter was catching speed and not allowing runs, while avoiding fastballs that leaked over the plate. But he had done his job. Instead, Roberts smartly turned to Phillips, who recorded the next five outs. Vesia followed with another, as the duo struck out against the heart of the Padres’ order in the seventh.
Vesia was expected to sit out the eighth, but an injury to his team forced him out during the warm-up. There is no panic. Roberts turned to Michael Kopech for that draft, then Blake Treinen next. The bullpen did not allow a single runner.
With his team close, Roberts said Game 5 was as stressful as it was “in the long run.” He didn’t show it, pushing all the right buttons.
Roberts has now won eight of his eight matchups.
“I thought he had surgery in Game 4 and Game 5,” Friedman said. “I thought he had the right feel and pulse of when to move and who to go to.”
The result was the first Dodger season series at Dodger Stadium since 2013, not including the wild card games. In 2020, their run to the World Series came on the bubble in Texas. Even though they won all that year, many of their players expressed a desire to win a full season so they could celebrate with the fans.
On Friday, facing a rival that has been the hottest team in baseball for the past four months, the Dodgers’ supporting cast, along with their whispering staff and manager, brought them closer together.
“We know who we are,” Muncy said. “We’re the best f—ing team in baseball, and we’re here to prove it.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, raised in Texas, and returned to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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