Dodgers' Roberts: 'I was so afraid' of having to play Game 6
Now that he has the ring, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts can say it: he was sweating bullets during Game 5 of the World Series.
Roberts broke down how he managed the Dodgers' clinching Game 5 win against the New York Yankees and admitted that the weight of his team potentially blowing a 3-0 series lead was in his head the entire way.
"I will tell you this now publicly, I was so afraid to come back to Los Angeles for Game 6," Roberts said during an appearance on Bleacher Report's "On Base With Mookie Betts."
"(Even) knowing we still had (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto in our back pocket. But the point being is that if we were to come back, the noise, the pressure, becomes real. Because then, you're gonna start potentially being part of history in the wrong way, a team that gave up a 3-0 (lead). 'Cause it's never been done in the World Series.
"And so for me, that was the fear of going back. So, your point, yes, I managed with urgency, even when we were down 5-0 (in Game 5), I didn't know how we were gonna finish this dang game."
Roberts had a unique perspective on the Dodgers' situation. His 2004 Red Sox remain the only team in MLB history to erase a 3-0 series deficit - and it was Roberts' stolen base late in Game 4 that kick-started Boston's comeback in the ALCS.
The Dodgers were in position to sweep this year's World Series before the Yankees won Game 4 and then jumped to a 5-0 lead through three innings of Game 5. Gerrit Cole didn't allow a hit through his first four innings against L.A.'s star-studded lineup, and his dominance to that point had Roberts managing with an eye toward Game 6.
But the Dodgers struck back in the top of the fifth, using several Yankees defensive miscues to tie the game at 5-5. The inning changed Roberts' plan, as he leaned on reliever Blake Treinen for over 40 pitches before summoning starter Walker Buehler to close the game on one day's rest. Roberts said watching his team fight back in the fifth shifted his mindset and influenced his managing as he went for the kill.
The Dodgers' victory gave Roberts two World Series rings as a manager, in addition to his 2004 win as a player. Although every championship is sweet, the 52-year-old said he found this year's winning moment easier to enjoy than his first as a skipper four years ago.
"When we won it in 2020, it was like relief, and I couldn't even enjoy it," he told Betts. "But this one, when Walker punched out (Alex) Verdugo, it was pure joy, elation, and I'm still enjoying it, Mook, I'm telling you. And it's like, we've had all these haters, and tell us this or that and the other, and all this noise that I always try to get you guys to block out.
"And so once he made that last pitch, I just looked to the skies and looked to my father, who's resting peacefully up there in heaven, and I couldn't be happier."