Dave Roberts sits with the media after 2-1 loss to the Marlins, April 28, 2026.
Summary:
- The Dodgers struggled with situational hitting, missing key chances despite multiple opportunities and overall poor execution.
- Shohei Ohtani wasn’t fully in rhythm while pitching but still battled through six innings, giving up two runs that the manager felt should’ve been enough to win.
- Dave Roberts emphasized lack of familiarity with the opposing pitcher, aggressive at-bats in key moments, and said Ohtani’s non-hitting status won’t change team decision-making.
Kirsten: Dave I know we talked about it a little bit yesterday with the offense outside of the walk off, when you see just the offense limited in back to back games, what do you take away from where you think you are at right now?
Dave: I think if you're not going to, you know, put up crooked numbers and clicking on all cylinders, you gotta be good situationally and we were not good at all tonight situationally. And so that's what it comes down to you know, you have a chance to catch a lead early in the first inning and stress them and you let them off the hook, and then you have a chance in the eighth inning and you do the same thing. You know, if and then in between all that, there's nothing going on. So when you do get opportunities, you got to be good situationally, that's just the bottom line.
Kirsten: What did you see from Shohei today just how he navigated through the lineup?
Dave: I thought it was a navigation. I don't think he felt completely in sync. There was a lot of misfire. There's some bad misses. Is probably with him, probably you know delivery situation. But, you know, for him to find the way to still, you know, navigate six innings and then give up two runs, we should win the game. So. I give him a lot of credit.
Reporter: Some of the hitters got too aggressive especially early in the count?
Dave: Yeah, too aggressive. You're not hitting your pitch. In both situations, I think, you know when we had chances, the infield's in. You know, it's a ball to the outfield. And so I think that, yeah, I mean, and hitting is hard, certainly. But we have to have a better plan. I mean, you have to have a plan with guys in scoring positions. You know, you do. But, yeah.
Reporter: Is there anything that Junk was doing particularly well or was part of it you were beating yourselves sometimes?
Dave: Haven’t seen him. So there's no familiarity, so I think that certainly works in the pitcher's favor. Got to give him credit because he did make pitches. He sequenced well. There was a breaking ball in there, the changeup, the fastball had life to it. But I think a little bit of that was.
We just had no familiarity. But yeah, you gotta give him credit though.
Reporter: Did you guys know how much Ohtani will be playing going forward, how much will the performance of the lineup on the nights he is not in there go into that?
Dave: I don't think that is going to play in my math. I think the main thing is to do right by Shohei.
And so even without him tonight in the line up we should have won the game so yeah, so I feel good about it. I’d do the same thing again.
Reporter: What explanation did you get for the pitch clock violation with Dalton Rushing?
Dave: Dalton called timeout. And I just saw the replay. He called timeout, and he said it twice. And so I just I think the umpire didn't hear it clearly. I know he wasn't just trying to blatantly, you know, do wrong by Dalton, but I just don't think he heard it, but I did see a head nod too. So you assume that he heard it and acknowledged, but clearly he didn't.
Reporter: Were you surprised at his reaction?
Dave: Whose reaction? No, I wasn't surprised. He was upset. Because he called timeout.
Reporter: When Shohei was pitching he was kind of touching his neck…
Dave: You know what? I haven't talked to the trainer tonight so I don't know if there was some
his neck was tight or sore and that could have led into some of the misfires. I'm not sure
Reporter: So this time, when did you tell him he is not hitting?
Dave: Two days ago. After the game the other day, yeah.