Suffice to say, Dodgers fans have grown tired of hearing Dodgers manager Dave Roberts repeatedly say: “absolutely,” unfortunately,” “umm,” “you know,” “we had some good at-bats,” and “we took some good swings” every-single-night.
The good news is that judging by how San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt‘s team embarrassed and humiliated Roberts’ team – the one with the highest total payroll allocation in Major League Baseball – on Friday night in front of a Petco Park crowd of 44,864 (a good many of whom were sporting Dodgers gear) in San Diego – Dodgers fans might not have to hear them much after the Dodgers 2025 regular season ends on September 28 up the I-5 in Seattle.
The bad news is that Dodgers fans might not have to hear them much after the Dodgers 2025 regular season ends on September 28 up the I-5 in Seattle; this because of the Dodgers 2-1 loss to the Padres in the first of an extremely crucial three-game series with the Friars this weekend down the I-5 in San Diego.
With Friday’s loss, the Padres are now tied with the Dodgers atop the NL West with only 33 games remaining in the 2025 regular season.
“You know, unfortunately, we could not figure out (Padres right-handed starting pitcher Yu) Darvish and, you know, they went to the pen and just… threatened a couple times late but just couldn’t get that big hit,” Roberts told SportsNet LA’s David Vassegh postgame.
“Absolutely. We had the right guy at the plate and felt good about Teo,” Roberts answered, when Vassegh asked him about having struggling Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández at the plate with two outs in the top of the ninth and runners at the corners. “I think that one earlier at-bat, the ball down that was called a strike, I think, obviously, that led him to chase that last pitch. And so, I thought he put together a good at-bat, but, you know, (Padres right-hander Robert) Suarez, a good pitcher, and, you know, they got us tonight.”
(SportsNet LA)
That “…right guy at the plate” is currently slashing .251/.282/.468/.750, with 18 walks and 109 strikeouts in his 402 at-bats (426 plate appearances) for a 27.11% strikeout rate in the 105 games in which he has appeared thus far this season. He also struck out three times on Friday while walking once. That said, he does have 21 home runs this season, which is tied for second-most on the team with outfielder Andy Pages and 23 behind team-leader Shohei Ohtani‘s 44.
Roberts’ “…right guy” is also 4-for-21 (.190), with one double, one home run, and two RBIs over his last five games.
The “…right guy?”
Play Ball!
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