LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts came out of Monday night’s 4-2 loss to the Guardians sounding encouraged by one thing above all else: Roki Sasaki took a real step forward.

Comeback Falls Short

But before the topic of conversation turned to Roki, Doc talked about the Dodgers’ ninth inning comeback that didn’t quite get over the hump. Going into the inning down 0-4, the Dodgers could have mailed it in, and headed for the showers. But they didn’t. They scored a couple of runs and had the tying run on-deck when the game finally ended. Their manager took notice.

After the game, Roberts said, “It speaks to the fight. Also, just stressing their closer and making him work, that can affect them the next couple games, so I think that’s a positive in itself. I thought they pitched well tonight. A couple hard balls turned into double plays that I felt could have changed the inning or the game, the Max ball, the Miggy Ro ball. But you’ve got to give those guys credit, and that lefty came in and kept us at bay. I thought it was one of those games where they made more plays than we did, and I was encouraged by Roki’s outing today. That was a good thing.”

Assessing Roki

From there, Roberts got into what stood out about Sasaki. “I thought that he was just more online tonight. I thought the misses weren’t bad misses. I thought he was in a good rhythm, and he was attacking. I thought he did a much better job of attacking tonight.” That was the thread through most of his answers. Roberts liked the shape of the outing, the rhythm, the strike throwing, and the conviction behind it.

He especially liked what Sasaki did against José Ramírez and the way he competed once things got tense. “You get Ramírez out, you punch him out, and it speaks to him getting one of the best hitters in the game out and keeping him at bay. If he can throw 99 miles an hour in the strike zone and mix in that split that really is unpredictable with the movement profile, I think today was a really good step. Pitch count was fine. We got him into the fourth inning, and now the goal is to keep going deeper in games. But I really did think that today was a good step in the right direction for Roki.”

Responding in the Third Inning

Roberts also pointed to the third inning as a key moment in the outing. “I thought he responded. He did. He gave up a hard out to right field, but he still didn’t give up walks. In that situation where the inning would have gotten away from him, has gotten away from him, right there he still went after him and got behind in the count, but went after him and we got an out. So it got us to the next inning, and I wanted to get him through that nine hitter. Tanner was going to get Kwan at the top. But yeah, that’s growth. I know he was a little bit nervous going into this start about what to expect, which is an honest admission, but he responded well.”

Doc said that kind of outing should matter for Sasaki’s confidence too. “I think it should be a big boost to his confidence. He’s being very honest with you guys in the sense of he’s a confident player, but when you don’t have success, it’s hard to have real confidence. When you perform, then you start to build true confidence. So hopefully he can build on this one.”

Reading Sasaki’s Demeanor

One of Roberts’ better answers came when he was asked what Sasaki’s body language looked like in the first inning. “I thought he had the right intentions. He was knowing that he needed to go after the hitters. It was a wait-and-see kind of demeanor in the sense of you know what you’re supposed to do, you know what you want to do, and until you actually do it, you’re holding your breath a little bit. Then once he got out of that inning, he was like, ‘Okay, I can do this,’ and then wanted to go out there and keep doing it.” Roberts said he saw that change continue as the outing moved into the second, third, and fourth innings.

He also had a few quick thoughts on the rest of the pitching staff. On Tanner Scott, Roberts said, “I think he’s using different parts of the plate. I think the slider is just a better pitch this year than it ever was last year. The slider is better, and then the fastball, he’s using it in different locations. So, really good.” He added that Scott is building confidence through results, which matters even for a veteran reliever. Roberts also said Justin Wrobleski started to overthrow during the bases-loaded walk in the seventh, then liked the way he settled back in and gave the Dodgers two scoreless innings after that.

Offense Comes Late to the Party

As for the offense, Roberts admitted some surprise that the top of the lineup has started slowly, but he still liked the bigger picture. “The takeaway is we’re 3-1 and the guys that we expect to swing the bats aren’t swinging the bats right now. So that’s a good thing. They’ll hit.”

That was probably the cleanest way to read Roberts’ postgame. The Dodgers lost 4-2, and there were chances they could not cash in. Still, Roberts saw fight from the lineup and real progress from Sasaki. On a night when the final score stung, that was where he kept coming back.

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