The Los Angeles Dodgers lead the National League West in the early weeks of the regular season despite dealing with varying levels of uncertainty in all three areas of their roster.
Not receiving stellar production from the starting rotation, bullpen and bottom of the lineup have put the Dodgers in a peculiar position. Still, manager Dave Roberts backs the notion that his club needs to stay on course until things even out.
“Remain steadfast,” Roberts said. “I think that’s the thing. It’s a long season. And I think that you have to kind of trust the process of what you’re doing, and the people that you’re with and working with. And I think we do that as well as anybody. We don’t really ride waves like a lot of other teams do.”
Teams around Major League Baseball are still finding their footing and roles for individual players, which made Roberts think back to a previous roster that had similar troubles.
“I remember, I think, four years ago in May, we were really terrible and maybe right around .500. And it’s just more of continue to play and try to win that day.
“And that’s the only thing. We’re not trying to get to the postseason today. We’re trying to just win. And win or lose, we do it the next day. So I think that’s sort of the secret sauce. I don’t know if there’s any secret formula, though.”
Roberts’ recollection of a slow start in May could perhaps be from the 2018 season, when the Dodgers went 14-14, scoring just 14 more runs than they allowed.
Although their record is on the plus side, currently, the Dodgers don’t feel as if they’ve found all the right mechanisms to maintain a well-oiled machine. Shuffling the bullpen this early in the year has much to do with injuries sustained, but also to performance, and possibly wanting to give an influx of life.
Dave Roberts trying to give Chris Taylor ‘some runway’
Roberts reaffirmed that Taylor is healthy, despite prior battles with health issues. The utility man has scuffled more than any player on the Dodgers roster, going 1-for-33 to start the season with a 43.6% strikeout rate.
“So he’s a guy that is one of our core guys. And obviously with the injury to Jason (Heyward), I have some more runway to run him out there and run Kiké (Hernández) out there to get him some at-bats.
“He expects a lot of himself, and every time he gets in, I feel something good is going to happen. He’s always been a streaky guy, and so hopefully that’ll stop tonight and he can kind of find something that clicks for him. But I’m trying to give him some runway, as well as Kike, while Jason is down.”
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