Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Thinks Facing Blake Snell Was Good Playoff Test
As the Dodgers regular season starts to wind down, they know that the playoffs are just around the corner. This is when things really matter, and all of the success from the season gets thrown out the window.
Things won’t be easy, as they never are in the postseason. But this Dodgers team is ready to do some damage in the playoffs.
They have been in a bit of a funk lately, including this week, as they dropped two of three games to the San Diego Padres. They were shut down on Wednesday night against Padres starter Blake Snell, who only allowed one hit to the LA offense over six innings of work.
But manager Dave Roberts sees this as a good thing. Not the outcome, but rather the fact that it was a good test for what they can expect to see in the playoffs.
“You just have to try to grind and get them out of the game, and hopefully they make a few mistakes,” Roberts said. “I think it’s a test [for the playoffs] in the sense that you’re facing an elite pitcher, but the preparation, the focus, the importance of every pitch, it’s hard to simulate that in the regular season.”
Per The LA Times
LA is going to see some of the best pitchers that the game has to offer in the playoffs, so they need to be ready. Sometimes the offense won’t just click, so they will need to find different ways to win games.
Snell is one of the best pitchers in the game and is the current NL Cy Young Award frontrunner. Luckily for LA, they probably won’t have to see him come playoff time due to the Padres season struggles.
“I mean, sometimes there’s nothing you can do,” Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor said, when asked how the Dodgers can beat guys like Snell in October. “I feel like we’ve done pretty well grinding guys down, but tonight, he was just good.
Per The LA Times
These are the dog days of the summer, and these last few weeks are grueling for a team with a big lead in their division. The hope is that the Dodgers can get back to their dominant ways once the playoffs start because this team can be special.
September has been used to fine-tune things down the stretch of the season. But Wednesday was a reminder that nothing is going to come easy once the real games begin.
Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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