Dave Roberts reacts to Kyle Tucker’s walk-off hit and evaluates Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s outing

TLDR:

• Dave Roberts praised Kyle Tucker’s walk-off as a needed confidence boost, noting improved contact and that batting him lower helped slow the game down for him.
• Offense struggled most of the night, but key late at-bats flipped it; bullpen held strong despite Yoshinobu Yamamoto lacking sharpness.
• Shohei Ohtani impressed during Japanese Heritage Night, though he won’t hit tomorrow; Roberts expects Tucker to gradually loosen up over time.

Reporter: Dave, obviously,  you can kind of see for Kyle Tucker, even when he came up to me afterwards, he was just like, finally, for him to have a moment like this…

Dave: Did he smile?

Reporter: He did smile. What is it like for a guy like him to have a moment like that?

Dave:  It was great. He needed it. He needed a win and he's been grinding and trying to find some success and some good fortune. And so, yeah. You know, big spot right there. Walk off at home. So that was great. And see everybody go out and greet him and celebrate him. That was fun to watch.

Reporter: This game ended on a very high note, but when you look at just the offensive performance throughout most of the game, what were you seeing from the team, I think kind of limited, or just limited opportunities to really execute and bring runners in?

Dave: Yeah, I just felt. That, you know, that first inning. We got a two-out hit from Teo, and then, you know, after that, we just really didn't threaten or create any opportunities and we got the starter out pretty quickly through four, and then after that point they matched up and ran the lefties in a certain way spot and kind of got the matchups. And, you know, they did a good job preventing runs and fortunately for us you know, Andy takes a really good at bat against the closer. Dalton takes a great at bat. And then we, you know, gave ourselves an opportunity and at that point, I think both of us were kind of getting close to the end of the bullpen and it was good to win the game right there in the ninth inning.

Reporter: Question unintelligible

Dave: Yeah. The process has been better. The quality of contact has certainly been a couple of grades better as well.

Reporter: It takes some time to adapt to anew team. Obviously it wasn't the start thatTucker wanted but what have you learned about him as a player and how he kind of handles adversity?

Dave: Yeah, the transition certainly is unpredictable. I think that he's very consistent in how he approaches each day. He is traditionally a typical as slow starter as I understand.

But yeah, he's a pro and he wants to be out there and still plays good defense. But I do think that a moment like this, Even for a player that's been around a long time can kind of

inspire more confidence in him, which is a good thing, but I do think that as I said earlier, the quality of contact has been a lot better. So yeah, I think this is the floor of what he's going to be doing this year and I think the needle is pointing up.

Reporter: He is such a poker face, you know. How have you learned to read him in the short time you guys have been together?

Dave: I think I've given up already on trying to read them. I really have. I think it's just..that's just who he is and it's not personal to anybody and he's got a lot a lot of things going on and trying to perform and prepare. But yeah, he just doesn't give anyone a whole lot.

Reporter: Do you try to make them laugh or anything?

Dave: I like pushed him after, he after, you know, its like in lieu of a handshake, I just pushed his chest and got him to smile a little bit. He likes talking watches. He likes talking about his family. But yeah, I was outside of that, I kind of just leave and be.

Reporter: Do you think moving him down helped? Do you think moving him down helped alleviate some of the pressure?

Dave: I think I would just more say that moving him down allowed the game to come to him a little bit slower and I think that has been of benefit. I do.

Reporter: We have seen guys come to this market and some guys kind of, right? For me to kind of embrace the culture here and they start loosening up a little bit. Do you think we might see that with Tucker or do you think we're just gonna get for…?

Dave: I think he'll start to loosen up as time goes on, I do.

I think even Shohei when he first got here was a little bit more reserved compared to where he's at now. So I do think that, yeah. Guys are working on him and I think he'll loosen up and won't lose that edge that you know he has.

Reporter: What did you see from Yoshinobu tonight?

Dave: I just don't think he was sharp tonight. You know, even in San Francisco, that first inning and then he sort of bared down and made pitches when he needed to.But tonight, I think even from the outside, I don't think that he was as sharp as we've seen for many starts, it's gonna happen and so it was a grindy one for him tonight. And so even with that, you know, he has a one-two count and then he leaves a split up for the homer with two outs. So even with that, if he can get that guy on the ground then it's a really good outing. But you know and I felt for me he wasn't sharp tonight so I didn't feel the need to push him.

Reporter: Do you think he felt a little bit fatigued or something?

Dave: I don't know. I don't know that answer right now.

Reporter: When he walks that many batters, do you think it's kind of an issue of him trying to live on the edges a little too much?

Dave: I don't, you know, I think that he's shown that he can pitch to the edges when he needs to. And I just think in total the cutter, the split just wasn't as crisp as it has been. Those guys, you've got to give them credit. They spoiled. They took a lot of close pitches to get deep in the counts and take the walks when given to them.

Reporter: What did you then think of the job your bullpen did to keep in the game?

Dave: They did a fantastic job. I thought Henriquez was great. I thought Tanner was really good. Eder coming in and giving us a clean inning was big. And then I thought Alex, you know,

Alex wasn't particularly sharp, but he found a way to put up a zero and you know, we needed every bit of it. And Eder got his first Major League win which is great. And, you know, tomorrow being able to stay away from Klein and Treinen tonight was huge to then be able to, you know, pitch Scott tomorrow too. So we're in a good spot.

Reporter: How's your Japanese Heritage Night tonight?

Dave: Japanese Heritage Night was great. Great crowd, 50,000 people, a lot of Shohei Team Japan jerseys tonight. And, um, Shohei put on a show. And I thought he was going to walk it off.

I thought he was going to hit a home run for Japanese Heritage Night, but it was a great at-bat. Shohei's at-bats the last three days have been fantastic.

Reporter: You only tie the game in the ninth. What does your tenth inning plan look like?

Dave: Yeah, I would have put Freddie at third and then Muncy is going to

slide over to second base and then Dalton is going to be at first base.

Reporter: Have you decided on Shohei hitting tomorrow?

Dave: He is not going to hit tomorrow.