Oct. 18 Dave Roberts postgame interview

Q. With Yasmani, a big theme of his story this year has been his stick-to-it-iveness, struggled early on, came aboard in the second half. In the playoffs, struggled and then came aboard today. Can you talk about how well he’s played in these playoffs? DAVE ROBERTS: Well, in the playoffs, and I think even going back through the season, his defense has been remarkable and elite. So, yeah, he had his struggles early on, but really had a great second half and put together a really nice year. The postseason, what he’s done to our pitching staff, the starters, the guys in the pen has been remarkable. And I just can’t say enough about his growth. And really, just going through the struggles offensively, and understanding that his primary responsibility is to control the pitching staff. And today that at-bat that he put getting behind the count, fouling some pitches off, and getting a fastball in his nitro zone, and driving it out of the ballpark, obviously a huge at-bat. Reddick right there, legs out an infield single. So that’s kind of just what our guys do. But for Yasi to get rewarded and putting together that at-bat was huge.Q. Rich Hill’s performance tonight looked like he completely neutralized their offense. Was that it? DAVE ROBERTS: Richie, it’s interesting that the starts that I’ve seen him this year, it wasn’t his best stuff. I think that curveball command wasn’t as I know he would like it, but that just shows that he goes out there and competes. He still has a very good chance to get guys out, but I think that his preparedness, his guts, you know, really kept those guys at bay. But changing speeds, pitching off the breaking ball, mixing in the fastball, yeah, he kept them off balance all night. I know that it meant a lot for him to give us six innings and throw six scoreless.Q. Joe Maddon was talking about how effective he was when he dropped down with his delivery. Did he do more of that tonight than he has in the past, or is this something that he’s been working on all along pretty much? DAVE …

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