The Los Angeles Dodgers walked into the All-Star break with the best record in baseball at 61-36. That part is easy to look up. But how they got there? That’s where it gets interesting. Manager Dave Roberts basically admitted that even he wasn’t sure this team would hold together like it did.
“I think the thing that impressed me most is, there’s always the talk of is there gonna be a letdown? There’s always unforeseen things about performance, injury, that didn’t take us away from the focus of stacking wins,” Roberts told Foul Territory during the break. “We persevered and kept going.”
Perseverance is a nice word. But for the Dodgers, it’s been more like survival mode. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow both went down with injuries. Shohei Ohtani skipped the All-Star Game because of a knee issue — though the team says he won’t miss much time. And those are just the big names. LA’s injury list this season has looked like a roster from a video game where you maxed out the difficulty slider.
Still, they kept winning. Roberts pointed to guys like Andy Pages and Justin Wrobleski as the reasons why. Both made the All-Star team. Both were basically afterthoughts when the season started. That’s the kind of depth most teams can only dream about, and it’s why the Dodgers are where they are.
Roberts is pushing the right buttons
Let’s be honest here. A lot of managers get praised for “pressing the right buttons” when their team has a $300 million payroll. But what Roberts has done this year is different. He’s had to juggle lineups like a circus act, slotting in rookies and stopgaps while stars sit in the trainers’ room. The Dodgers haven’t just survived. They’ve dominated. They’re playing at a 98-win pace and nobody’s really talking about it because it feels normal for them.
It’s not normal. Other teams lose their ace and crumble. The Dodgers lose two aces and call up a kid who throws strikes and acts like he’s been there for five years. That’s on the organization, sure, but it’s also on Roberts for not letting the clubhouse vibe get weird when things go sideways.
What comes next
The second half starts now, and the Dodgers are chasing their third straight World Series title. That’s the standard they set for themselves. Ohtani should be back soon. Glasnow and Snell are question marks, but nobody in that clubhouse seems panicked. They’ve proved they can win without them. The real test will be whether that holds up in October, when the pitching gets thin and every at-bat matters.
Roberts has this group believing they can stack wins no matter who’s on the field. So far, that belief has been right.
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