Dodgers' Dave Roberts Not Satisfied With Team's First Half Performance

The reigning pennant-winning managers in each league are bestowed the honor of managing their corresponding All-Star teams the following summer. While many might prefer to have a three-day break from baseball in the middle of a grueling 162-game season, Dave Roberts might welcome the chance to manage the National League's best players for a couple days.

The Dodgers took a modest two-game winning streak into the break after beating the Giants on Saturday and Sunday in San Francisco. That came on the heels of a seven-game losing streak, their longest of the season, marked by poor play on both sides of the baseball.

The wins helped salvage what was, on the whole, an impressive first "half" of the season. At 58-39, the Dodgers own the best record in the National League — half a game better than the Chicago Cubs, and half a game behind the Detroit Tigers for the best record in MLB.

Yet for a team that was widely projected to win more than 100 games before the season began, a projected 97-win season counts as a minor disappointment.

Roberts made that clear in speaking with reporters Sunday in San Francisco.

“I think you can (be satisfied with the first half). I don’t think I’m in that camp,” Roberts said, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group. “I think the win-loss, the standings are great. But I think there’s just a lot of improvement that we need to do, (things) we need to be better at."

The Dodgers lead MLB in average runs per game (5.34). But their average runs allowed (4.63) ranks 23rd, sandwiched between two much less ambitious teams: the Chicago White Sox (22nd) and Miami Marlins (24th).

That's made the Dodgers' pitching staff difficult to watch on many nights. The occasional bullpen game or spot start always came with the knowledge that many rotation stalwarts — namely Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and, for much of the season, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani — have been unable to pitch due to injuries.

It hasn't just been the pitching, Roberts said.

“I think it’s all of it," he said, via Plunkett. "The pitching, there’s some baserunning things, defense at times. It’s been steady, but the pitching, the offense we gotta get on track. I always expect more from our guys, and they expect the same thing.

"So it’s just probably a little bit of – it was an emotional weekend, so that’s probably a little bit of my demeanor. So certainly happy. I’m very happy. I might not be showing it. Good first half. But yeah, we should want to get better.”