Hating to admit it gives credit to the narrative.

Others won’t give it any credit.

“If you talk to not just me, everybody, we trust him,” says Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman. “And I think that’s the key to this whole thing, is trust in Doc. He trusts us, and we trust him. We won last year because of that and it’s because of Doc.

“I know we have great players here, believe me. And he’ll be the first one to say we won because of great players. Game 5 is the masterpiece of managing a baseball game. And who did it? It was Dave Roberts.”

World Series Game 5 is a shining example of Roberts’ impact, but there were many events along the way that led to that point.

There were numerous points during the 2024 postseason where Roberts made bullpen moves that preserved arms for future games. And in bullpen games — like the critical Game 4 National League Division Series win against the Padres and the NL Championship clincher in Game 6 against the Mets — Roberts’ feel was on point with bullpen usage.

World Series Game 5 became fight or flight after the Yankees knocked Dodger starting pitcher Jack Flaherty out of the game in the second inning. With Roberts leading and showing no panic, he held the needle and stitched together a game using seven relief pitchers.

“I don’t think people understand how hard that was,” Freeman says. “Blake Treinen gave everything he could to be out there. You had Michael Kopech pitching in the fourth inning, who was closing games. There were so many things and so much trust that came out of those gates in Doc and (bullpen coach) Josh Bard and (pitching coaches) Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness to go out there and perform and know it was like, ‘OK, I’m putting you in because I know you can do this.’

“I don’t know if we can stress it enough how hard that was what he navigated,” Freeman continues. “And then to have the gutsy move to put Walker Buehler into that game when he was supposed to start (Game 6). If we lose, we don’t have a starter for Game 6. I don’t know if people understand the magnitude of those moves that he was making. And he pushed every button — the right ones.”

Trust starts long before the most critical games of the season. Roberts builds it — with veterans and rookies. It begins at the arrival.

One of the first stops for a player who has just been promoted from the Minor Leagues, traded to the club or signed as a free agent is Roberts’ office.

Pitcher Landon Knack arrived at Dodger Stadium in mid-April last season in advance of his Major League debut — a start on April 17, 2024, against the Washington Nationals. He went to Roberts’ office just outside the Dodger clubhouse where the Dodger manager put him at ease — first welcoming him to the Major Leagues, then talking about family and then giving him some encouragement.

Knack went on to make 12 starts for the Dodgers in the 2024 regular season and appeared in 15 games. He made a strong enough impression to be included on the Dodgers’ postseason rosters for the NLDS, NLCS and World Series.

But things went awry in the second inning of NLCS Game 2 against the Mets at Dodger Stadium. Knack, tasked with taking the bulk of the innings in a prescribed bullpen game, allowed five runs in the second. Mets third baseman Mark Vientos hit a crowd-silencing grand slam in the inning. The rookie didn’t pitch again in the NLCS.

“(Roberts) came and found me right before (World Series) Game 1 started,” Knack recalls. “He was basically, ‘Hey, I know that’s not what you wanted, but you’re going to be big in this one. So just take care of what you do and just go out there. Your stuff’s going to play.’”

The Dodgers were in a hole early in World Series Game 4, down 5–2 in the third inning. They turned to Knack to, at the very least, eat up some innings. Knack excelled, allowing one run over four innings. His four innings ended up being critical, allowing the Dodgers to empty the bullpen in their World Series-clinching Game 5 victory.

“He’s so good at being able to read the room, being able to understand what he needs to do for different guys and how to motivate everybody,” Knack says of Roberts. “And so 100% being able to have that confidence from him to be able to kind of push me and have my back there too, it’s just such a good feeling.”