Why Dave Roberts Deserves Credit Despite Dodgers Sweep

For the first time since 2023, a team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers will be crowned World Series champions – despite their $240 million investment in two-time Silver Slugger Kyle Tucker, their $69 million commitment to three-time Reliever of the Year Edwin Díaz and their blockbuster trade for two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in August. The Milwaukee Brewers completed the National League Championship series sweep against the Dodgers on Thursday at Dodger Stadium, putting an end to Los Angeles' quest to become the first team in Major League Baseball history to three-peat, an expectation that wasn't viewed as unrealistic for a team with the highest payroll in baseball, led by a four-time MVP in Shohei Ohtani. And yet, calling the Dodgers' postseason run a failure doesn't feel right — at least not to the MLB on FOX crew, who had high praise for the defending World Series champions and their longtime manager, Dave Roberts. "If they don’t win the World Series, it’s like they had a bad year, you know what I’m saying?" three-time World Series champion David Oritz said during Thursday's postgame show. "This game is a tough game to play, and Dave Roberts, even losing tonight, being swept, I think his career is one of the greatest. "In the last six years, three world championships is more than credible. I tip my hat to Dave Roberts. He’s a guy who still has a lot to come, staying with the Dodgers organization." Roberts has been the subject of scrutiny since taking over as the Dodgers' manager in 2016, and this postseason was no exception. After Los Angeles' Game 3 loss to the Brewers, Roberts was questioned for leaving starting pitcher Blake Snell in for the seventh inning and his management of young outfield prospect Josue De Paula. But for five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter, who was the star of the last MLB team to three-peat, this series was about the resilience of the Brewers, not the weakness of the Dodgers or their manager. "Dave Roberts, he’s been on our set hundreds of times, it seems like," Jeter said. "He’s classy in victory, as well as defeat. We haven’t seen him lose very often, but he said it: sometimes you tip your cap to the other team. They beat them. "We can try to sit back and dissect what happened to the Los Angeles Dodgers — they didn’t hit, they didn’t pitch — but they ran into a team that was hot, and sometimes that happens. You hope that the Dodger fans look at them, and they’re proud of how they’ve handled themselves, how they’ve competed over the last few years, and they fell short of winning three in a row. They still have a lot to be proud of." Jeter's former Yankees teammate Alex Rodriguez agreed. "For the Dodgers, you can’t say enough good things about everything they’ve done here over the last decade," the 2009 World Series champion said. "To do a three-peat — Cap, you did it — it’s almost impossible in this environment today, in 2026. "And what did they do to follow up? They won 100 games, and they just run into a buzzsaw. They run into the team that’s been the best team for the last seven months, and they’ve been waiting for this moment right here for 364 days. You can see it in their body language, you could see it in their eyes. They were hungry from the start." The Brewers will take on the winner of the ALCS between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Guardians in the World Series.