Dave Roberts: Confident Corey Seager Can Play In World Series
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts expressed optimism Sunday that shortstop Corey Seager will be able to play in the WorldSeries after missing the National League Championship Series because of a back
injury.
"We're very confident," Roberts said Sunday before the team conducted a workout at Dodger Stadium in preparation for Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday. "Today he's going to participate like any of our other players (and) take the at-bats off the pitchers as well. That will be another test for him."
After a workout Saturday, Roberts said Seager came in Sunday said he felt as good as he has in weeks "so that was encouraging."
Roberts did not say who the Dodgers would drop from the roster to make room for Seager.
Roberts said the Dodgers will keep the same pitching rotation they did in the NLCS with left-hander Rich Hill starting Game 2 and right-hander Yu Darvish Game 3 following the previously announced Game 1 starter, left-hander Clayton Kershaw.
Left-hander Dallas Keuchel will start Game 1 for Houston and right- hander Justin Verlander Game 2, manager A.J. Hinch said Saturday following the 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
Roberts said he did not think the record heat forecast for Tuesday would effect the game.
"In Los Angeles I think that our estimation of hot is still relative to being in Southern California by the coast," Roberts said. "The guy taking the baseball for us, I don't think that he's concerned about a little spike in heat, so we feel good," Roberts said, referring to Kershaw, who was raised in the Dallas area.
The temperature for the opening pitch is forecast by the National Weather Service to be in the mid-90s. The unseasonably high temperature will be caused by a combination of Santa Ana winds and a ridge of high pressure aloft, NWS meteorologist Robbie Munroe told City News Service.
The hottest known World Series game was Game 1 of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees in Phoenix on Oct. 27, 2001, when the first-pitch temperature was 94 degrees and Major League Baseball
ordered the roof at then-Bank One Ballpark to be open, according to The Weather Channel, citing information from a blog by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist Alex Lamers.
