ADENAV A The Dodgers are searching for methods to up the ante during their five-day break between Sunday’s regular season finale and the opening of the National League Division Series, following their season-ending early elimination from the playoffs

Manager Dave Roberts said the team intends to let fans to watch its Wednesday exercise day; this is in line with the Atlanta Braves, who earlier this Thursday afternoon announced a similar plan.

In the eighth inning of a baseball game, Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers, left, congratulates Freddie Freeman for hitting a three-run home run off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Justin Lawrence.

Regarding greeting fans for the off-day events, Roberts remarked, “I think it intensifies it a little bit more.” Players don’t enjoy being embarrassed. You’re now up against your teammate, yet it’s still impressive to step up and make a strike. It is not all-inclusive. However, I do not see any drawbacks to the fan experience—our boys practicing in front of warm bodies.

The team hasn’t yet disclosed any plans, including whether or not public entrance will be free like it is for the Braves, but Roberts said season ticket holders would be among the attendees that day.

Roberts remarked, “Watching us work out will be a great experience for them.”

MLB’s first postseason with an expanded format took place last year. The wild card round, which was originally limited to one game, was extended to a best-of-three series. The top two clubs in each league, who were given byes to the division series, consequently had five days off before their playoff debuts.

The division series losses of the top two seeds in the NL, the Dodgers and Braves, and the AL’s No. 2 seed, the New York Yankees, to the Cleveland Guardians in a pivotal fifth game, put those protracted layoffs under close examination.

Roberts has acknowledged that the break caused difficulties in the team’s preparation for their series against the San Diego Padres, who had just one day off between the division series and the wild-card round. Roberts insisted then, as he did again on Thursday, that the break wasn’t an excuse for the Dodgers’ early elimination.

Roberts remarked, “It’s hard.” “Five days is not the same as our usual schedule. The All-Star break lasts for three, possibly four days, which is a lengthy time. For baseball, the [new playoffs] format is effective. The excitement and the participating clubs are fantastic for baseball. It requires modification while you’re living it, though.

Whether they win or lose, the Dodgers will look for different methods to ramp up their off-day exercises before their October 7 postseason debut against an opponent who has not yet been determined.

Roberts stated that in contrast to previous year, the team will dedicate more practice time to particular scenarios, such as batting with runners in scoring position—a weakness that ultimately proved fatal for the team in the NLDS last year.

He smiled slyly and made a suggestion that the players would be “gonna have a little skin” in the result of the scrimmage.

Additionally, he mentioned that the squad was still bitter after losing four games to the Boston Red Sox the previous year. Roberts and other baseball insiders felt that this was partly due to the team’s seeming lack of urgency in the NLDS.

“We didn’t have as much urgency as I would have expected from our guys during certain defensive plays and at-bats in the third and fourth game,” Roberts remarked. As I’ve already stated, I must do a better job of emphasizing the urgency with which our guys must act.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas and outfielder Mookie Betts provided Roberts with some fresh ideas for the five-day break, according to Roberts, who ran their ideas over them during the team’s division-clinching series sweep in Seattle earlier this month.

On Tuesday, September 26, 2023, in Denver, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starting pitcher Bobby Miller takes the mound against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo)

Additionally, Roberts reaffirmed his conviction that this year’s team—which he has declared his favorite to lead and that several players, including Betts, have declared their favorite to be a part of—won’t succumb to the same lackluster slumps that befell the team from the previous season.

One step in that process—which the Dodgers are hoping will result in a longer October run—could be inviting fans to watch.

According to Roberts, “guys are acclimating to what plays in the postseason.”