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NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERSOctober 4, 2018Max MuncyJoc PedersonLos Angeles, California - postgame 1 Los Angeles - 6, Atlanta - 0 Q. Joc throughout so much of September, both of you guys have sort of seen platoon lineups and where you guys sort of get swapped out depending on who's pitching. How much has it meant just the last couple of games to have you guys both start against a right-hander and stay in the game even as left-handers come out of the bullpen? JOC PEDERSON: Yeah. I mean it's nice to stay in there. We have a team with a lot of depth, a lot of guys who can do a lot of special things, so managing that is not easy. And it takes us as individuals to kind of leave your ego at the door and just kind of do what's best for the team. And yeah, you know, we all have one common goal of winning a World Series, and it's going to take all 25 of us. So that's are not really an issue. MAX MUNCY: Yeah. Like Joc said, we're all just here to win. At this point, I don't think any of us are upset or not happy about playing time or anything like that. We all know that it doesn't matter if you start, you can still get in the game. I think there's been a couple of games where we haven't started and we've ended up getting more at-bats than some of the starters. Yeah, we're all here to win and we're all willing to do whatever it takes to do that. Q. Max, there was an 0 for 7 game in Philadelphia, and after that there was kind of a slide for about 20 games and you picked it back up. What do you remember about that game in Philadelphia, how difficult were things during that slide and how did you get back to what you were doing early in the season? MAX MUNCY: I don't remember much about that game. Honestly, it's just baseball. There's not one person in this league, in the minor leagues, in college, that hasn't gone through a stretch like that. That's just the nature of the game, and you just gotta figure out how to get through it. And the best way to get through that is just taking everything one day at a time. Each day you start off 0 for 0. You're not bringing things from the game before. It doesn't matter if you had four hits or no hits. Each day is a fresh day and you have a new start. Q. Max, you constantly refer to this season for you as a dream season and now here you find yourself as somewhat of a playoff star in this first game. Does this dream just keep getting bigger and bigger by the day for you? MAX MUNCY: Absolutely. Again, this is what everyone dreams of doing, getting a big hit in a playoff game, and more importantly, just being in the playoffs. You look at some of the pieces on this team that were brought in, and there's a lot of guys that haven't been in the postseason in seven, eight years, and there's some guys that have never been in the postseason. So not everyone gets a chance to do this, so this is why we play the game. Q. Max, your plate discipline again was on display. Did you ever have any period at all on any level where you did chase a lot of pitches? And also, how much of that plate discipline did you learn in the Oakland organization? MAX MUNCY: I mean I chased just as many pitches as everyone else. When you get to two strikes you try to battle, and sometimes you come out on top, sometimes they come out on top. But as far as, you know, the discipline, that's just something I'd always had in my playing career, from college, high school, early stages in pro ball. That was just something that I'd always had. Q. Joc, it was your 8th leadoff home run this year. What was the feeling when you hit it in the playoffs, like the very first game and you like start it off? JOC PEDERSON: Yeah. It's pretty special. That guy had plus-plus stuff, and we were just trying to get him early and get some guys on base. And I got behind 0-2, and I was able to battle and put a ball in the barrel, but I definitely wasn't trying to do that, but it was really nice. Q. Joc, I'm piggybacking off of her question. You set the franchise record for lead off home runs with the Dodgers. Is there something different about your approach at that first at-bat in the game. I know you said you didn't mean to do it today, but in other approaches? JOC PEDERSON: Not really. I think maybe -- I don't know. I hit before the game. So maybe I'm just a little fresher. I don't know. So maybe I should start hitting before every at-bat. But yeah, no, I don't know. I wish I had the answers and been able to do that knot other at-bats as well. Q. Max, a little factoid that was just passed along to me from tonight's game. Max is the second player in post-season history to go 1 for 1 with a homerun and three walks. The other was Babe Ruth, the 1926 World Series. How many times have you been compared to Babe Ruth in your career? MAX MUNCY: Besides now? Never. Q. How cool is it to be in that situation in the postseason where those kind of things come up like that? MAX MUNCY: I mean, that's something that's cool regardless of the situation. I mean, if it's just a regular-season game, that's something that's really cool to me. But to have that happen in a post-season game, even more special. Q. You guys set a club record for home runs during the regular season, relied pretty heavily on the long ball. There's kind of a notion that you can't rely too heavily on home runs in the postseason. Do you guys believe in that and is tonight maybe proof otherwise? JOC PEDERSON: I never heard of that notion, but yeah, the postseason you're facing some of the best pitchers, and good pitchers usually don't give up home runs. So you gotta grind out at-bats and I think we do a great job of that and hit with runners on base, get the guy over, situational hitting all plays a part of it. But I mean, sometimes a home run does the job. So I don't know what to tell you. MAX MUNCY: To me, I don't really feel like there's anyone on this team that's going up there trying to hit a home run. It's just a result of us having a good approach and good at-bats. I feel like a lot of the home runs we've had have come off of long at-bats, working the counts and wearing the pitcher down. Again, I don't feel like we're trying to hit a home run. It's just the result of a good approach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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