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NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES VS BREWERSOctober 5, 2018Trevor StoryCarlos GonzalezMilwaukee, Wisconsin - pregame 2 Q. CarGo, this one is for you. Obviously tough loss yesterday, but this team has turned the page all season. How do you do you that today, and what Nolan was saying last night, it was kind of a borderline must-win game, don't want to go down 0-2 back to Denver? CARLOS GONZALEZ: Yeah, it takes me back to 2009. Last time I was in the NLDS, we end up losing the first game against the Phillies. And the plan was win Game 2, go home and have the series even when you go to your yard. Yeah. That's what we're trying to do here today. This is a team that has been doing it all year long. Every time we have a tough loss, we always recover quick, and we have a short memory. We just show up the next day like nothing happened the day before. We believe in each other, so that's going to be the same case for us today. Q. Yesterday obviously was a tough go for eight innings against their bullpen. Do you feel like that's going to help you as this series goes on, the fact that you've seen so many of the guys that are going to turn to to try to protect leads or pitch innings for them? TREVOR STORY: Yeah, I think so. Obviously the more times you face someone, the more comfort you're going to feel. You know, and we've seen those guys a few times this year, and we just saw them last night, pretty much all their guys. I think that gives us a little advantage the rest of the series. CARLOS GONZALEZ: Yeah, same thing. We've already seen almost all the weapons that they have. They have a strong bullpen, but I feel like as a hitter, the more you see a pitcher, the more comfortable you feel at the plate. Yesterday we pretty much faced all the guys that they have in the pen. And when it comes to close games, they're going to bring those guys. For us as hitters, it's nice to get to see what they have. Obviously like you say, we faced them early in the year -- not early in the year, not long ago, whatever. It's just one of those things that you like to see. Q. A lot of basement GM's out there, in the wild card games, second-guessing Buddy for the double switch with Charlie, now even today with the lineup, always second-guessing. What is the confidence level with Buddy within the clubhouse, especially within the veterans and the core group of players? CARLOS GONZALEZ: I think it's just he feels comfortable with all the players that we have on the roster. He shows that he believes in every single one of us, which is nice. You as a player respect that. We all feel that way with our manager. And I didn't get to start that day, and I ended up playing in right field late in the game in Chicago. So you know, that shows that you can contribute from the starting lineup or from the bench, and we all understand that. We have a lot of talent in our club, so that's why we're in the position that we're at today. And we're all ready to go to battle whenever he calls our names. Q. You guys have talked all season with me about how breaking out of offensive slumps, it just kind of comes over time. But when you need to do so in such a short period or with your back against the wall, you did so last night, does a mindset flip happen or does something happen where you guys need to put your back up against the wall and really put together good at-bats and try to get some runs? TREVOR STORY: No, I don't think it's necessarily a mind -- a mental switch or anything like that. I wish it was that easy, but baseball is a tough game. Hitting is tough. But yeah, you know, like we've said all year, it's a battle, and it's a grind. You know, it doesn't happen overnight, but something like -- the ninth inning last night was big for us. To get that confidence, to be able to score off Jeffress, a really good closer, put up two in a really tight spot like that was huge. Yeah. Runs are tough to come by in the playoffs, but we've always been a very confident group on both sides of the ball, so yeah, we'll get it going. Q. Carlos, you alluded to the fact that you've seen their pitchers, but do you have to have a different approach when you know that those top relievers are coming in the fifth inning or the fourth inning? Does that change the game from the other side, from the lineup, you guys' side? CARLOS GONZALEZ: I mean, the entire game yesterday seems like it was late in the game, starting from the first inning. You have a reliever throwing 98 cutters, and the next guy is pretty much another reliever. It's not as easy as it looks. Sometimes we used to face a starter. You get to go in thinking, all right, this is the way he pitches. You kind of have an idea after the first at-bat the way he approaches it, and then he might switch it up a little bit. But as a hitter, it's kind of nice to face a starter when you get an opportunity to face him twice, three times, and then you can expect what they're going to bring from the bullpen. Yeah. It's just one of those things that is where baseball is at now when it comes to strategies and stuff like that. You have to make an adjustment as a hitter, obviously, and yesterday was tough for us. We only got one hit in the first seven, eight innings. But you've got to give them credit. They have really good weapons out there in the pen, and they did a good job holding us, and in the ninth inning, we got it going against probably the best reliever in the National League all year long. So obviously that gives us confidence when it comes to hitting. And if we can do it against a guy like him, we can do it against anybody. Q. How good does it feel or how good did it feel this morning to wake up and know what city you were in and play two games in the same place in a row? TREVOR STORY: Yeah. It's been a whirlwind, man. Obviously LA to Chicago to here and Denver before that, four different cities in four different days. Yeah, it's nice to kind of settle in. I know it's only three days here, but nice to kind of get back in that routine, kind of feels like normal baseball a little bit. Yeah, we're off to Denver tonight, so we'll just get it going again. Q. How comfortable are you with the attention that has come with not only your year, but being in the playoffs, and a lot of times someone in Denver, people don't really know who they are, don't see them a lot, and now this is kind of your big coming-out party. Carlos has been through this. What is it like to have this for yourself? TREVOR STORY: Yeah, it's exciting, a lot of fun. You work really hard all year to be able to be in this position, and a lot of people have helped me. The attention, it's there, but I really try not to look at it too much or pay too much attention to it. It's fun being here, and that's why we play the game is to be in the postseason and play against the best and try to win a championship. We know that a lot of attention comes with that, and we like that. Q. CarGo, you're going to be facing an old friend today in Jhoulus Chacin. Who has the edge there; him as the pitcher or you as the hitter? You know him very well. Can you discuss a little bit about facing him? CARLOS GONZALEZ: Yeah, Jhoulus and myself, we played a lot of years together. We're from the same town in Maracaibo, Venezuela. We're really close friends. We always wish each other the best. But tonight, I'm going to pull for myself more than anything. (Laughter). I know his family and my family back home, they're going to be watching us. I feel like over the years I can say that Maracaibo is the biggest Rockies town more than Milwaukee because Galarraga and all the years that I played here. There's a lot of fans who support our team. And Jhoulus used to play for us, and I don't think they make that switch so quick. They're going to be on my side today. So hopefully we can get this thing going. Q. Buddy hasn't announced yesterday if it'll be Freeland or Marquez or a combination of both. So can you talk about what you like about both of them and the confidence you have in either of them? TREVOR STORY: Yeah. Those guys, they've been leading us all year. They've been really solid all year. Whichever guy goes, we're going to be really confident in. Really any of our guys that we roll out there, we're very confident in. Obviously those guys aren't afraid of the big moment, and you saw that with Freeland, and Marquez did well in LA. We just didn't really back them up too much. Yeah, those guys are studs, man. We love playing behind them. Q. Carlos, when you were talking about Jhoulus, all the injuries he's been through and all the conversations you've had and the winters at home, and I guess here, like playing during the summer, how surprised are you that he's still here competing at this level, and how frustrating do you think it's been for him to bounce from team to team to get that chance? CARLOS GONZALEZ: Well, I'm not surprised at all because I know how hard he works out there. He got hurt. I remember last time he was playing for us, he -- as a player, we communicate well. And sometimes we tell each other stuff, and it doesn't go out there. I know how hard he was suffering because his arm wasn't feeling well. He wasn't throwing the ball the way he wanted. Being designated in Spring Training, it was hard to see because he's a good friend of mine. But the one advice I told him, hey, you can learn from this, and he definitely learned from it. He got back to work. He got healthy. He signed another deal, a one-year deal, and then he's showing what he's capable of doing over the years. He's showing the young version of Chacin when he was with us, winning almost 15 games as a rookie and dominating the league, and he got back to that level. He should feel really happy because he worked so hard to get back to this point. And right now, we're going to face each other in the playoff series, so he should feel proud. Q. Carlos, can you put into words how gratifying this is, the fact that back in as late as February, you didn't know where you were going to sign, you were looking for offers, didn't get what you were looking for, but ended up back here, and now even after a season of ups and downs, you're starting in playoff games and contributing? CARLOS GONZALEZ: You know, it's what you always expect. This is what it's all about. You know, it's play the game to win. You go out there and fight with your teammates for -- you want to be in that mix of trying to win a World Series, you know, and that's why we're all here now. There's only nine teams left -- I don't know how many, nine, eight, whatever, and to be part of one of them, that was the whole plan. When you become a free agent, there is a lot of things in mind, but one of the most important things you have as an older player, you want to be in a championship caliber team. I'm just really happy to be with these guys here competing, and I'm just trying to have as much fun as possible. Q. Late in the regular season, you went through a slump, but here you are starting in the postseason. Tell me about the last couple of weeks, the work you put in, and what you did to keep the faith and end up back out here as a starter? CARLOS GONZALEZ: You understand over the years that baseball is a difficult sport. We play 162 games. We don't play 16 games like it's the NFL. Obviously there's going to be a lot of bad games, a lot of good games, and that's why baseball is so hard. You can be on top of the world in one game, and the next game you're up with 4K's and you're back to the hole, but it's all about mental. You have to stay positive all the time and believe in yourself no matter what because numbers don't lie. You've done it before. You can do it again. Being here in the postseason, it seems like yesterday I was playing in 2009 in the NLDS. That's how baseball is. You always get that second chance. And if you're not prepared, if you're down, you're not going to get it done. Even if you fail, you have to go out there with your head up and always try to do the best you can and things are going to be fine. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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