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NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 7, 2018

Charlie Culberson

Atlanta, Georgia - pregame 3

Q. Charlie, what differences do you see in the Dodgers this year as opposed to last year, if any, and what is your sense of how much more resolve they have this year after coming so close last year?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Not many differences. They're still a good ball club. Being over there parts of two years, experiencing a couple of post-seasons in that clubhouse, they have the same goals in mind as we do. They want to win a World Series, and with them coming up one game short last year, I think they have even an extra chip on their shoulder. They have a great staff, great pitching staff. Great offense. They're here to win, too. They still look like the same team. That's how I see them.

Q. Snit was saying yesterday that he didn't change his message to you guys, but amongst players being down O-2, what are you guys saying to each other over the last 48 hours?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Not a whole lot. I think we know what we gotta do. It's win or go home. It is what it is. We're not the only team that's in this situation, and we're not the only team that's been here before. If we lose tonight, that's it. So we gotta go out there and leave it all on the field, and I think everybody knows that.

Q. How did Newcomb kind of deal with the highs and lows of the year? I know he's pitched very well against the Dodgers and has had a good year overall. What's been your impression of how he's handled all that?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Sean's a great guy, great kid, I guess. He's competitive. He's got great stuff. He doesn't really show a ton of emotion, which I like that. I think that's just his character and him as a person. Even the times that he's done really well, he's the same guy. And the times that he hasn't done it as well, he's still the same person, and that's something that you can see. And especially as a teammate, I appreciate that because you see how hard he works. And the time and effort that he puts into his game and his craft, it doesn't go unnoticed.

So to see that they switched lineups, or I guess switched the pitchers up, I saw it yesterday, and I think anybody that gets the ball tonight knows the situation and Newcomb sure does, and hopefully he comes out and gives it his all tonight.

Q. Obviously the series is where it is, but for you being a guy who grew up watching this team, being from the area, how important is it in your first home game here in Atlanta, particularly at this new ballpark?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Yeah, it's special. I'm excited to see the fans here tonight. I think they're excited to be here, too. I think they're in the same boat as we are and not excited to be down 2-0 right now, but to bring a post-season game and post-season series here to the new park, back to Atlanta, I think we're all excited, regardless of where we are as far as the games go and down 2-0.

We've been here before in a situation where we've had to win, I feel like. We've had losing streaks and we've come back big and went on winning streaks. So again, it's win or go home, and everybody knows that. There's not much talking about what we have to do. Everybody knows that we have to come in here and play better than them and score some runs and score more than they do. So we understand that.

Q. How often do you get reminded of the home run you hit on Vin's last game to clinch the division, and also do you have any mementos or scrapbook entries or any of that stuff from that day?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Which home run? I'm just kidding. (Laughs). No, yeah, all the time. That was a fun day. That was a big memory. Again, I felt like I was lucky to be in that position. It happened for a reason. It's a positive memory, too, at that. And I have so many people that bring it up, and yeah, that was a fun day, but hopefully we can make memories over here putting this uniform on.

Q. (No microphone)?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Yeah, I do. I have the bat. I kept the bat, and I had Vin sign it for me. So he signed it to me. And thinking about his career and his legacy and to be a little part of that was pretty special. Never got the ball. But I wasn't really too worried about the ball. I guess I had the swing and the home run to clinch over there. So that was enough for me. That was enough for me.

Q. Charlie, when you were with the Dodgers, did you guys talk about a team-wide approach at the plate? Was it something universal? Was it whatever you got from Ward?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: Yeah, we did. Turner was great. A lot of those guys over there, it's the same type of mentality that we have over here with the Braves. You develop a team approach and try to stick to that as much as possible. You try to figure out what they're going to do to you that night and try to stick to that same game plan. If they change that, then, you know, during the game we'll try to adjust to what they're doing, too. But we have a good idea of what they're going to try to do to attack us. And so we just have to stay together as a team in our approach, and hopefully that works out for us.

Q. Generally, what is the approach? I heard one of the guys on TV the other night talk about (No microphone). Is it like that, hunt and don't chase?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: That's the idea. Especially early on. Typically, you want to try to hunt in your zone. You start expanding early. Then it's easier for a pitcher or the opponent for them to expand. And if that's the case, then we're going down the wrong path. So ideally it's try to zone, zone a pitch in a certain zone early on as much as possible and be ready for that pitch. But sometimes their plan is a little bit different than what we're thinking or what they think that they're trying to do to us. So when that's the case, then we have to adjust pitch to pitch.

But, ideally, you want to go out there and be ready to hit every pitch, be ready to hit a certain pitch in a certain location. That's ideal, because these guys are pretty good out there, and they're here for a reason, too. They've done well, and they know how to pitch. So we try to simplify as much as possible.

Q. Kind of building off that last question, how much more information are you guys receiving from maybe advance scouts and how do you feel like the club is processing that information?
CHARLIE CULBERSON: I think they're doing a great job. The guys in the front office, they do a tremendous job of getting us this information as much as we need, and then our coaches try to, I guess, dumb it down a little bit for us and try to present it to us in a way that we can take this information and take it to the game.

Again, hitting is tough, especially from an offense standpoint, you don't want to go out there thinking too much. You want to try to simplify things as much as possible and get a game plan, but get somewhat of a simple plan, too, and try to, I guess, master that plan.

There's a lot of information that kind of tunnels down and filters out at the bottom to what we see. If there's anything else that we want to see, any more information that we want to see or pitches or whatnot, we're able to get that information. But again, sometimes it's overload and sometimes we go out there thinking too much. We want to think before the game and want to go out there and play and kind of let things happen when the game starts.

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