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NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERSOctober 7, 2018Freddie FreemanRonald Acuna, Jr.Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 3 Q. Freddie, you know Alex well. Did you think he would come after you like that on the first one? FREDDIE FREEMAN: You know, I didn't know if he was going to throw a first pitch strike, but he struck me out two days ago on the slider and in a big situation. It was 5-5. I thought he would go to his out pitch, and I was kind of looking for something up and he gave me a slider and I was able to get him. Q. Freddie, you've been here through so much. What does this mean to have your moment like this and for it to come in a win? FREDDIE FREEMAN: It means a lot. It does. It's good to be sitting up here in this kind of situation, but hopefully we'll have some more big moments during this postseason and this isn't the only one. Q. Ronald, could you sort of tell Buehler was coming apart a little bit, and did you have to almost hold back and look for your pitch, especially with the take sign on the 3-0? RONALD ACUNA, JR.: Yeah, I didn't think it was a strike, but I was just focused on the pitch and the next pitch, and I was luckily able to connect. Q. Just to follow that up, could you sort of tell the couple of batters before that he sort of was struggling to locate his pitches? RONALD ACUNA, JR.: Yeah, like I said before, I wasn't focused on that. I was just trying to focus on my at-bat and take it pitch by pitch and just focus in and do the best I could. Q. Freddie, you're one that rarely shows public emotion. Was that a sense of relief, exuberation, because your teammates said they heard it all the way from home plate throughout. FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah. I don't really know what happened. They showed me the replay after the game, and I guess I was pretty excited after I hit it. I am not one, but that was a big moment, put us ahead, so kind of emotions took over. Q. Freddie, we've talked so much about what Ronald has been able to do this year, but to step up in a post-season game like that and be the youngest guy to hit a Grand Slam since Mickey Mantle. He keeps doing things. Are you surprised anymore or does he continue to amaze you? FREDDIE FREEMAN: No. He continues to amaze. I don't think we needed or wanted anybody else in that situation. It's kind of fitting that our starting pitcher was the first one to get an RBI in the series. But in that situation, Ronald was able to work the count and get into his hitters's count, and I think everyone had all the confidence in the world, and he's been doing it all year and he continued it in the playoffs. He's pretty incredible, and everybody is starting to get to see it. Q. Freddie, in that sixth or seventh inning you guys went with Toussaint and Sobotka, both September call-up guys. They started in the low minors. What's it mean to have those guys pitch the way they did? FREDDIE FREEMAN: It's been unbelievable. It really has. It's taken us 30, 40 guys to get to this point. It hasn't been one guy. I think Chad starred in High A this year, and here he is pitching in the biggest game of his life. They've been incredible all year. We wouldn't be here without him, and we're going to continue to need them tomorrow. Q. What was the dugout like when you were watching Newcomb get ball one, ball two, ball three, ball four against that guy, and as good as he's been, when you see a pitcher go through something like that, do you feel like it's time to move in for the kill at that point? FREDDIE FREEMAN: Newcomb's been fantastic all year. I can't tell you what the dugout was doing because I wasn't looking in there. I was just focused on the game. But Newcomb gave us two-plus strong innings and handed it over and Gaus was able to get us to the fifth, sixth inning. Newcomb gave everything he had. He was coming out 97, 98 in that first inning. So he was leaving it all out there. So that was huge. Q. When he took the walk? FREDDIE FREEMAN: When he took the walk. I don't think we wanted him to swing in that situation. (Laughs). At all. I was actually screaming turn him loose on 3 and 0. They didn't listen to me. But that was a big situation, and he was able to calm down and take the walk. Q. Ronald, like Dave said, you became the youngest person to hit a Grand Slam in a post-season game tonight. And two things. Have you ever heard the name Mickey Mantle before? Are you familiar with him, and do these games, you know, these are post-season games. You're such a young player, had a successful season. But do these games feel different to you in the playoffs? RONALD ACUNA, JR.: For the first answer, no, I don't recognize him. I wasn't even born then: (Laughs). And for the second question, I think we just try to play the same game. I always go out with the same energy, same positive activity. Just try to focus on the things I can control and try to take it from this. Q. Freddie, you had the five-run lead and it evaporates. How do you stay focused, stay calm to hit that home run. FREDDIE FREEMAN: The biggest game of our lives was tonight, and obviously seeing the 5-1 lead go away was not ideal, but we held it at 5-5, so we knew we had a chance. And this team's been doing it all year. When we get down, we come back, and hit it right back in that sixth inning. It wasn't what we wanted. But we're happy to get the win in this kind of fashion. Q. Following that up, how big of deal is it to everybody, particularly you since you've been here, just to win a game today, not to have the season end in a down fashion in a playoff series? FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah. Obviously didn't want to get swept, and Ronald getting it going in there in the second inning was huge for us. We just needed to score a run to get the two-ton boulder off our shoulders, and once we were able to do that and settle in. We didn't get a lot of hits tonight, but we got the right hits. And getting a win tonight was huge and tomorrow's even bigger. Q. Ronald, you've had so many historic moments, big moments this season. How high up does this one rank, particularly -- I mean, obviously it's the post-season stage, but also because of how the team has struggled to get hits and runs in the first couple games. RONALD ACUNA, JR.: Yeah, I guess I have to rank it first of all the moments just because it happened in the playoffs. And to be honest, that's what we've been working for this entire time since Spring Training trying get to the playoffs, and I guess the severity of the situation that it happened. That's why I put it No. 1. We're just trying to keep working hard and maintain the way we're going right now. Q. Freddie, most of the damage out on the West Coast was done by home run, so what does it mean for you to come out tonight and get all of your offense off home run? FREDDIE FREEMAN: Well, we're not the biggest home run hitting team, so it was definitely different. We are usually small-ball team. But it's definitely hard in the playoffs to get three hits in a row to score some runs. So when we got into that situation -- the Dodgers did it to us. They seemed to hit the big home run. Luckily Ronald was able to do that in the second inning, and I was able to get a pitch up in the sixth. It's very tough to get three in a row, so sometimes you just need to have the key ones. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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