	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 15, 2018

Travis Shaw

Los Angeles, California - pregame 3

Q. I forget where I read it, but probably somebody in the room wrote it that you and your dad had talked and he had never got to go to the playoffs, and he said here you are in there for the second time in three or four years and you should know how lucky you are. Can you tell us about that conversation and how fortunate you do feel.
TRAVIS SHAW: Yeah, when you do think back on it, when he tells that story, he played in the Big Leagues for 10 full years and he never made it in. I've been there two out of my three full years. And he basically said, Don't take it for granted because you never know, this could be the last run you ever get. It's pretty special when you think about it, even playing here where we played, too, in the playoffs, it's kind of a cool experience.

Q. Did you tag along with him out here?
TRAVIS SHAW: Yeah, I was out here for pretty much his whole time out here. I think they came close a couple of times but they never got in. It's been fun and you definitely don't want to take it for granted.

Q. Having up and moved to second base midseason, how do you look back on earlier in your career when you primarily played first and the idea that you could play third full-time seems a bit out there?
TRAVIS SHAW: Yeah, I mean it wasn't out there for me, personally. But if you would have told me this year coming into Spring Training that I'd be starting second base in Game 3 of the NLCS, I'd tell you you were crazy. It's been an experience. It's been different. It's been fun. And it's something I take pride in knowing that now I can play kind of all over the place, all over the infield. And hopefully that just makes me a little bit more valuable to them in whatever way they want to use me.

It's been an experience. It's been an adjustment. And I've enjoyed it so far.

Q. As part of that when you guys made your end-season acquisitions, and you knew people, yourself especially were going to start moving around a little bit, the concern was, well, what impact is that going to have on the defense and we can look back and say it didn't really hurt the defense. What is it about the club that allows you guys to excel with guys moving around so much?
TRAVIS SHAW: I think the advanced scouting and the positioning that they put us in, it's all a credit to them. They always seem to put us in the right spots. We make in-bat adjustments, in-bat was moves. There's been numerous times where they've moved me three or four steps, and the very next pitch it's right there.

That's a credit to the people that do the work, put in the time for that. For us, if we're in the right spot we're going to make the play. More times than not I've been in the right spot at second base. I think that's been a huge part of this whole thing.

But you can't say enough about the guys that put in the time, because they're the ones that should get credit for all the success we've had. It's kind of out-of-the-box thinking if you go back to it, when that move was made, I think everybody just kind of questioned how is this going to work or is it going to work at all. It's a credit to them and a credit to all of us for putting in the work and the time to make this work.

Q. When they first approached you about making this move, inside was there anything that you were nervous about, apprehensive about? Now that you've done this for a while, is there anything that surprised you, whether it was harder than you thought or something you weren't expecting?
TRAVIS SHAW: Double plays were the only thing that I was mainly concerned about. I thought ground balls and everything would be fine, the range was going to be what it was. It was kind of turning the double play, the pivot at second. And honestly, there hasn't been, I can only count a handful of times I've done it, probably less than ten turns since I've been there, which is weird to think about.

It's gone pretty well. I don't think I've messed anything up since I've been over there. Outside of the double play thing, everything has felt pretty natural, pretty comfortable.

Q. As a left-handed hitter with power who also plays second base now, do you have mixed feelings about the shift?
TRAVIS SHAW: I mean I get the shift. I know everybody is kind of -- it's become a topic of debate, should they ban it or this or that. I'm kind of indifferent. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. I get why teams do it and I get the apprehension is behind it. It's kind of offensively it's hurt some guys, it's hurt myself.

But it is what it is. It's a strategy that teams employ. And with all the advanced scouting and all the numbers that everybody reads into now, I don't think it's going to go anywhere for a while.

Q. You guys saw Walker Buehler once this year. What do you remember from that start and how do you approach today?
TRAVIS SHAW: He's got good stuff. Very hard fastball, good breaking balls. He can kind of throw any pitch in any count. He pitched well against us last time here.

From a pure stuff standpoint, I would say he's probably got the best on their staff. I know Kershaw has got all the awards and the experience and all that, but Buehler is going to be really good for a long time. We'll have our work cut out for us tonight but I think everybody is looking forward to the challenge.

Q. After the game the other night Wade Miley said that it felt weird that you guys lost because it had been three weeks between losses, which is kind of crazy this time of year. How different was that? You guys haven't had to turn the page for such a long time, will it be hard to do now?
TRAVIS SHAW: No, it's not going to be hard. I don't think anybody expected us to roll through three sweeps en route to a World Series. Realistically it was going to happen at some point. I think we'll be fine. It has been a while. But the off day helped us reset. We'll be ready to go tonight. I don't see the loss being an issue at all.

Q. How good your bullpen has been this year, and the rare occasion they do let up a lead, how much do you take that personally as offensive guys to try to get that back for them?
TRAVIS SHAW: They're not going to be perfect. They're a huge reason why we're here right now. We know that. And for us we just try to score as many runs as we can, and make it a little easier on them. We had a lead the other day but we weren't able to tack on anymore after that.

For us as an offense, we want to score as much as we can, to make it easy on them. We know they're not going to be perfect. We have no doubts if we get a lead tonight they'll come in and shut it down.

Q. You've seen Lorenzo Cain sort of turn it on in this round of the postseason. Watching him play this year and his at-bats and infield, what stands out to you as sort of the best moments of the Lo-Cain for this season?
TRAVIS SHAW: Defensively the balls he runs down in centerfield, it's impressive. The home run robs, the balls he runs down in the gap. He covers so much ground. And then at the plate, you watch his BP's, and you're like, How is this going to work? But once the game starts it's a different player. Once the lights come on, he flips a switch and he competes. He's one of the biggest competitors on our team. On-base machine. And it's really impressive that once the lights turn on he goes into a different gear and it's fun to watch.

Q. I know this is kind of going into their house now and playing their game, but with your connection to this stadium, Christian, Mike, Braun, Burnes, do you kind of feel like you guys will also have special moments in this stadium, almost like you have your own home-field advantage in that sense?
TRAVIS SHAW: Yeah, everybody has their own ties here, like you said. There's numerous guys that grew up here. I was a Dodger fan growing up. We have some ties here. And now we want to make it kind of our memory here. We've got three games to do it. We could close out the series if we win all three, or go back home with an advantage, either way.

I know everybody enjoys playing out here. It will be a great crowd. Good atmosphere, good energy. It's always fun when you come out here. The weather is perfect.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297