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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERSOctober 17, 2018Justin TurnerAustin BarnesLos Angeles, California - postgame 5 Los Angeles - 5, Milwaukee - 2 Q. Justin, I know you guys meet every day and come up with an offensive game plan. How much in these two games has been go up the middle, take what they give you, go right center if you need to? JUSTIN TURNER: Yeah, I think that's something we talked about the whole series, today we actually did a better job of doing it. They obviously have good arms in their bullpen and it's not easy stuff. And I thought we did a lot better job from Austin's at-bat on, the quality of bats were unbelievable compared to the rest of the series. Q. Justin, is there a greater sense of urgency or pressure among you and your teammates about getting back to the World Series or winning the World Series after the success you've had, six Division Championships and three Championship Series appearances? JUSTIN TURNER: That's our goal every year to get to the World Series. I don't know if it's added or more pressure. That's something that we want to do every single year. So we talk about it in Spring Training from day one. And every game we win here we're getting one step closer to getting back to the World Series. Q. Can you both touch on Chris Taylor's fifth where he steals second, steals third, and kind of gives you guys that run, what that did? AUSTIN BARNES: Yeah, I mean that goes kind of under the table a little bit. It was huge to get there to third base, less than two outs, give us a shot to do some things. And him going to second base on the errant throw was big. It's no big surprise to us, he's a gamer, he's a grounder, and it was huge. JUSTIN TURNER: I think the most special part of that was him running on the first pitch. That's big time to get over there on the first pitch. Now you've got a guy on third with no outs. So having the confidence and trust in your ability to get out there and know that the guy's a little bit slow to the plate and we can take advantage of that, and to go on the first pitch was big time. Q. I was curious if you guys feel after seeing all these Brewers relief pitchers after the first five games you were starting to have that advantage of seeing them often and really no secrets now, and whether or not you feel that's an advantage in the final one or two games. JUSTIN TURNER: Definitely an advantage. I think the more and more you see guys the more you're capable of putting together a game plan and an approach that will work for you. I guess the weird thing was with the shadows and the conditions today and how hard it was to see up there, those were actually our best at-bats we took against their bullpen. So definitely getting more comfortable, definitely knowing how they're attacking us. And we got pretty good results today. Q. Austin, how would you describe the way that your regular season was and then can a moment like that hit off Woodruff, can that rewrite the story for you for an entire season? AUSTIN BARNES: I don't know rewriting it. Obviously it was kind of a grind from this year. But the postseason, just put our emphasis on winning, whatever role you're in, whether it's not playing or not, doing anything you can to help the team win, whether it's talking to pitchers in between starts, catching pens or just having conversations. I think that's the most important thing. I think the regular season is the regular season. But this time of the year it's all bonus games. Q. The contrast between Clayton in Game 1 and Clayton today, were there things that he did differently in attacking the Milwaukee hitters, and how much of that is familiarity? You've seen him and now you see him again five days later. AUSTIN BARNES: Kershaw is right, it doesn't matter. When he's mixing all three pitches and attacking hitters. It was a rough start in Milwaukee, but we're confident with him on the mound and he kept us in the game and gave us a shot to win. Q. Justin, I know you thought all along you were confident you'd get to this point as a team. But it's not always been a smooth ride, now you're one game shy, what's the feeling like, getting back to the series? JUSTIN TURNER: Yeah, I think our whole season was a grind and nothing came easy for us. And coming into the series we knew we were playing a really good Milwaukee ballclub, and they were playing their best breaking ball, and we were playing our best breaking ball, and we knew it was going to be a big series, and it was going to be tough. We're battling, scrapping, grinding, trying to find ways to scratch runs across. And I'll tell you, it's a lot better feeling getting on the plane tomorrow going there up three games to two than it would be if we were down two games to three. Q. Justin, playoff experience might be a debatable concept, but all you guys have been through the last three years. How helpful will that be trying to close things out going back there? JUSTIN TURNER: I think the understanding of what's at stake and the experience is huge to just know the situation. It's something that we preach here all season long, and ever since I've been here, playing 27 outs and not giving anything away. As long as we have outs to work with we feel like we're in games. And I think you've seen it this entire postseason, even when we're behind, we're battling back, putting ourselves in a position to possibly tie games or take the lead late. And that's where the experience comes in. We never count ourselves out. Q. Austin, it's been a long time since anybody got Christian out, and you guys have been able to do that in these games. Are you getting him out in different ways and how important has it been to hold him down? AUSTIN BARNES: Our pitchers have done a great job, one through nine. Obviously Yeli was an emphasis early this year. They're doing a great job of executing and making tough pitches on him. He's obviously MVP. So making, executing to him is very important to the series. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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