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MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS RED SOX

October 26, 2018

Max Muncy

Los Angeles, California - postgame 3

Red Sox - 2 Dodgers - 3

Q. In what sort of crazy dream do you go from being unemployed at the end of Spring Training to hitting a walk-off home run in the World Series? That never happens.
MAX MUNCY: It happens in this dream right now, this exact one. No, it's kind of like you said, it's been a dream. This whole year has been a surreal experience that it's hard to put into words. But just getting a chance to play in the World Series has kind of capped it off. And then getting a chance to hit a walk-off home run, obviously there's not many words I can use to describe that. The feeling was just pure joy and incredible excitement. That's about all I can think of because it's hard to describe how good a feeling it is.

Q. Just wonder if you could explain how you made such remarkable progress over the last year or two. Statistically pretty underwhelming at one point and now unreal?
MAX MUNCY: Yeah, well, all the changes I've made have been pretty well documented this year by a lot of people. There's a lot of mechanical changes, most importantly a lot of mental changes. And all that put together has led to this point right now.

Q. So, Max, getting this win, how does this change the series?
MAX MUNCY: You know, it's big time. This was a gut-wrenching game for both sides. This is one of those games that whoever came out on top is going to have a lot of momentum going into tomorrow. This was an extremely long game, 18 innings. A lot of pitchers were used. Every position player was used. Injuries on both sides. Their guys are banged up, our guys are banged up. It's one of those things when you're able to come out on top from a game like this, you have to feel it gives you a little momentum going to the next one.

Q. A couple of things: You almost had that moment in the 15th inning. From your standpoint, did you think you had kept that ball fair and how close was it? How about how many fans just stayed in. 7 hours and 20 minutes, and it was still pretty packed and pretty loud all the way to the end.
MAX MUNCY: First part of that, the foul ball. I got it good off the bat, and I was kind of walking down the line. I wasn't sure if it was going to be fair or foul. From where I was standing, when I saw it land in the seats, I saw how far back it was, which was only a couple of rows, and then I looked how far over it was, and I knew immediately there was no way it could have went behind the pole, just from where it landed. Doesn't mean I didn't get my hopes up when I'm looking in the dugout and they're checking the replay to see if they want to check it or not. From my vantage point I was pretty positive it was foul right away.

And the fans were unbelievable. LA kind of has a reputation of fans showing up late, leaving early, but that wasn't the case tonight. They were there early and they were there for the whole game, and they were loud for the entire game. Every time we got into a big moment on defense they got loud and we got the out. The stadium was rocking. Same thing on offense, anytime we got something going, they were loud. They were unbelievable tonight.

Q. What was the atmosphere like in the dugout when the game kept going and going and going? Were you amazed as the rest of us? Just take us through that last at-bat.
MAX MUNCY: You know, to be honest, as the game kept going, you look up and see the 18th inning and you're like, holy cow, where did the game go? But those last nine innings or so just kind of blended together.

As far as the dugout out went, there was no deflation, no give-up, nothing at all. They got that run, and we said, we've got to get another one. There was no panic or anything, just "let's just get to work." That was pretty good to see from the guys.

The last at-bat, I swung good off him. I got 3-0 and he was able to work back two strikes, full count. The at-bat before, he had got me on a really good backdoor cutter. He had really good stuff all night long and he wasn't missing a spot. Next at-bat he tried to go backdoor cutter again, but he left this one a little over the plate, and thankfully for me he did that, because I was able to get my bat to it.

Q. You get back to the locker room, you check your phone, how many text messages did you have and who did you hear from?
MAX MUNCY: I haven't really been able to check it yet. Obviously you go to answer the phone, and there's probably 30, 40 -- the phone stops giving me how many notifications it is at this point.

I showered up, came down here, so I haven't checked who all has been texting me and what they've been saying. Most importantly I want to get this done and go see my family. So the phone can wait.

Q. It's one win and obviously you needed one win today, but does it feel like more than that when you outlast a team in what really amounted to two full complete baseball games?
MAX MUNCY: You know, I'm not sure if it feels like that or not. Kind of when you go through a game like that that's gut wrenching on both sides. To be able to come out on top of that, regardless of what the standings were for the series, that's a huge win for us. And to get us back into the series at 2-1 makes it even that much bigger of a win.

A long game like that in this kind of atmosphere, the top of baseball, the World Series, just playing five innings exhaust you when you're talking about this kind of mental stress and the magnitude of every single play. You throw in 18 innings, I imagine both sides right now are feeling it. But that's kind of what we have to deal with. We've got to go home and get ready for tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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