	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

MLB WORLD SERIES: DODGERS VS RED SOX

October 28, 2018

Steve Pearce

Los Angeles, California - pregame 5

Q. Just kind of a thought on last night and what it meant to you, what it meant to the team and your mindset coming into this Game 5 tonight?
STEVE PEARCE: Great team win all the way around. We responded from the night before. With that long game, how it went the other night, we flushed it, we responded. And that was just a great all-around team win. And now we have to flush it, last night's game, and worry about tonight and we're ready.

Q. Since you came here early in the season, a couple of months into the season, what is it about the culture here that you've embraced and the way they have embraced you? Why has it worked out so well?
STEVE PEARCE: One of the favorite things I've seen when I've been here was the team chemistry on and off the field. And when I came in it was having fun and laughing, everyone was together and talking baseball. And then you notice on the field when you're playing against them for so long, they're always having fun. And it's very contagious, and it's just a great atmosphere over there.

Q. I think one thing that fans and probably are impressed by is you guys fly across the country, play 18 innings on day one and come back and win the next day. We saw the first five innings yesterday were kind of sluggish back and forth. How much of what we saw in the latter innings last night was just getting over that physical grind that you guys have been through recently?
STEVE PEARCE: Yeah, we had about 20 innings of sluggish baseball. Our offense wasn't responding. We were just not playing well, but the pitchers did great. Everybody in the bullpen and we fought and then it was the big blow by Mitch kind of started everything going. And I think that's what we needed. We just needed some kind of spark to help us out. Once we got it, I think everybody kind of felt the momentum started to shift in our favor, and we started to play our baseball.

Q. You've been on a lot of different teams and when you talk about the chemistry here, I wonder how that sort of manifests itself in the hitting, and talk about the hitting and studying it together. Is that aspect heightened with the Red Sox, compared to the other teams, the emphasis on helping each other out hitting-wise?
STEVE PEARCE: I think how open the team is and how close we are, we talk about it and everybody feeds on it. It's easy to buy into a process when there's results behind it. And I think that's the Boston Red Sox type of baseball.

Q. Looked like you got spiked at first base last night. Any residual pain or anything from that?
STEVE PEARCE: No, I'm all good. I'm all good. That was one heck of a play by Devers. That was my focus. And I didn't even -- I barely even felt it.

Q. Was that frustrating that he did that?
STEVE PEARCE: No, it wasn't frustrating. I'm glad we got the out.

Q. After all these years, do you feel you've broken the stereotype about you, that you can only hit against lefties, that you've proven that you can hit against anybody?
STEVE PEARCE: I don't even think about that when I play. I'm just out there playing baseball. I think my role has always been just hitting lefties, just the way the game of baseball has changed with matchups over the years. But when I'm up there, I'm not worried about left-hand, right-hand matchups.

Q. You mentioned in one of your answers the bullpen, I just wanted to ask from your perspective the job that they've done this postseason, I'm sure you know that they were under a lot, I don't know if the word is "doubt", coming in. And particularly Joe Kelly, how hard he would be to face and what you've seen him do this postseason?
STEVE PEARCE: You know, when the starters do their job and everybody does their job, and we get to turn the ball over to the big boys, every single one of those guys throw a hundred miles an hour, and that's a great feeling for any type of a ballclub, and especially when they're on their game in this type of atmosphere, it's very difficult for opposing hitters to hit.

Q. I know you're locked in in doing your job, but are you allowing yourself a moment to step back and look around? It's a long journey to get to the World Series.
STEVE PEARCE: I think I'll step back after the series is over, but we still have one more game to win and that's what we're focused on now.

Q. Just a thought on what you've seen from David Price, especially of late, and how well he's thrown the ball, and having him on the mound tonight in Game 5?
STEVE PEARCE: You know, I've said it every single time I've been asked about Price, is we love him. When he's on the mound, we have the utmost confidence in the guy. He's a bulldog, he's competitive, and he wants to win. When he's on the mound, we feel that and we're confident playing behind him.

Q. You came here with the reputation of getting the big hit, and then you're here and you've had a bunch of them. The guys have talked about it a lot. What is your approach? This is the World Series. This is the big game. You guys were down. What is it? How are you prepared for this moment and why are you prepared?
STEVE PEARCE: You know, I just think when the crowd's getting into it, everything starts to get loud, it's almost you've got to do less. And that's my approach, don't try to do too much when you're out there. Just play baseball and just kind of have the same approach and let the pitcher make the mistake.

Q. Is that a recent development in your career, the last year or two?
STEVE PEARCE: I think the longer I've played, you're in these situations all the time, that sometimes you get yourself out and you know that wasn't the right approach you should have had in that situation. And the longer I've played, you kind of step back and, hey, I don't have to do that. Let's just try to do less. And that's really what's been paying off.

Q. I think I heard that you're a pretty die-hard Patriots fan; is that accurate?
STEVE PEARCE: Yeah.

Q. Where did that come from? Will you hopefully get home in time to watch the game tomorrow? What is it sort of like for you fun-wise playing in the same city and being nearby?
STEVE PEARCE: It's great. I love it. I love the Patriots. My family is from up there, so I was brainwashed as a kid, and I've been following them my whole life. And it's pretty cool to be in the same city and the town and seeing the love for the Patriots. Where I'm from in Florida, you don't really see that. So it's pretty cool.

Q. Given that family connection and the fact that you played for every other team in the division. When you finally got to the Red Sox, I imagine there must have been some curiosity what it was really like in the inside. What have you learned about the culture or Fenway Park or the Red Sox, that you must have always wondered about before you got there, the biggest eye openers?
STEVE PEARCE: I've been playing against these guys for so long that I knew them just playing with them on the field. And I think when I answered it earlier, was just the chemistry that they had together when I got here. It was so cool and it made the atmosphere very easy for me to just play my type of baseball and seeing how they acted every single day, it was definitely an eye opener. When you're playing against them for a long time, you don't really know what's going on over there until you get here. And it was a very cool feeling for me.

Q. You talk about the chemistry, but what about just from the baseball standpoint? What do you think has made this team so successful? You played against them obviously earlier in the year and now being with them.
STEVE PEARCE: Just everybody just has a great mentality. We fight. We flush things. We talk. We have approaches. And just being here is -- sorry, repeat your question.

Q. What makes the team so good?
STEVE PEARCE: Able to flush, like we had a 18-inning game, and we show up the next day and we're able to fall behind and get it done. It's like just the way we play every day. That's how we play day in and day out. And that's just one of the things that you saw last night. That's how we play every single night. It's a pretty cool experience because you don't see that a lot.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297