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NL DIVISION SERIES: NATIONALS VS DODGERS

October 2, 2019

Cody Bellinger

Los Angeles, California - pregame 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was your reaction when you found out it was Washington and now what do you think of the mental state of your ball club and physical state of your ball club going into postseason play?
CODY BELLINGER: I think we're going to try to treat it as much as a normal series as we can. I didn't have much reaction to it, other than that was a really cool moment for Soto and that was a pretty crazy ending to that game.

Q. With all of the adjustments you've made throughout the year and the success that you have had, the platooning days for you are long gone. How much more prepared do you feel this year than you did last postseason and how pleased are you that you've truly become that everyday player?
CODY BELLINGER: Oh, yeah, I mean that was the goal going into this year and I think that I accomplished that and kind of -- I actually felt pretty good towards the end of the season and hoping to carry that into this postseason and try to continue to treat it like a normal game as much as I can.

Q. Big picture, what has Justin Turner meant to this team over the time that you've been here?
CODY BELLINGER: Just he's been just a leader, on and off the field. I think everyone has their leader on their team, but he's been a guy that's every single day playing as hard as he can whether he feels good or not. Literally doing whatever he can to help the team win that day. I think that, I think we all watch that and learn from that.

Q. Walker was announced as the Game 1 starter, how have you seen him develop and mature as a pitcher?
CODY BELLINGER: I think he just, he's really intelligent, his stuff is electric and, you know, when you have electric stuff maybe you don't know how to use it to your full advantage and he knows how to use it to his full advantage. And he scouts hitters, understands weaknesses and, I mean, his stuff is not fun to face, but when you have a dude behind it that knows what he's doing, it's even better.

Q. A lot of the analysis of this series is going to focus on Scherzer Strasburg and Corbin. What challenge do those three starters present?
CODY BELLINGER: I mean, they're strikeout pitchers. I think they led the league in strikeouts or something like that this year. Obviously Scherzer's been at the top of his game for a lot of years now and they added Corbin to an already good pitching staff so it's going to be a really fun series and we're prepared for it though and we're looking forward to playing tomorrow and facing them.

Q. Towards the end of the season you're hearing the chants "MVP" out there. What's that mean to you with your relationship with the fans?
CODY BELLINGER: It's pretty cool. I think I try to block it out as much as I could throughout the year. The last series in San Francisco actually I kind of soaked it in, I was like I'm just going to do what I can to end this year strong and keep my name in the conversation. And now it's out of my hands, so I'm not going to worry about that right now and put all my focus in on these next games that we got to play.

Q. What was the biggest key for you making such dramatic improvements against left-handed pitching?
CODY BELLINGER: I think minus year I never had a problem hitting lefties. Minor league, my rookie year, I never had a problem with it. So I just came back to when I was comfortable and continuing to be that throughout the year.

Q. You've had some success and faced Corbin I think about a dozen times in your career. Especially you got three walks against him. So for some of these young left-handers that are on the team or guys that may have not seen him as much as you what advice do you give them, especially on that nasty slider he's got?
CODY BELLINGER: Oh, yeah, I mean I think that you hear the name and you go, okay, we got to face Corbin. Just try to treat him like a normal guy that -- I think if you forget about the name you'll be all right. Like I said, just treat him like a normal pitcher and obviously he's got good stuff, but go out there and compete the best you can and you got teammates to lean on. So I think that's the most important thing.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Cody.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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