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NL DIVISION SERIES: NATIONALS VS DODGERS

October 7, 2019

Dave Martinez

Washington D.C. - pregame 4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How is Victor?
DAVE MARTINEZ: He's still a little bit sore. He'll be available to pinch hit, but that's it. He says he could go, but it's just, talked to the doctors, talked to the trainers, just don't want him, especially the way he plays, doing anything. Hopefully we get through today and he's ready to go for the next game.

Q. Last night you mentioned that it was probably all hands on deck today. Given the circumstances, after talking to your coaches, talking to the players, is that still the case? Is Stephen still in play? How are you approaching this game?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, we'll, look, in my perfect world Scherzer goes 7, 8 and then we got to Doo and Hudson. So right now that's what I'm looking at. But, yeah, man, this is, there's no tomorrow. We have been here before, so these guys all understand, so we'll see how the game goes and we'll have to make some in-game decisions.

Q. Howie Kendrick has been so important for you all year long. He hasn't had the best series so far. So was there any question in your mind whether he would be in the lineup tonight and just in a broader sense, how do you guys manufacture runs, how do you score runs consistently throughout a game, that's really something you haven't been able to do so far this week?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, it takes more than just one person. Howie's been our guy. He's had an unbelievable year, he puts the ball in play, he has -- I'm not going to say he hasn't hit because he's hit some balls pretty hard during the series.

But, yeah, we just got to, when the opportunity arises and we get guys on base, we're just one or two hits away from busting the game wide open. So Trea gets on base, Eaton does his thing, we got Anthony and Soto, Howie, and today Zim behind them. So let's just get something going today and try and score a bunch of runs.

Q. We know you don't sleep a lot. So how did you sleep last night? However that was. And today do you feel excited, anxious, hopeful, what's your kind of or are you just even going into another possible elimination game?
DAVE MARTINEZ: So last night I stayed up until about 2:45. And I just, I was watching Pat Corbin pitching, wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary per se.

But I woke up today relatively calm. I went to Ted's Bulletin, had some good breakfast, had a half a pop-tart, a homemade pop-tart, so I'm ready to go, yeah.

Hey, I tell the guys, hey, let's go 1-0 today. The biggest thing for me is just, hey, stay in the moment. Stay in the here and now and stay in the moment and let's focus on what's going on today.

Q. Last night you have Cabrera come off the bench, drive in what could have been a key run. Parra's giving you a lot of big hits all season. How much have those players, obviously the ones who have been released by other teams played in your success this year, and as a former player yourself, what is it like for a player to be discarded by one team and to find himself in the playoffs?
DAVE MARTINEZ: No, it's, it's I mean all, you count on all these guys. If you look, if you look at Cabrera, he's driven in some big runs for us here since he's been here, and Parra both. Situation arose yesterday where they had a lefty warming up so Cabrera, who is a switch hitter, hits from both sides really well, he's been key for us.

So but, yeah, having these guys on the bench, Cabrera, Parra, Adams, Zim yesterday, that's a pretty good bench. So I'm comfortable when those guys come up to pinch hit, I'm really comfortable putting them in games and they come up with some big hits for us.

Q. When you said in a perfect world Max would through 7 or 8 tonight. If it's a perfect world how come he isn't throwing 9?
DAVE MARTINEZ: We'll see, we'll see. But that will be nice. If I get the ball to Doo or Hudson I'll take that. And he'll fight me to pitch tonight, I can tell you that. It might be an ugly situation, but, yeah, he'll fight me for sure.

Q. The Dodgers have had a pretty obvious plan for Juan and then in the last inning just put Kolarek up there, getting him out. What have you made of that matchup and if the team has a game plan for Juan at this stage?
DAVE MARTINEZ: I'm sure that matchup's going to come up again. Juan's seen him now three times, so I think the more he sees him, the tide will turn. Soto's a good hitter, he usually figures things out, so if it happens again today hopefully it's Juan's turn.

Q. Given that Max threw those 13 pitches the other night, do you watch him a little more closely, what have you learned about monitoring these guys who are now pitching, using their off, their throw day to actually pitch in a game?
DAVE MARTINEZ: We'll definitely keep an eye on them. My biggest thing with Max is, as we all know, he's going to come out fired up. So for him to come out in the first one or two innings kind of settle down, I mean that's going to be the telltale.

But he's gung-ho. Last night we talked to him on the bench and typical Max, he's ready to pinch hit, he's ready to pin run, he's ready to, he said I could pitch an inning, and I said hey, buddy, you know, if we had to, you might pitch 140 pitches tomorrow, so just get your rest. So he's ready to go.

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