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NL DIVISION SERIES: NATIONALS VS DODGERS

October 9, 2019

Daniel Hudson

Los Angeles, California - pregame 5

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Danny, you've talked about how when you pitch in the 9th inning before getting here it wasn't always the smoothest ride compared to now. What was that like, what do you remember about those times and what's been different for you now?
DANIEL HUDSON: Still not the smoothest ride, obviously. I don't know, for whatever reason I just don't have that big sweeping breaking ball that a lot of guys have, a lot of closers have. I do throw relatively hard, but I throw a lot of strikes too so there's a lot of contact involved.

So just baseball in the 9th inning in general can kind of get crazy and it seems to happen more often than not when I'm out there, but you just try to limit the damage and just go get three outs.

Q. Curious if you spent today trying to keep the game out of your head or trying to keep the game in your head. And what sort of, I don't know, exercises do you do to get to that spot?
DANIEL HUDSON: I don't know, I think I'm more -- I kind of take it as it comes. I just kind of, if the thoughts creep in about what's going to happen tonight, I try to think about it, visualize it, and then as soon as -- you just try to get through your day. And then if my name gets called, my name gets called. It's not really any, I'm not the, I'm not doing mental exercises or training or anything like that. I just try to go out there and play baseball, man. I mean, we're pretty blessed to be able to play this game for a living and so waking up every morning, day of a game, pretty excited, and just trying to go out there and have fun.

Q. Going all the way back to your Arizona days and the long, long road all the way back to where you are now, can you reflect a little bit upon that and did you think you would ever be in this position right now?
DANIEL HUDSON: Well, I mean, maybe not necessarily this position, but I always, like you said, going back to Arizona days as a starter and doing this in 2011, the day before my start, and then LDS against the Brewers, you know, and to now eight years later doing it for the first time since then, it's pretty cool, to be honest with you, to kind of be in this position to help a team win a Game 5 and try to get to the NLCS.

Q. What do you think your role is going to be with this team when you joined them on August 2nd and how different is it now than maybe what you thought you would be doing?
DANIEL HUDSON: I didn't think I was going to have a role, to be honest with you. I didn't exactly have a role in Toronto either before I got there. Just kind of pitching anywhere between the 5th and the 9th. We had our closer go down, I was throwing the ball well, so Charlie up there just tried to ride the hot hand and I got thrown a couple 9th innings here and there. But for the most part, I was just always coming in, usually in traffic, with guys on base. And so I figured that would kind of continue. Obviously guys kind of had some set roles or, you know, Doolittle in the 9th and Fernando and Suero and Rainey all throwing late. So I didn't know really what to expect, to be honest with you. Doo needing the break and going down with the little knee thing, and I think that Davey just kind of did the same thing, tried to ride the hot hand. And I just tried to keep the seat warm for him until he got back.

Q. You've been both a starter and a reliever in your career, how impressive. And can you just give us some insight into like what Stephen and Max have done this series in the last week, I guess?
DANIEL HUDSON: Yeah, I mean it's been impressive. Like you said, I never did it while I was still starting, but it's definitely a different mindset, a different animal coming in a game, especially in a Division Series with a lead or trying to keep the game where it's at, like Stephen did in the Wild Card game. It's a different monster, but those guys are different animals in themselves. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do that, switch roles like that. And I was joking with somebody, I was warming up next to Stephen in the 6th inning because I was potentially going to cover Max, or the 5th inning, cover Max an inning, and it was just like it was a start for him, like he was, he did his whole routine, no emotion whatsoever, and he just went out there and dominated for three innings. And you had Max in the 8th the other night here, and you had, Max is Max, you just try to stay out of his way, to be honest with you. But, yeah, it's been impressive to watch.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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