NL WILDCARD GAME: DODGERS VS CARDINALS

October 5, 2021

Max Scherzer

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Max, you got to play in the 2019 Wild Card with the Nationals. Do you rely on that experience to help you prepare for tomorrow, or do you approach tomorrow just totally different because it's a different team from that time?

MAX SCHERZER: There's different experiences. I think you draw on all your postseason experiences, especially in elimination games as well. It's one game. You win or go home, and every pitch -- you're always on pins and needles in those situations, and you've just got to be calm, cool, and collected and go out there and execute and go out there and just pitch your best and pitch your game.

Q. Would you say that -- I don't think frustration is the right word. Is there a little bit of fire under this team having to be in a situation, with (indiscernible) wins, playing in the Wild Card?

MAX SCHERZER: Look, you have to win your division. We didn't win our division.

There's no crying in baseball. We're in second place. We're in the Wild Card game.

Q. (Question regarding pitching.)

MAX SCHERZER: I was preparing -- had to, through my bullpen, in order to be able to throw 163, and then obviously when that didn't happen, just came in yesterday and threw off the mound and threw a couple pitches off the mound to keep my feel. So I was ready for either scenario.

Q. I don't know if you're obviously familiar with the history of this thing. How intense is going to be this Wild Card?

MAX SCHERZER: When you have two teams that, when you get in these situations, I mean, 90 feet is -- there's a premium on every 90 feet, on both sides of the ball. The ball always seems to find a way to have weird bounces in these situations.

You get in these games, and something happens. You've just got to be ready for it. You can't ride the emotional roller coaster because there's going to be some unbelievable highs and some unbelievable lows, and you've just got to ride through this knowing that you've got to be consistent and just go out there and play good baseball.

Never let the situation get to you. Always just worry about the next pitch no matter what just happened.

Q. What do you take of what happened in your two previous starts, and how confident are you that those are (indiscernible) on the mound?

MAX SCHERZER: I got a little out of whack in how I was delivering the baseball. First off, let me give credit to both the Rockies and Padres. They both played great against me. For me facing the Padres, that was the fifth time facing the Padres.

I wasn't fooling them anymore. They knew everything I was going to throw at them. I still think there was things I was doing that I wasn't getting the ball to the locations I needed to. I wasn't locating with all my pitches.

When I'm off with a couple pitches, then it just opens up holes in my game to where, when I do make mistakes, they get burnt. So saying that, I was able to look at the video, come up with a good plan of what I wanted to attack, mechanical form of what I see, worked on it over the past week.

The ball feels really good coming out of my hand, now let's just go out there and compete. It's postseason. Anything can happen.

Q. Kershaw spoke about how winning last year, he felt like the burden had come off his shoulders. I wonder, when you won in '19, if you experienced any of that at all? Has that changed at all how you feel about the playoffs, as you go into the playoffs and think about it?

MAX SCHERZER: There's definitely -- when you win a championship, that's a lifelong dream. So having won a championship, I can always say I can check that box. But you just learn from that experience. As much as -- as awesome it was to be able to win one, you definitely want to win it again. That's what you play the game for is to be able to win the World Series.

It starts tomorrow, and we have to win tomorrow. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So it's going to take an incredible effort in order to be able to get through this first game.

Q. I think after Sunday Trea said he can tell Max is mad already. When it comes to that win-or-go-home situation that you're coming into, do you feel internally the intensity ramp up a notch?

MAX SCHERZER: Yeah, you know what's at stake. You know the schedule, and you know everything that's going on. Nothing's surprising anybody. At some point in time, everybody -- this team, we're all going to get challenged, and we're going to be in a situation where you're in a win-or-die situation. You've got to go out there and just play confidently.

I've been in these situations before. I've been on both sides of the coin, how it comes out of it. You've just got to go out there and compartmentalize everything and just stick with your game plan and stay within the moment. Never try to get too high or too low within the moment.

Q. Trying to chase down the Giants the last home stand, do you feel like those were sort of playoff games? Do you feel like the team played with more of a sense of urgency the last six games going into this?

MAX SCHERZER: I can't say -- I can't agree with your assessment saying we're playing with more urgency. No, we were always playing with urgency. We were trying to win every single game. Maybe a test to that is -- the benefit of that is it kept everybody in rhythm. All the hitters had their ABs getting in rhythm, all the pitchers had to make all our pitches, and we couldn't just excuse an outing. We needed to win every single game.

So just that level of intent, of playing a game that's meaningless, maybe just kind of going through the motions because it's meaningless, hey, look, we had to win all those games. Unfortunately, we didn't. Came up one game short against the Giants. Going into a postseason so much is about rhythm and how you're playing and the momentum you have as a team.

So you look over the past kind of week, ten days of how we've been playing, we've been playing really good baseball.

With all that said, you can kind of throw all that out the window because the Cardinals were doing the same thing as well.

Q. Adam was in here, and he said a few years ago he made changes to his diet and some different things. Still feels like a pretty young fellow. What changes or concessions have you made to age?

MAX SCHERZER: Some. I mean, you've got to listen to your body more, different things of how you're training and what feels good, what doesn't. I can't say I've really made too many changes. I tried to eat healthy. I can't say I'm the healthiest eater. I try to avoid the bad. I try to avoid the sugar.

No, for me, it's just listen to your body. Listen to what your body says, how your body feels, and train the hardest you can, given what your body's at for every given day of the season.

Q. What they've got at the top surrounding them is they've got moments like this. (Indiscernible) is that sort of an urgency that you felt? Was that a motivating factor for you when you came over? Is that anything in your approach?

MAX SCHERZER: From my perspective, look, we're here to win. You're going to be in so many different situations in the playoffs. So many different things happen within the playoffs if you end up winning a championship. So many different guys are going to have to contribute.

So when you're in the situation, it's just next man up. Whoever's turn it is to get the ball in the situation, you go out there, and you do your job. Then it's next guy up. You just play good team baseball. Then that's what it takes. It takes all 25, 26 guys to be able to go out there and play at their best.

No matter what happens, whether it's an energy or something fluke happens, somebody's going to have an opportunity to be able to shine. You have to have the confidence within your team and have the chemistry to know that everybody's beating to the same drum and goes out there and performs at their best.

Q. Max, any thoughts on the playoff format? Do you think it should be expanded? Do you like it the way it is? What's your feeling about if?

MAX SCHERZER: First and foremost, the playoff format we have in baseball right now, I love it. You've got to win your division. It kept us and the Giants playing as hard as we possibly could all the way to the last game of the season, yet we had the best records in baseball. You had teams at the bottom that were trying to fight in for the Wild Card.

When you look at the league as a whole, everybody was really competitive all the way to the end. The format works. The format, obviously, keeps everybody on edge and keeps everybody trying to win all the way to the end.

As your question relates to expanded playoffs, that's a question that's really going to -- we're going to have to ask ourselves. Are there extra teams that missed the playoffs this year that, as a league, that we felt like should be in the playoffs because they really do have a chance to be able to win the World Series?

That's a question as Major League Baseball players in the game have to ask ourselves and really think about that question hard because we already have a good playoff system.

Q. What did you think of the expansion last year? Obviously, the whole year was an anomaly, but that first week of the eight series was a lot of fun. What did you think of that?

MAX SCHERZER: Personally, I didn't like it because, when you just bring baseball into a three-game series and you could be the best team and your season comes down to a three-game series, I don't like that format going forward for a 162-game season.

I understand we had to do that for 2020, but if we were to apply that format for 2021, even for the Giants or Dodgers or whoever are the best teams in baseball, hey, you did great, but now your season's down to three games. I don't think that's right.

So I think there's other formats available that we could possibly look at if we do want to go down to expanded playoffs, but at the same time, you have to be cognizant of that. We have a playoff format that works, and it works very well.

Q. The Dodgers have not lost a start that you made since coming over here. Going into a game that is win or go home, is that sort of a confidence booster for you?

MAX SCHERZER: You kind of throw all streaks, all stats, everything out the window. It's the playoff baseball. Anything can happen. I've seen baseball, some crazy things happen when you get into October baseball. All that stuff doesn't matter. It literally just matters to go out there and play your best baseball, and you need the whole team to play the best baseball. That's the only way you win these games.

Q. Max, you've been such a good fit since coming over. What is it about this team that you feel has just worked so well for you?

MAX SCHERZER: It's really the group that they have here. Just the guys, the coaches, the staff, the veterans, the young guys, and the chemistry they already had before I stepped foot in here. They have these guys out here for a reason. They have a good clubhouse out here.

Obviously, when Trea and I were able to come in here, we were able to blend in because the clubhouse and the chemistry had already existed. The fact we had known each other across the years playing against the Dodgers so many times. We just came in here with a win-first attitude, and that's what this organization is about. That's what made it so easy.