NL DIVISION SERIES: BREWERS VS BRAVES

October 8, 2021

Rowdy Tellez

Corbin Burnes

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Brewers - 2, Braves - 1

Q. Playing baseball as a kid how, often do you picture that moment? And do you ever think something like that is going to happen when you're 10 years old playing in the backyard?

ROWDY TELLEZ: Yeah, that's what you hope for. Most of the time when you practice it's the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded. It's a good feeling right there.

But it couldn't have happened without the way we pitched tonight. That was the key to the game. Good defensive plays, pitching staff. Everybody played well, everybody played hard. It's playoff baseball.

If you make a mistake, we've got to capitalize. And, like I said, our pitching allowed us to do that.

Q. Corbin, in that first inning, I think you were 17 pitches in when Omar came out, first and third. First of all, what do you talk about in that situation? And what do you tell yourself to sort of make the pitch you need to make to get the ground ball you got?

CORBIN BURNES: We were just trying to do too much early on. We were really searching for anything to just get ahead in the count, to get an out.

We didn't really settle in with a cutter until probably the third or fourth inning when we kind of got the feel for it. We were scrambling, using the slider, curveball, the change-up, just something to try to get some weak contact and get an out.

Happened to throw a good cutter get it in to Ozzie and pulled it to Rowdy, and Rowdy made a great play. Without that play that's obviously going to be a couple runs and that changes the momentum of that game. It was a great play.

And I mean Charlie threw his butt off. You've got to tip the cap to him. He punched out nine through five innings and then we finally got to him there in the seventh.

But, yeah, great defensive plays tonight. One big swing there by Rowdy to get the lead and then fantastic job by Houser in the spot he's not normally in. And then Hader to come in, close the door.

Q. Rowdy looked like you may have fouled it off right before the homer. Did you break the bat on that play? And what was going through your mind as you went back to the dugout right before that homer?

ROWDY TELLEZ: I don't know if I broke that bat. I just saw something fly off of it. I was, like, I need all the help I can get right now. I walked back, and the bat boy didn't even realize. I kind of just collected my breath and calmed myself got back in the box and I said -- kept my foot down. And just see the pitch and hit the ball hard. That's all I wanted to do.

Charlie did throw a great game. Punched a lot of us out. Had good stuff. And he made one mistake and we were able to get to him.

He hit Avi and that allowed to us have a runner on with nobody out. That takes pressure off of people and that adds pressure to the pitcher.

So -- I still can't really breathe. I'm still out of breath. It was a crazy moment. But we played good all the way around. That's Brewers baseball. Fans are back. It's awesome to have fans back. We have such a strong fan base. We can't say thank you enough to them.

Q. Corbin, the play that Rowdy made on the throw home, how big was that play just to help you get out of that inning considering the runners on at that point?

CORBIN BURNES: So postseason baseball is all about momentum. I think we've seen that in the couple wild-card games and the couple of the division series we've seen so far. When one team gets the momentum going it's tough to stop that and it's tough to kind of turn it around.

So, Rowdy making that play there obviously gave us the momentum, but it stopped their momentum. They had first and third nobody out. It could have escalated quickly for them.

So that, a great play there, stopped their momentum, and kind of shifted it back in our direction. But obviously with the way Charlie threw it was tough to get anything going until the seventh inning.

Q. Rowdy, what about that pick and tag that Omar made on that play? Sometimes it's not easy to make a pick with a catcher's mitt and he made a great play?

ROWDY TELLEZ: That was the key to the play. I made a terrible throw. I've got a good catcher back there; he's an All-Star for that reason. Made a great tag.

That whole play doesn't happen without him. You guys giving me credit for that, I don't know why. But he made the great play.

That's something that a lot of people are going to overlook. And that's something that we as a group of guys in that clubhouse are going to know, everybody has each other's backs, whether it's a big at-bat or some play on defense. That's the name of the game, especially for us is we're going to have each other's backs.

Q. You talked about the fans, the energy. How rewarding was it for you to reward them for what they brought throughout this game? And your emotions walking out of the box, you kind of stopped there for a second [inaudible]?

ROWDY TELLEZ: They always talk about blacking out or being unconscious. That's what it was. I had that moment. As soon as it left the bat I knew. And I kind of did the (indiscernible) blackout and flipped the bat and started jogging. It was cool. It's crazy. Getting a standing ovation, hearing a whole, full stadium chant your name, that's a special feeling.

Q. You talked about searching early for what was working. When you think about getting out through six innings tonight, is that the culmination of the last few years of your development? In other words, is there a point in your career where maybe where that doesn't happen and you don't get out into that game?

CORBIN BURNES: Possibly. When I'm out there I'm trying to go as deep in the game as I can. But I think you've got to give credit to Omar for continually trying to mix it up and find something that we can go to, just to get any sort of momentum going, something to get ahead early.

He tried a couple times to kind of settle things down. It was one of those things that we're searching and searching. Finally things clicked and we were able to get pitches in the zone that we needed to.

They're an aggressive offense. That was kind of the key tonight was to try to play off of that. We were just trying to do too much early on. And then we kind of were able to set it down a little bit.

And I don't know how many we retired in a row but we had some great plays behind us. And it was just a matter of time before someone got a big knock, whether it was us or them. And I'm obviously excited that it was Rowdy.

Q. Corbin, you know how it is for someone like Adrian to do something differently all of a sudden after a whole season. What do you think what he was able to do with those couple of innings tonight?

CORBIN BURNES: That was awesome. I don't know when the last time Houser had thrown in a situation like that. But I think he threw a seven-pitch seventh inning. And the way that lineup shaped up, I think it was perfect with his sinker just to get a ton of ground balls.

So that was -- I think that was probably, as far as I'm concerned, the biggest performance of the night was Houser going in and bridging that gap to Hader.

Q. Corbin, you've been dominant all season but for you to look up at the scoreboard and see zeros after six innings walking off that mound, how important was that to you knowing how big a spot this was for you in your career?

CORBIN BURNES: Career-wise, for me it's another game. For me it was more important to go out and give everything I had for the guys in that dugout and that clubhouse. We worked our butt off all year and to get to this point to try to get Game 1 in this series was going to be huge.

I was doing whatever I could out there trying to find something just to keep trying to throw up zeros just to give us a chance to win. And eventually we got that opportunity.

Q. Rowdy, when did you notice that Soler was taking off on third in that play in the first inning? And did it catch you by surprise or were you expecting it?

ROWDY TELLEZ: Those are things you kind of, instinctual things that you really just don't think about it. Freddie Freeman is a smart baserunner. I know that ball was hit up towards the line. I had to just step on the bag. And to turn and throw at that angle was going to be tough, so as soon as he hit it I wanted to peek up and see if Soler was going and he was.

He took off and he's not the best runner. I don't know what kind of jump he had but Omar made a great play on a terrible throw. And it was something you kind of really don't think about. It just came up, made a throw, and ended up getting out of that and that was huge for us, our momentum as Burnesy just said, it switched it. That turned it for us.

We knew that we got out of a jam right there and we just left it all on the field and left it to the pitching staff and they did their job.