NL DIVISION SERIES: BREWERS VS BRAVES

October 9, 2021

Ozzie Albies

Austin Riley

American Family Field

Atlanta Braves

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Braves - 3, Brewers - 0

Q. How good was Max tonight, and how did that compare to what he was down the stretch?

AUSTIN RILEY: I thought he was phenomenal, all you could ask for. He came out, pounded the zone. He's been doing that since the All-Star break. I felt like that just built off of what he's done since then.

Q. What do you say about that gutsy performance from Max tonight in both those innings?

OZZIE ALBIES: Max went out there and just do what he do best, is attack the hitters. And they missed a couple of pitches in the zone. For him, a lefty to go against all those righties and take care of business, like we said, it was everything we wanted. Those four outs were really important for us tonight.

AUSTIN RILEY: Yeah, I mean, you can't say enough. The bulldog in the fight. Just kept wanting the ball, getting out there and just saying here it is, basically. And he did that. And I can't say enough good things about that.

Q. Obviously you've done this all year, but how difficult was it to come back from a difficult loss yesterday where the offense was struggling and just kind of come in like you did (indiscernible).

AUSTIN RILEY: I think those two pitchers are really good. And when guys are on, it's tough to score runs. It really is. We didn't get down. Came back today, faced another good pitcher. Kind of moved -- one down the lineup and kept going. And we were able to come out on top.

OZZIE ALBIES: That's exactly what we did. We got those opportunities today again. And we didn't do what we did last night. We took advantage of it and put those runners up. That's why we came out huge for us today to win the game.

Q. You guys have seen Will Smith enough times now get in and out of these jams. Do you guys feel confident when he gets the first two runners on like that, that he can still get out of this with what he's done?

OZZIE ALBIES: Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. It's part of the game sometimes, too. I mean, he put those two runners on and then got those three outs and get us the W. That's what he does best. He goes and compete. He's not going to have any doubts on himself. He's just going to go attack the hitters. You do what you want with the ball.

AUSTIN RILEY: I mean, 30-plus saves, I think that says enough. He goes out there and shuts the door and that's what he did tonight.

Q. Looked like you were doing push-ups after.

OZZIE ALBIES: Yeah, because I hit the ball and it hit the top of the fence.

AUSTIN RILEY: Workouts tomorrow.

OZZIE ALBIES: Tomorrow's an off day. I might work out from 8.00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. That ball has to go out.

Q. Kind of going back to that, Soler gets you started. What did you see from Woodruff that inning? And Craig was just in here talking about how good of a pitch you hit. Just kind of take us maybe through the inning, and what did you see in your at-bat?

OZZIE ALBIES: He threw me back-to-back change-ups. And he threw one that was in the strike zone and I fouled it off. I said he's probably going back with off-speed right here. I was kind of sitting off-speed. I know it was a ball, but I'm a small guy. I hit low balls a lot. So I put a good swing on it and good things happened.