NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 16, 2021

Trea Turner

Truist Park

Los Angeles Dodgers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Atlanta Braves - 3, Los Angeles Dodgers - 2

Q. What kind made Fried and the rest of that bullpen challenging today?

TREA TURNER: They're good, man. Fried's got four or five, I guess, four pitches that are kind of unique. I feel like he throws differently than most left-handers. He's got a good amount of cut on that fastball and then another slider, curve ball to go with it. Obviously really good pitches. He's always a battle. I've faced him many times. He's always a battle.

But same thing in the bullpen. You know you got guys with power arms and good off-speed pitches, and like I keep saying, this time of year you face good arms. There's a reason why they're in the CS with us. It's because they have probably been pitching and hitting pretty well.

So at this time runs are a premium and they did a good job keeping us off-balance so move on tomorrow and try to get back after it.

Q. Following that up, I mean, I'm sure from the outside you guys were perceived as big favorites this series. Just as the team, though, as players, what did you guys think about the Braves coming into this series?

TREA TURNER: Anybody can win on any given day. It doesn't matter what the odds say or what the numbers say. You got to play the game. That's why the games are played.

So I'm a big believer in anything can happen, so I'm not surprised if somebody wins, loses, certain plays happen. That's baseball. Anything can happen and especially in the postseason.

Q. Both of your hits today came in two strike counts and I'm wondering if there's a thought behind your approach that's allowing you to collect those hits?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, for me, I think last year when I started striking out when I saw my numbers went up, and for me it's just putting the ball in play. Sometimes you're going to put it in play hard and sometimes you won't, but you if you put it in play you give yourself a chance to go to first base basically.

That's kind of my thought process is just get the ball in play, swing at strikes, take balls, make it tough on those opposing pitchers. Sometimes you find holes, sometimes you don't, but as long as you're putting the ball in play you have a chance.

Q. Do you feel like you're swing has just been getting big lately?

TREA TURNER: No. I feel like I'm not doing enough. I feel like I've been not aggressive enough and I feel like I swing and miss sometimes, but when I get two strikes I'll battle. But for me I need to take those chances. I need to be aggressive and I think when I'm aggressive I'll take balls and swing at strikes and I'll do what I need to, but I feel like in the last five, six games I feel like I haven't been aggressive enough.

Q. What have you seen with Austin Riley take his game over the last few years?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, crazy. Hats off to him. He's come a long way in a short time, I feel like. Even last year, I think that he didn't have all these tools. He can beat you in so many ways now, and he always had that power, but now he's putting together such good at-bats. He's hitting inside fastballs for homers, keeping them fair. He's staying on trying his slider. That's a tough at-bat as well.

So he's a good hitter. He's a polished hitter and hats off to him because I think he's gotten to the point where he's been a really good player and there's a reason why fans are chanting MVP for him.

Q. Just based off of what you just said and not feeling that you're doing enough, per se, do you feel like today was a step in the right direction, though, for you offensively?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, for sure. For me, it's not about going 2-4, 4-4, 0-4. It's about kind of your process throughout the day. You can hit four balls hard and to me then you got to move on to the next day and say, I did my job, and I might be 0-4, but I did my job.

So as long as my process is good and I feel like my work's good and my at-bats are what I want them to be, then I can live with the outcome. And like I said, sometimes you're going to get lucky and hit the ball in the right spot, sometimes you're going to get unlucky and hit the ball right at somebody, but you got to have a short memory in this game.

Q. You talked about being aggressive you were aggressive in that Matzek at-bat. How much of that was just him maybe making good pitches in your mind versus something else?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, I think might have been a little bit too aggressive, but I'm okay with that, because that's what I told myself I wanted to do. So, kind of like I just spoke to, if will tell myself to be aggressive and then I'm taking pitches right down the middle, them I'm obviously not accomplishing what I want to accomplish. So, yeah, he made some good pitches, I swung at some balls. Obviously I would like to have that one, that at-bat back, but kind of a different look than I saw in the past. Normally I feel like he's throwing fastballs up, kind of went to fastballs down right there, so just a little bit different look and he got me.

Q. You guys obviously had some late rallies in the Wild Card game, Game 5. Does that sort of give you guys, did that give you guys confidence coming into the 9th inning, especially when you see CT get on, have Bellinger have that ball go down?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, I think today for me personally I was a lot more positive, I guess I just felt like we had people on base constantly. I mean, we, I think we out hit them, they just out scored us, which is part of the game. But when you have people on base, good things happen, just a matter of getting that one more hit and getting those hits with runners in scoring position. But offensively I thought we did a lot better job today than we did last series so that's something to build on, something to be positive about.