NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 20, 2021

Max Fried

Dodger Stadium

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. So I was talking to you yesterday. We went over to Harvard-Westlake Upper School. I talked with your coach, Matt LaCour, and he shared a funny story with me about you and Lucas Giolito kind of being the class clowns in your cinematography class. Can you share what it was like for you and the moment between you guys?

MAX FRIED: Yeah. We had a class, it was like one of our, it was like first period. So I showed up to school at like 8:00, but it's, the teacher was like a really big baseball fan, and we watched movies. We would dissect them and talk about how they're made and stuff like that and it was a pretty laid back class. But, yeah, we just my senior year I showed up and we were just trying to have a good time and just trying to, just get through senior year pretty much.

Q. He also mentioned that you go there a lot and you will work out there, you'll talk to the teammates, you'll visit your favorite teachers. So how special is that school to you and what you do you enjoy the most about going and still talking to the program and the kids mentoring them?

MAX FRIED: They, Harvard-Westlake was a school that kind of took me in when I had nowhere to go. Junior year, my school, Montclair Prep, shut down and ended all extra curricular activities. So in the middle of summer to scramble for a school and to have them be able to kind of take me in when I had nowhere to go, it obviously meant a lot, and giving me a place to go and everyone was so welcoming. So for me it was a really nice experience.

Q. I asked you about your friends the other day. How about just Reggie Smith, specifically, what have those conversations been like over the last week?

MAX FRIED: I haven't talked to Reggie recently, but he's someone that I can always go to and I can always reach out to, and he's probably been one of the biggest influences on me baseball-wise, just my base knowledge of the game and learning from him and listening to the countless stories that he has about playing here and all the other places that he played.

So I would say the, when it comes to, when it comes to that relationship with him, we talked about the mental side of baseball. He also helps me kind of get to the base foundation of my mechanics and stuff that we've been working on since I've been five, six, seven years old. So he's someone that if I ever get out of the whack or start to get off the rails, he's always there to kind of get me back on track.

Q. What was the mood, for lack of a better word, coming in the clubhouse today, same as always? You guys have had a penchant for coming back from disappointing losses during the season and not letting it affect you at all. Is that even in the postseason the same way?

MAX FRIED: Yeah. We went out there and we gave it everything we had and it just didn't work out. This is a good team, a good player made a great play. So you tip your hat and know that you got to come out here and win today's game. Whatever happened in the past can't change it, no matter what the outcome, and you just got to kind of keep your head down and just get ready for today.

Q. As a fellow starter how impressive was what Charlie did yesterday after that first inning he had to settle in and throw five innings?

MAX FRIED: Those are the starts that you remember and that you appreciate as a teammate and someone that goes through it. To see kind of the start, obviously walk, home run, and than a couple walks to be able to get out of it with no runs after that, and then to be able to kind of settle in and then kind of have his best stuff at the end of the outing, to be able to kind of shut it down, especially when we took the lead, that gives a big boost to the guys, not only the starters being able to support, but to the bullpen knowing that it might be a long day to have him go from, hey, we're getting up early to eating five innings so we only have to cover four more.

It's a big boost for the guys and to see someone not have their best stuff, to be able to fight and to keep us in the game, it's really honestly all you can ask for.

Q. Snit just let us know that it will be Jesse Chavez getting this one kind of off the ground for you guys. I know he's had an interesting journey throughout his career. How would you describe him just as a teammate, his personality, and what he's meant to this ball club from a chemistry standpoint?

MAX FRIED: He's one of the guys that's always kind of loose and really, he's really loose and just like happy to be here. He's always got a really great attitude, the same guy every day. Obviously with his experience, he's been in the big leagues for, you know, 13, 14 years, so to be able to have that kind of person that's done starting and relieving, bounced around, has experienced a lot, for a lot of the younger guys, he's someone we can go to and ask questions and bounce ideas off of, and being able to really just trying to soak in whatever he's been able to experience. He's been just really awesome and since he's been around he's been a big lift to our club.

Q. Wondering what the ticket requests has been for friends and family for tomorrow for your start. Has it, can you give us a ballpark on how many are going to be here?

MAX FRIED: It's a decent amount. I haven't gotten the exact number, but I've been definitely having to try to ask around for some extra tickets.

Q. What does it say about how your team has managed that Charlie was allowed to hit yesterday in that situation when most teams would not have allowed that, and also that he showed faith in him by sending him back out there, what does that mean, what does that show about how your team is managed and also what do you take from that when you go out to the mound?

MAX FRIED: For us you want to go out there and lay everything out on the line and I think that Snit let's us do that. We try to be as honest as we can about how we're feeling in the moment and he takes that into account with the situation and he's going to try to do what's best for the team always. To be able to have him have that faith in Charlie to take that at-bat and then go out and put up another zero, it's really big and when you get those opportunities you know that you don't want to waste them and you want to make the most of it. So to be able to have that as an option, it's, it gives a really big lift to your guys and to know that, like, Hey, we have the faith in you.

Q. How does it feel to be the ace of the staff when the last generation of starters here are all in the Hall of Fame and you're kind of like picking it up for them and what would it be like to have that kind of staff to be the anchor on this time around?

MAX FRIED: I would say that we have a bunch of different guys that can shoulder the load. I don't think it's on any one person. We have got three, right now three, and three really good starters that are going out there and giving us opportunity to win every time. You can't, as a pitcher and a starting pitcher, you only get one out of over four or five days that you can really go out there and affect the game, so it's, you make the most of those opportunities. And for us it's really big on the support that we give each other, knowing that we're trying to lift each other up. So I would say that the support that we have with not only the starting rotation but also the bullpen to be able to pick each other up when we need to is probably really big for us.

Q. What about the legacy of pitching for a team that had Glavine, Smoltz and Maddux in another generation?

MAX FRIED: It's something that you obviously know when you get here and it's a big part of the legacy of this franchise. They were able to do some really amazing and incredible things in this game, and to kind of have that as something to look up to, it gives you kind of a -- what's the word -- it gives you a kind of like a route or kind of like a road map of what to expect and the expectations of this organization, to be able to go out there and win games and play meaningful games in October.