NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 23, 2021

Eddie Rosario

Freddie Freeman

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Postgame 6 Press Conference

Atlanta Braves - 4, Los Angeles Dodgers - 2

Q. You said that the dream was going to keep getting better. How close is this to that ultimate dream?

EDDIE ROSARIO: It's truly a great moment, not just in my career, but in my life as well, but I want more. I want to win the World Series.

Q. Just what does it mean to you to have that trophy there and be the MVP of the series?

EDDIE ROSARIO: I always believed in myself. I always knew that I could win a MVP trophy like this and it was something I always hoped for, regardless of what anyone said or thought of me.

But, like I said before, I want more. Also, this is obviously my greatest accomplishment of my career so far, this trophy and this award, so it's something to definitely be proud of.

Q. How does it feel to be in a line of great players from Puerto Rico but currently so many other guys have kind of got more attention than you, how good does it feel to be recognized as the best player in this series?

EDDIE ROSARIO: Yeah, it feels great. I feel like I've had a good first half of my career. I feel like I was vying for two All Star appearances. I feel like I deserved them. That didn't happen, so I kept just vying for the next award or accolade and this was it.

But that's just the way I play. I wanted to illustrate the type of ballplayer that I am and showcase that I am capable of doing these things and I'm just going to keep doing that and giving my best effort to the team and whatever I'm doing.

Q. Just to follow up, how good does it feel to hear your name chanted Eddie, Eddie, just as loud as Freddie, Freddie next to you?

EDDIE ROSARIO: (Laughing.) It motivates me. It motivates me to come through in big moments. That's something you have to earn. I feel like it was something that I had in Minnesota. And it's definitely an advantage. You know, I feel like, you know, the pitcher hears a little bit and it almost forces him to throw the pitch you want to see.

Q. Freddie, how good does this feel, and is it better because you did have to go through that rebuild, you had to go through some tough postseasons here and there?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, this feels pretty good. I think this might be the definition of pure joy. It really is. I really don't, it hasn't hit me at all. I don't really know how to feel. Usually we're sitting in our locker, you know, and just like just thinking about the whole season and getting ready for next year, and we actually did it.

Going from 97 losses six years ago to doing this, it's special, and to lose, in my opinion, the best player in the National League and we're up here going to the World Series without Ronald Acuña Jr., it's amazing what this team did.

Q. Freddie, you would have been happy clinching the pennant anywhere, obviously, but Snit said this was kind of the perfect night and the perfect setting for, to do it here in front of these fans and to have the ceremony on the field, what did that mean to you?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, to do it in front of you are home fans, obviously we wanted to do it in Game 5. Let's be honest. But to come back home, and it's just, you guys know, we've heard the questions for a couple days of 3-1 last year, this and that, and to just kill it real fast, that's, in front our fans. They had the mariachi bands going and they had all their things going the last three games, so it was nice to come home and have our fans be on our side.

You know, what he did this series, I mean it's historic. To come up in that situation and hit a three-run home run with two outs it's really unheard of. It seems like every -- even his out his last at-bat was a bullet, so hopefully these two off-days go quick so we can get going again (laughing).

Q. Freddie, you've always been known as an aggressive team, hitting and otherwise, but did Eddie ratchet that up another gear or two?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: I think we've been aggressive the whole time, and Eddie just came right in. For him to go right into the lead-off five days ago or six days ago and just to keep doing it and then he gets moved to the 5 hole and still does it and goes back to the lead-off hole, we're a very aggressive team. We're aggressive on heaters, and that was our plan and approach today too, to get on his heater and, well, he's been doing it his whole career, so he was just, he's just been a perfect fit for us.

Q. Eddie, when you were acquired you were hurt. The team was still under .500. At what point in time, either while you were rehabbing or when you came back and joined the roster, did you feel like this team had what it took to get to the World Series?

EDDIE ROSARIO: Everything goes in phases. Everything moves in phases and so when I first got here it felt like the phase that we were in as a team was just trying to fight for that first place spot in the Division and just trying to battle away to winning Division and getting in the playoffs or whatever.

And as far as for me, I'm a very competitive person, so I knew right away that I wanted to come in and sort of set the bar in that sense and just keep fighting for the team and set the tone in that sense.

Q. Freddie, we keep talking about what Alex did there at the trade deadline, but now that you guys are here, is it safe to say that's one of the greatest trade deadlines in MLB history?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: I'm going to go with yes (laughing). To pick up -- well, what he did like before the trade deadline too, getting Joc, and just letting us know that we believe in you, and losing Ronald at the All-Star break and then what he did getting him, getting Adam back, getting Richard who helped us tremendously, Jorge, I would have to say yes. I mean, we had to pick up Ronald, and it feels like everyone on the team picked it up in the second half. I mean, it's two different teams, really, from the first half to the second half, if you really look at it. And then it took I think it was a month for, around a month --

EDDIE ROSARIO: A month.

FREDDIE FREEMAN: -- until he came too.

So we just had little weapons waiting in the wings all over the place and then we unleashed them and here we are sitting in the World Series.

Q. Those teams in the '90s were some confident teams with a lot of veterans and all that, but it feels like this team might even have more confidence or swagger, as today's term, than any of the Braves teams in the past. It feels like you guys never doubted yourselves even when everybody else did these last few days especially.

FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, I just think it's because of what we overcame this year. I mean, we have had like 40-foot potholes that we've hit, like humongous speed bumps, everything you could possibly see in a road we hit it, and we still somehow overcame all that. And I think that's what is what this team has is anything we got thrown at us, we overcame it.

I mean, you saw it. We lost Jorge, our leadoff hitter the last three weeks of the season right before the series, and we're just like, okay, here we go, let's just figure this out and keep going and I think that's the thing. And everyone just looks at overall record. It's just been how this team has played in the second half is what made us feel this confident about ourselves and what we've overcome. It's just kind of the whole thing that put it all together to make us feel the way we feel.

Q. Freddie, being here your entire career and having the ups and downs and the heartbreak in the postseason, did you ever allow for self-doubt to kind of creep in and be like, is this ever going to happen for me?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: No, not for that. Every single year you come into spring training expecting to get to the World Series. That's been my goal every single year. You never self-doubt. You just see what this team has done the last four years and you could see what was coming through those rebuild years too and you just get excited.

Then you start winning and you win the Division, you win the Division, you get to the NLCS last year, and then you get back to the playoffs again this year with everything we overcame, you never self-doubt because, I mean, it is extremely hard to get here, obviously. Well, some of these young guys might not think so. But it's been a crazy journey, the ups and downs, and it's, no self-doubt ever because this is, you expect to get here every single year until it doesn't happen.

Q. Freddie, the resiliency of the squad, just really battling back when people threw a punch, you guys always found a way to throw a counter-punch, where does that come from and is that based off of the leadership of the guys that are in the locker room and how does that help feed down to the younger players as they're going through this process?

FREDDIE FREEMAN: I think that's just a collective whole as a team. The guys in that clubhouse, in our clubhouse, just, it doesn't matter what -- I think this whole year showed what the word resilience means, I mean, from pretty much day one, you know, the first month of the season we lost, Ozuna had his deal, you had d'Arnaud we lost for three months, we lost Acuña, we were expecting Soroka to be in April.

We just kept getting back up and just kept hitting punches back and I think that's just the collective whole as a unit that we have. It's just these guys, after last year, you could just taste it, and we let it get away losing the 3-1 lead and we came back and we had to deal with the questions and we took that down real fast and I think that's just the group we have and that's the character we have.