MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

October 31, 2021

Luke Jackson

Will Smith

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. Everyone says take it one day at a time, but at the same time, tell us what the feeling is in there. It's got to be different than any other day or previous day.

WILL SMITH: We're just going to take it one day at a time (laughter).

For real, I thought about last night, even after what we went through with the Dodgers, having a 3-1 lead, I think it taught us to never take our foot off the gas, and everybody in that clubhouse understands that.

We obviously love the position we're in, but we definitely know there's still a bunch of work to do, and we've got to go out and play a clean baseball game tonight against a really good baseball team.

Q. Luke, as somebody who's been through your own ups and downs, when you see what Kyle Wright did last night, how happy were you for him?

LUKE JACKSON: Man, he's at a point in his career where he knew how good he was. I think a lot of it was building up to that moment. For him to get the monkey off his back to prove he's got the stuff, he can pitch here. He's going to be a big part of this organization for a long time. To do it on the biggest stage in the world, you can't beat something like that.

Q. Will, Snit told us the other day he hasn't made a lot of speeches during this run. Can you talk about what he's like in terms of how he's managed the helm, so to speak, especially with the various adversities you guys have faced this season?

WILL SMITH: He's been an old-school skipper. His door is always open to talk to, but he doesn't come in with rah-rah speeches and things like that. He knows we're pros inside that room, and we kind of police ourselves and show up every day to work and do our best to win the game that day.

We all love playing for Snit. He's the kind of guy that, when he does talk, we do listen. He doesn't talk that often, which is fine by us.

Q. For both of you guys, there's been a lot of talk this month about the death of the starting pitcher and bullpenning. There was a lot of talk when Ian left the game with a no-hitter the other night. I'm wondering, as two relievers, how do you feel about the way the game has developed where there's far more emphasis on relief pitching?

LUKE JACKSON: I mean, you can say starters are getting cut short or bullpens are getting extended. It's one of those things, is it good for us in the bullpen? I guess. We have a job now, which is kind of cool.

We're all ready to pitch every night. Whether that's the third inning to the ninth inning, take the ball when the ball's given to us, especially in the postseason where we put the work in to get ready for this time of year to be able to throw every day, day in and day out.

I don't know anybody who can't -- like adrenaline's carrying you whether you feel good or not. We're texting each other at 4:30 in the morning looking at each other like I can't sleep. I'm wired. This is it. Then just starting pitching in general, we have some young guys right now, and I know Ian was throwing an incredible game. That was Snit's decision, I heard. It worked out for both parties.

Maybe it's huge he kept his pitch count down and he's ready to rock and roll for Game 7.

Q. Does it bother you that the game is different than the one you guys presumably grew up watching, in terms of the style?

WILL SMITH: No, as long as we win, we don't really care.

Q. When someone comes into the team like Tucker pitching tonight, do you talk to him before, give him advice? Do you give him a wide berth and try to avoid him and not say anything?

WILL SMITH: No, he's kind of loose right now. He actually walked in and said good morning, and we're like, Tucker, it's 3:15, so good afternoon. He's the way he is. We've got a loose group. Nobody is going to put a ton of pressure on themselves. We know what we have to do. It's as simple as that.

We've all played a nine-inning baseball game where we won before. So let's try to do it again.

Q. What did you guys say to him when he arrived in Houston? You probably haven't seen him since June?

WILL SMITH: What's up, Tucker. Welcome. (Laughter.) We need to win four games.

Q. Are there different levels of nerves? Your Big League debut, playoff debut, World Series debut, and then what Dylan went through yesterday and Tucker is going to go through tonight. What are the expectations for somebody in this moment who's never done it?

LUKE JACKSON: I guess that's what make it special. You set no expectation. You go out there and just be you, and I think that's something Kyle Wright -- he's got unbelievable stuff. There's no expectations. You go out there and pitch your game. Me versus you. Here we go, it's like any day.

Don't get me wrong. You've probably got a lot of nerves going on, and Tuck's got a lot of nerves going on. But you sign up for it. It comes with the territory.

Q. Luke, last night we got several different versions of the Rosario catch at the wall from Brian and from Jorge and from the man himself. What was your feel of the whole thing?

LUKE JACKSON: I mean, at first I thought like, okay, fly ball to left -- because I saw him reach out a little bit for it. Then he kept getting closer to the wall, closer to the wall. And I don't have good eyesight in general, so I have no idea even if he caught the ball or not. But I saw him jump up. I saw Dansby put his hands up. I was like, yeah, third in line on the reaction.

You know, he's a good hitter. I tip my cap. What a play by Rosario. I think that's why he's got the nickname Super Rosario right now.

Q. Will, growing up a Braves fan, do you have any memories of 1995?

WILL SMITH: I was on family vacation in Panama City, Florida. Like I was young. I just remember my dad being super excited when Marquis Grissom caught the last out. I knew they won, but I was still too young.

Q. Who were some of your Braves favorite players growing up? How often did you come to games?

WILL SMITH: We came pretty often. As a kid growing up pitcher in Atlanta, you can't beat John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddox. Those are three pretty good guys to grow up watching. That's a fond memory of mine, watching Braves games with my dad.

Q. As a closer, you have a chance maybe tonight to be on the mound, like Mark Wohlers was for that fly ball. Have you ever allowed yourself, in your years here in Atlanta, to think about what that might feel like?

WILL SMITH: No. At the end of catch sometimes, we play a little game -- Luke knows what I'm talking about. We play a little game, it comes to that, and you say it out loud. It's 3-2, Game 7 of the World Series. You've got to throw a strike. Catch is over. That's a little game we play all year.

That's the closest we've got to thinking of the situation. But it's a game that pitchers play to lock yourself in during catch and work on throwing strikes, is say that out loud.

Q. Is it fair to say that the integration of all these different guys who came during the season, plus a guy like Heredia that gets called up, have all played critical parts in making this, it seems like a pretty rare chemistry you guys have and how good it is. Has everybody played a part, do you think?

LUKE JACKSON: 100 percent, one body, one heart, right? That's like some saying. But everyone gels. Everyone gels really good. Tip my cap to AA. Every single guy he's brought into this clubhouse has been awesome, from the bullpen being brotherhood to the hype we needed off the bench to the shock value of Joc Pederson, who's just brought some power off the bench and been an absolute beast in the clubhouse and Soler being there.

Every guy, I think, that came to this team played a huge part of us getting here. Whether they play every day, whether they come off the bench, whether they're hype men in the dugout, whether they're this or that. It takes a whole army to get here.

Q. There's been a whole example of teams that have famously had bad chemistry and still won, but how important do you think it is for you guys wanting to come to the ballpark every day and wanting to be around your teammates? How important do you think that is to you winning?

WILL SMITH: It's huge. That's something analytics never can have a hand in is chemistry and getting along with each other. We legitimately love each other in that clubhouse. We say it out loud. It's fun to come to work. We love being in the clubhouse. You've got to be sharp. You've got to be witty. It's a battle in there, but it's fun.

Q. You were talking earlier about how Snit is an old-school skipper. I wonder how you all benefit from the link, the deep roots he has with this organization, the kind of history he brings to the room and what that means to you all?

WILL SMITH: I think he shows it every night. We run out the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth inning guy every night, whether Luke has a bad one or I have a bad one, Luke is still going to throw the seventh or eighth inning, and Skip's going to believe in him until it's really not going well.

LUKE JACKSON: Thank you.

WILL SMITH: You're welcome, buddy. Catch, partner. I had rough stints throughout the whole year where some people thought I should lose my job, this and that. Snit stuck with me and kept running me out there, and I'm grateful for it. I finally figured it out, and I was happy for it.

Q. What about from an organizational standpoint? Just the length of time he's been wearing that uniform.

WILL SMITH: Like 40-something -- over 40 years, right? He's a Brave through and through. He's a Brave for life. He's probably going to be the person that's the most happy if we pull this thing out.

Q. You guys have very drastic home-road splits as a pitching staff as a whole. Is there anything you can pinpoint to for why you're so much better here at home?

WILL SMITH: Sleep in your own bed?

LUKE JACKSON: Yeah, I mean, maybe the fans, they're awesome. We bring the heat here. I don't know if you -- it's freezing cold weather, and we're getting loud. I think a lot of bullpen guys thrive off of just some good energy, and this fan base has been there through and through.

Q. Will, compared to that night in Panama City when Marquis Grissom made the last out, what's your dad's level of Braves fandom now? And how does he handle the stress of the night?

WILL SMITH: Not well. He's just like any other parent. He was just as nervous when I was a senior in high school as I am a 32-year-old on the mound now. I think that's just every parent gene in their body.

But he's obviously having the time of his life. When we do win, him and my mom both, and we came off the stage after clinching -- to go to the World Series, the first thing my mom said to me when she was crying is this has been your dream since you were a little kid.

She's right. It's a family thing for us. Being from Georgia, I get to see my family a lot more, and I'm grateful for that, getting to play in front of them a lot more. So, yeah, my family's kind of going nuts right now.

Q. You guys have gotten really deep in the playoffs two years in a row with a lot of different arms, going about it a lot of different ways. To the extent that you can share, what's kind of the secret sauce here that enables you guys to execute at the level you have the last few years?

LUKE JACKSON: Don't get me wrong. It's probably not my question to answer because I wasn't on the roster last year, last postseason. I struggled, and they made the right choice. I wish I was there, but I wasn't.

These guys -- our hitting has been unbelievable. We lost two of our best hitters last year. Some people stepped up to get us here, but I think, when it gets to the postseason or when it gets to the division, I think we have just this we are not going to lose to the Phillies, we are not going to lose to the Mets.

It's just one of those -- I don't know, it's in us. If it comes down to the wire, it comes down to the wire, but we have just some grit and a little like cutthroat mentality that it's just like we're here to play.

We're a division team. We're a team that's going to go into the postseason. And once you get to the postseason, it's all hands on deck.

Q. Will, what was baseball like growing up here? It seems like there's so many kids from Georgia of your generation kind of who became great baseball players. We see Dansby last night, talking to him, you, see them all around. What was the atmosphere here growing up with baseball that made that happen?

WILL SMITH: I don't know. We get pretty good weather year round here. So we're able to play more than kids up north.

LUKE JACKSON: Really good.

WILL SMITH: I don't know. If being in the south, we like to play baseball down here, baseball and football. I don't know.

Q. Luke, we haven't talked to you since the end of Game 3, where Matzek said that you didn't know you were in the middle of a no-hitter when you took to the mound. After he gave up the hit, you kind of gave him some trash talk. Does that go to the chemistry of this team a little bit?

LUKE JACKSON: Yeah, I told him the reason we're not in the Hall of Fame is because of him. We would have been in the Hall of Fame --

WILL SMITH: I did that.

LUKE JACKSON: Will kind of secured that and ruined my, hey, I could have fun a little bit. Yeah, I think that's part of why we are who we are. I think from the second I walk into the clubhouse until I leave, someone's making fun of somebody, and if it's not, something's not right.

So I think from day one of Spring Training on the first golf outing to the last game when we win this World Series is going to be just, Matzek, go find the ice cream machine or something like that. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's just something that just we -- it's like the big brother-little brother throughout the whole clubhouse, and I think that's a special part.

Q. With Snit, what has he taught you about playing the game? And what are a couple of things he's done or said that have cracked you up?

WILL SMITH: I don't know.

Snit's Snit. You just never know what you're going to get with him, I guess. Things he said that have cracked us up? I don't know. I got nothing.

We don't mean this in a bad way, but he's never like really around in the clubhouse. Like he just kind of lets us do our thing. Each round we've gone through, he's had a speech before we've thrown champagne everywhere. Honestly, for the most part, we don't really see Skip until the game starts, and that's not in a bad way at all. He trusts his coaching staff, and you guys go do your thing, and I'll see you at the end of the high-five line.

LUKE JACKSON: When he talks, he genuinely cares. He's one of those people that genuinely cares about you, and not really just baseball. You can see how he handles his grandkids. The other night I brought my son into the clubhouse for the first time, and I think he almost teared up he was so pumped to see family and people together.

You know he's pulling for you whether you're on the mound doing good or doing bad, he's pulling for you. That's the most out of a manager you can ask.

Q. You've given us great descriptions over the years of how guys have been pitching, playing, whatever. Tell us about Matzek, tell us about how well Will has been pitching this last month or last six weeks or whatever.

LUKE JACKSON: That's my catch partner, and you can't put words on it. I've seen all these stats and all these crazy things of him tying Mariano Rivera and things he's doing in the postseason, but I'm just absolutely mind blown watching him do his job. Like that 3-2 fastball last night, I have like chills thinking about it. Stuff like that is pretty cool.

I've watched him, yeah, ups and downs throughout the year, and I think the reason he's on the mound tonight is because unwavering. The flag keeps flying, and he just keeps running out there and brings the same stuff every day. He's got the most conviction behind any pitch of anyone I've ever met. That's why we're here today.