AL WILD CARD SERIES: MARINERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 7, 2022

George Springer

Rogers Centre

Toronto Blue Jays

Pregame Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with George Springer.

Q. Hi, George. This isn't your first rodeo in the playoffs, but it is your first time in the crowded Rogers Centre in the playoffs. How do you expect that's going to be? How much have you thought about what the atmosphere is going to be like? Have you looked back on the Bautista and Encarnacion walk-offs and bat flips?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I think everyone that's played the game has seen those. You've seen the pictures. You've seen the highlights of what seems to be just kind of what looks like an earthquake.

Yeah, obviously us as players understand the atmosphere, understand what that was like. We're looking forward to getting back out there, with being home and in our home ballpark.

Q. Ross St. Jean yesterday talked about leadership, how important it would be with leadership like Vladdy and Bo. Any last-minute tip for them today?

GEORGE SPRINGER: Just have fun, enjoy it. Again, you never know if you're going to get back here. You never know if you're going to be in a playoff race ever again. So for us to be home, to be won in our home ballpark, go out and enjoy it and let the chips fall where they may.

Q. You've been around for a while. You've won a World Series. You've been around electric atmospheres, but how much are you looking forward to tonight to being able to see in this crowd? Based on what you have seen before from the Bautista and Encarnacion days, do you expect to maybe get tingles when you see that, or are you beyond that?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I can't wait. I know all of us can't wait. There is a lot of guys who work in the organization who have pretty much all they talk about is that '15-'16 run where the Rogers Centre felt like it was going to fall over.

I think you as a player, you naturally want that, and you want to feel those moments and see it. That's why you play the game is to experience stuff like that. Again, for us to be home, to have that opportunity today is awesome. So I expect us to go have fun, and we'll see what happens.

Q. How would you describe sort of the character of the team? Every time we see video in the dugout, it's either somebody putting on the jacket, everybody smiling. I've never seen so many teeth in my life. It's much different than past teams which were very serious. Sometimes people can be critical of that. How do you view it? How do you see the team and sort of how they approach the game?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I don't see us doing anything else than being ourselves. You know, being who we are all year is kind of what got us to this point to earn a chance to play at home.

Again, this is already a hard enough game. You've got to have fun. You have to enjoy the moment because, again, you just don't know if you're ever going to get back here.

Yeah, I know there's a fine line between having fun and kind of messing around and not paying attention, but I don't see that being an issue with our team.

Q. Further to the questions about the crowd, we've asked a few of the Jays who were in the playoffs in 2020 when there was nobody there, and they were out in 24 hours. You got to the cusp of the World Series that year. How different was that experience playing in front of nobody, and how much more does that make you look forward to this?

GEORGE SPRINGER: Yeah, that's a weird time, I think, in everyone's life. It's a weird time for the world in general, but to be playing in a 50,000-seat stadium and just be cardboard and fake crowd noise and stuff like that, it's odd. It's a weird thing. It just felt like you were just kind of playing in a gym that was just unoccupied.

But, at the same time, you knew that there was a chance to get to the World Series. I think the postseason is always the postseason. It's just a weird time that none of us had ever been through before, and now here we are.

Q. With your playoff experience, obviously, you've been around so many big game pitchers. What is it about Alek Manoah that makes everybody so confident he is going to be able to step up into that echelon too?

GEORGE SPRINGER: Just who he is. I think his personality, his make-up, kind of his mentality gives us all faith.

He debuted in New York, which is not the easiest place to play in. It doesn't matter what -- if it's April or October, it's not easy to play there. He pitched well, and he never seemed bothered. He never seems phased by anything, unless he is a really, really good actor. I just think that's who he is.

To give him the ball today is huge for us.

Q. You've been able to see and appreciate both the fun side and the competitive side of Vlad Guerrero Jr. What do you expect from him in his first real taste of this kind of stuff?

GEORGE SPRINGER: Again, I expect him to be who he is. Obviously, it gets lost on a lot of people. He is only 23 years old.

To be your first playoff experience, obviously, we've all seen the highlights of this place. We've all heard about it, but at the same time this is fun. This is why you play the game. This is what you talk about when you show up to spring training back in February is having these moments, having these chances.

Again, it's a progression. I expect him to go be himself. If he is not, oh well. It's not the end of the world, but I expect him to be himself.

Q. In 2015 you got your first taste of postseason action. What kind of emotions were you feeling that day when you woke up that morning, if you can remember?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I remember truthfully being scared as I could be. That was the first time I had ever, one, played in the playoffs, but, two, it was the first time I ever played in New York.

You know, we went into New York. We had to wait until 8:00 to play. It was kind of one of those things where you just wake up, and you are just, like, All right, I want to play now, and it was 8:00 in the morning. All right, I have to wait 12 hours to go.

Just understanding, for me at least, the team that I was playing that day, the atmosphere that we were going to play, but then as the game got closer and the first pitch started, kind of all that went away. You're just playing baseball.

Once we ended up getting past that, getting into the next round felt just like a normal day. So, I remember just being pretty nervous at first, and then as the game started, it was all gone.

Q. We've seen you play through, obviously, a nagging elbow thing this year. I just wondered, did you learn anything new about yourself this season?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I mean, I think you always learn something about yourself. Every season is totally different. There's going to be different challenges, different adversities. There's going to be times where you've seen stuff that you can understand before and there's times you're going to be, like, I've never been through this.

I'm happy with the way I was able to kind of fight and battle through some stuff and not really complain and just go out and play. But at the end of the day there's not anybody that's going to make an excuse for me. I'm not going to do it either. I'm just going to go play, and I'm happy to be here.

Q. You did go through some elbow stuff this season and still posted strong offensive numbers and kept playing center field. Just wondering how you're feeling physically at this point maybe compared to beginning of August, end of July when you were dealing with that initially?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I think the easiest way to answer that is it's October. I'll be fine. You know, I'm going to do anything I can to play. I'm going to do anything I can to make sure that I stay on the field.

Again, this could be the end of our season or not, so it doesn't matter. I'm going to strap up for however many it takes, and I'll be all right.

Q. I'm wondering, how much does the crowd play into it for you? Obviously, you're focused on the game. I mean, people talk a lot about home field advantage with the crowd, fans cheering, and all that, but I always wonder whether or not that's overblown. Is it a big deal for you guys to hear the screams, or is it the same just for both teams?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I know for us the fact that the crowd will be cheering for us is huge. I don't know what it's like for them, obviously.

But to have the home crowd is obviously great. I think one of the things is it definitely makes it easier to communicate in the outfield. When you have the home crowd just because -- I would hope they're not trying to mess you up and say, I got it, and all that good stuff, but it's fun.

Again, these are the moments that you love, and to have a loud crowd, an energetic crowd is always awesome to play in.

Q. Obviously you guys have been swinging the bat extremely well maybe for the last four or six weeks here. How do you expect that to carry over in October baseball?

GEORGE SPRINGER: Again, I expect us to just go do what we've been doing. Obviously who we're going to face is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Again, it's about staying within ourselves. Having a controlled approach, trying to slow things down, and just put a good swing on a pitch and move on.

Q. We've talked a lot about Bo's month of September. Up-and-down season for him. Up-and-down season for Vlad and the mental adjustments that come with that. In your experience, how do you sort of veer away from the trap of trying to be "the" guy at all times and to really trusting the lineup that's behind you?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I think just understanding that you don't always have to hit the five-run homer. You don't have to do things that you don't know how to do. You don't have to be somebody that you're not. Just go be who you are. If you don't succeed, just have faith in the guy behind you.

You can roll that over as many times as you want. I know that that may sound obvious and all that stuff, but that's the truth. Don't try to do too much. Just do what you can in the moment, and you move on.

Q. Is there an aspect of this team you feel gives you guys an edge this time of year or something that gives you an advantage in October?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I wouldn't point to one thing in particular. I just think that this is a team that is a very kind of unpredictable team. You can go out and score five, six runs in a hurry and string together at-bats, play good defense, pitch well.

I just think for us it's about staying in the moment. Stay in the moment at the best that we can, and we'll see what happens.

Q. One of your teammates said last week that he considers you to be the engine of this team. He said when Springer leads off the game with a hit, we get ten hits. Obviously, when you got here --

GEORGE SPRINGER: What if I don't? (Laughing.)

Q. He didn't say anything about that. Obviously, when you got here it was important for you to be the lead-off man that you had done in Houston for so long. How much do you relish that role to be able to get things going?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I love it. It's awesome. I love to set the tone, to try to have a good quality at-bat, hit a ball hard.

It's not always about a hit. I can go up there and have an 8-9 pitch at-bat and hopefully pass the baton on to the next guy. I love the moment. It's fun.

It is a little bit interesting being the first one in the game because you don't know how hard the guy is going to be throwing, you don't know what the stuff is going to look like, but who cares? It's fun.

I look forward to that moment and hopefully I can be successful at it today.

Q. Just to follow up, I guess, if that's okay. You've said for the last little while we've been talking about the playoffs, have fun, if it doesn't work, oh well. Is that attitude, does that serve somebody better than the guy who is, like, this means everything and if we don't win, it's the end of the world?

GEORGE SPRINGER: I think every person is different. I think everyone is motivated by different things. They process things in other ways. I know for me personally that's my mentality of just have fun, enjoy it, because, again, you just don't know if you're ever going to get back here.

I learned that last year. You learn to appreciate things and to kind of understand things. Again, to have this opportunity in our home ballpark, our home city is something special. So, for the guys that do it that way, cool. For the guys that don't, I don't care. Just go enjoy the game to however you can, and we'll see what happens.