AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 12, 2022

Jarred Kelenic

Minute Maid Park

Seattle Mariners

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Jarred.

Q. You've always wanted to play on the grand stage since you were a kid. What has the past week or so been like being in the postseason for you and just this team?

JARRED KELENIC: It's been pretty surreal, especially for a young guy like myself. I've dreamed about playing where I'm at today. Seeing it on TV, to be out in the outfield in that environment, is pretty surreal.

Q. Can you talk us through the process of the adjustment that you made this year in season to get you now to being the player you are and anybody, hitting coach-wise or mentors, that you want to thank for helping you get here?

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, I think there's a lot of different things. A lot of it was just like the thought process on a lot of things. Understanding distractions, good one and bad ones. Learning how to recognize the bad ones and eliminate them. That was the biggest thing.

This game's hard enough and any time you're up there not focusing a hundred percent your attention on what the pitcher's trying to do to you and just attacking the game it makes it that much harder.

So this year that's one thing that I really had to kind of focus on was understanding the distractions.

Q. That was such a tough loss last night. How do you think the team's going to process that and get beyond it?

JARRED KELENIC: We're not really tripping. It's baseball. Yeah, it sucks. But the good teams, they turn the page. It happens. Made a good swing and unfortunately we lost.

But you look at the positives. Like we played an unbelievable baseball game from start to finish. That gives us confidence going into tomorrow for sure. That's how we're looking at it. Yeah, it sucks we lost, but we're just as ready to go tomorrow as we were yesterday.

Q. Curious how much do you still stay in touch with Gavin Lux with both of you being from Wisconsin and seeing he made a great play last night in a key double play. How much do you keep following each other here as you're both playing in the postseason?

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, Gavin is someone that, he's a tremendous baseball player. He's a great person too. And he's been to the postseason before. So to be able to lean on a guy like that, it's huge.

Q. We have seen you hit a lot of balls to the left side pretty hard and pretty crisply. Seems like you're seeing the ball get deeper. Is that just a function of the work you've done and being able to spray it around? Even the homer in T-Mobile to left field. It's something that I know Scott has really mentioned that's really pleased to see.

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, I think I'm at my best when I'm spraying the ball, left center, right center, gap to gap. That's what I work on in BP. So I'm not really surprised that it's translating into the game. It should, right? If you work on it should translate.

But I'm feeling really good at the plate right now and just going to try to keep that same approach of just letting the ball travel and then you're able to recognize a lot of different pitches too.

Q. Seems like we talk a lot about offense. It's such a prevalent part of everyone's game. And certainly of your game as well. But I'm thinking about yesterday about the nice play you made on the liner, tagging up, going into second, which proved to be a very big play at the time. How much are you also -- is it easy to sometimes shift that narrative in your own head and focus on the complete game? Because it looks like you are rounding into being a complete player.

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, I think especially in games like this that extra 90 feet matters. And you're referring to when I tagged up from first, right?

Q. Yes.

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah. You know, any time you can take an extra 90 feet, that could be the difference between winning the game and losing. We all know that in that clubhouse.

And so if there's any chance that we can get an extra 90 feet, get somebody in scoring position, that's what we're going to do. Because every run matters. It showed yesterday.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the confidence that you guys have with Luis taking the mound tomorrow and what he's meant to this team?

JARRED KELENIC: I mean, that guy's a dog. He is pretty special. I really enjoy watching him pitch. I mean, he throws the ball so hard it moves so much it's almost impossible to hit. But you saw his showing out in Toronto, and he's put in his work the last few days to get ready for tomorrow and I definitely, I know he's going to go out and shove.

Q. The ball you played off the Crawford Boxes and kind of let it bounce back, how difficult is that kind of set up out there? I know when you were here before you played center and not left, and how much of an adjustment has that been for you?

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, I mean, the Crawford Boxes make it difficult, especially if you haven't played there before. You just got to be conscious of it. The ball that Yordan hit in the 3rd inning or something I didn't think it had a chance to hit the wall until it just kept carrying.

But the hard part is that, luckily that ball bounced straight back right to me. Sometimes it kicks to the right or left, and that's when you're in trouble. We had a workout before the game, the day before the game yesterday, and we did a bunch of work off that wall just trying to anticipate anything. It comes off the wall hard and you just have to expect it.

Q. Prior to the weekend games in Toronto, I'm curious if in years past you had gone to postseason games in person and if you had any memories of watching the Brewers or other games in the playoffs before?

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, I went to the Brewers playoff games. Talk about just an electric atmosphere. But I just, I remember the flight from Seattle to Toronto. I was going through and I was watching on YouTube all the postseason highlights of back when Josh Hamilton was with the Rangers and stuff like that and how electric that was. And I was just, like I got goose bumps watching it because I'm like, we're about to be doing this.

Q. Curious, the overall mood of the team, demeanor more so from regular season to postseason. Is there one or two things that you notice that are different? Or is it pretty consistent in terms of just how you guys talk to each other. If there are nerves just postseason regular season to postseason.

JARRED KELENIC: Yeah, obviously I wasn't here the whole regular season. But like one thing that -- I was here throughout the season though. And I think one of the biggest things that I recognize from where when I started the year with this team when I came in here in July and then when I ended the year with this team. The team as a whole got more confident every single time I came back, which I knew that that was only going to translate on to the field.

And it's been fun to be around just because it's such a great group of guys in that clubhouse. But then when you all are bonded together with a lot of confidence you're a pretty dangerous team. Going into tomorrow where we're at confidence-wise is going to be awesome.

Q. Somewhat along those lines, I don't think you know until you get into it, and baseball's kind of the game of keep everything the same. Is it the same focus-wise or can you have a different focus in the postseason?

JARRED KELENIC: It's the same focus. You try to make things not bigger than what they are or less than what they are. And I think this team does a really good job of playing loose. Yesterday, and even when we were in Toronto, like we were still messing around. Even when we were down in Toronto, like we're down like 8-1 is, 9-1, whatever it was. We are going to go out, go about our business the same way and let the rest just kind of happen.