NL WILD CARD SERIES: METS VS BREWERS

October 3, 2024

Sal Frelick

Joey Ortiz

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Joey, you got asked so much earlier in the year about playing -- both of you playing third base, but having gotten your feet under you there, when do you feel like you thought of yourself as a third baseman? How long did that take? And maybe just if I can, what were the biggest steps to getting to that point? What were the most important things to getting to that point?

JOEY ORTIZ: I felt like I was a third baseman as soon as they put me there. It's the same thing, field the ball, throw the ball, hit the guy in the chest. I try and keep everything simple. I don't try and make too much of it.

Q. For both of you, when did you all kind of realize that Tobias could be the kind of contributor he's ended up being for you all this season? What was it that you all saw in him early on that made you all kind of discover him?

SAL FRELICK: I think from his first outing, the first pitch he ever threw in the Big Leagues was a homer, took him around the pole there at PNC. Then he pitched scoreless baseball for the next six innings in his debut.

I can only imagine what it's like throwing my first pitch and giving up a homer, but watching how he settled in and just competed after that, didn't even look unfazed. Hard thing to do, and that's just kind of how he's pitched all year and why he's been so successful.

JOEY ORTIZ: I agree. For the first pitch of your Big League career to get hit out of the park is kind of a shock, but he settled down. You see what he's done all season, he's done the same thing all year.

Q. Sal, I know we all talked to you about the quad and everything that went down with your injury. Given how well you've been running, how well you've been hitting, are you surprised at the recovery? How have things gone for you to continue to play?

SAL FRELICK: I definitely think I surprised myself a little bit just how well it healed, I think the last two days before the first game of the Wild Card.

Obviously was not in the best spot when I was still on crutches. Two days prior to that, I really wasn't sure if it was going to heal, if it was healing. But I think the medical staff here did such a good job, kind of reassuring me that they'll give me everything I need to kind of get myself ready to play.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I just kind of felt like I was good enough to go and it's just going to keep getting better every day.

Q. The young guys on this team have had an incredible first three games between Jackson, Blake, Brice, I could go on and on. What does that say about the mentality of this young group that you guys are a part of?

SAL FRELICK: I think the foundation that was laid for us by these older guys, these vets, a lot that are not playing right now because they're hurt, you know, Yeli, Woo, Wade, Rhys. The whole entire year has been a lot of learning.

Obviously Joey and I debuted last year and got our feet wet, but we're still pretty new this year, and it really was every day just watching these older guys, how they go about their business, how learn from them. And I know if you asked Brice and G and Jackson, they'd say the same thing.

I think just having that full year with them that now we can go out and play freely and have fun playing baseball, it's exciting.

Q. For both of you guys, Rhys talked about how with the Phillies he could pinpoint an inning early on where they got the momentum, and that's sort of what propelled them on their run.

After the eighth inning yesterday, what's the feeling like in the clubhouse? How do you guys carry that momentum forward today?

JOEY ORTIZ: Honestly, I feel like both games, I feel like both teams have come out, punched early, and then the other team punches back. I feel like it hasn't really been too much momentum driven. I feel like they hit us and we try to hit back, and then at the end of the game, Chourio does what he's been doing all year and picking us up. Then we kind of took over from there.

SAL FRELICK: It truly is like a boxing match. You saw it in the first game, you saw it last night. Just how can you respond? I mean, runs are going to be scored. I'd love to go and say we're going to shut them out. That would be great. But you have just be able to respond. I think that's what we've done all year.

We've come from behind late a ton this season, so it really is nothing new to us being in that position. I think it's really cool seeing everyone go up to the plate confident, not trying to get it all back in one swing, and really just passing the baton to the next guy.

Q. I know Murph said his message yesterday for both you guys was respond, right? You get knocked down, respond in this game. What was his message for this game?

SAL FRELICK: It's the same it's been all year. Win tonight. I think that's why yesterday I think we came out -- I don't think anybody really remembered what happened Tuesday. Kind of short memory, erase that. It's the same when you win, though. It's still short memory.

It was a great win. It was a great comeback win. We definitely enjoyed it last night. But like I said, it's back to square one, and we're going to completely erase what happened last game and just get ready for tonight.

Q. You're both obviously really close with Brice. How have you seen him navigate the ups early in the year and then the downs in the second half of this year too, come and have a little bit of a breakout in this series?

JOEY ORTIZ: It's been good. He puts in the work every single day, so it's not a surprise that he's playing well right now. He takes pride in his craft for sure. I see him grinding in the cage every single day. Hopefully he keeps it going today.

Q. Speaking of Murph, there's been time where he's been tough on the group of young players, like made very clear what his expectations are. Did that ever grate against you? Like were there times where it was like take it easy, man?

SAL FRELICK: Obviously you want your coach to be hard on you and expect the very best. Sometimes, yeah, it's hard for sure when you're up there in a key situation and you might not get a job done or whatnot.

But Murph cares so much about all of us, like we know that, like on a personal level cares so much about all of us and is always checking in with on us. You kind of get to a point that you know where it comes from. We want him to be as tough on us as he possibly can because it makes us better.

But at the same time I think in those tough situations where he does expect the most out of you, you're going to fail. And when you do, what's so special about this team is the guy behind you always seems to pick you up. Runner on second, no outs, you don't get him over, guy behind you, you know he's going to hit that guy in. It's kind of the seesaw. You see both sides of it. But Murph really does care.

Q. Joey, these playoffs have been so emotional. Sal was talking about the seesaw effect. How do you handle those emotions, especially in a game like tonight?

JOEY ORTIZ: You kind of just try and take it pitch by pitch. You worry about the pitch that's happening and then just try and grind out the rest of the game.

You just do what you can to try and calm yourself down, calm the nerves, and do what we can to get the fans involved because, when they get going, it's good for us.

Q. Some of the previous teams would talk about how they've heard enough about 1982. I'm just curious, you were here, I know, for a bit last year, Sal, you got a little experience. Joe, you're new to the organization.

How sick are you guys of hearing about same old Brewers, they can't win in October, when this is such a different group, and a new group and a new year?

SAL FRELICK: It's not really something you get sick of because it's true, and no one's at fault for saying that. I've been a fan as a kid of teams, and you always say what's on your mind whether it's good or bad. It's not like it really affects us or we lose sleep over it.

But there's something in the back of your head that's like, you know, we can change the tide this year. We can go out. We have a great team, like you said, where we can win in October. It's not something obviously that keeps us up, but yeah, it's something that's real.

Q. For either of you guys -- and maybe you have different answers to this -- aside from the eighth inning and the home run last night, was there a moment in that game, a play, an inning, a performance where you felt, okay, this is starting to turn our direction that you can look back to and say that was the start of the rally?

SAL FRELICK: I could pick out something from every single inning. There were some key double plays turned. The bullpen coming out and throwing scoreless baseball for us, Joe Ross doing an unbelievable job. Like it might not be like a home run moment, but you see guys come out of the bullpen and pitch their butts off for us to get back in without giving up a run and just give us another shot at turning the tide.

I just felt like we were going to break through because of how well they did. I don't know if it was a specific moment, but watching those guys go compete for us was great.