NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS VS DODGERS

October 20, 2024

Anthony Banda

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 6 Press Conference

Q. With this bullpen game today, what has it been just about the group as a whole that's allowed you all just to be so excellent, not only in this series, but just in this postseason?

ANTHONY BANDA: I think it has a lot to do with understanding our job, understanding that regardless of what happens, we're going to pick each other up. There's a lot of confidence down there.

And the biggest key factor would just be trust in our stuff and trusting what the pitching coaches and analytics have shown us and given us the plan of attack and just going out and executing that.

Q. It seems like the Dodgers are year after year able to bring in guys to the bullpen that maybe weren't at their best elsewhere and then kind of find their best here and then find it when it matters most. How do they do that? What do they do that gets so much out of guys and makes them better?

ANTHONY BANDA: I think that's what's so special about the Dodgers. They see what others see and they exploit the strength in individuals.

I think it has a lot to do with the understanding and the communication from coach to player, player to coach. Their biggest message when I first got here was just be yourself, and I think that translates into the communication part of it where they can understand us as players better. That way they could turn around and voice whatever it is they need to exploit as far as with pitches or movement types or anything else like that.

I think that's what they do very well here, given the fact that all the analytics stuff and everything else like that to back that up. But I think that's the biggest reason.

Q. In what ways have you changed as a pitcher this year within that environment?

ANTHONY BANDA: I think I matured as a pitcher mostly in the idea of understanding my strengths and understanding that just confidence, really.

And then the plan of attack, really, and showing me different things that I could do in different counts, I think that goes a long way -- obviously introducing the slider as well.

It's all into one, I think. But I think maturity and then obviously understanding the plan of attack and pitch usage is what really I've grown as a pitcher, as an individual, really.

Q. I know on the hitting side there's a lot of talk of just momentum and it kind of feels like when one guy goes, another one can pick up pretty quickly. Do you feel that on the pitching side, especially how we've seen whether it's starters set the tone or bullpen guys set the tone? And with Michael Kopech today, how do you feel that what he does can really just add to the rest of the guys in the bullpen? Is there such thing as momentum when it comes to the pitching side, I guess?

ANTHONY BANDA: Absolutely. I believe in momentum 100 percent. You can feel it shift. You can feel it when the offense is clicking and we have a big inning.

Our job as a pitcher, you know, after those big innings is go have a shut-down inning to kill the momentum on their side.

But as pitchers, when we see our guys that we've been with for an entire season go out and just do their job and put up a zero, it's almost like a relay race. You just hand that baton back on to the next guy and you basically root for them and understand that they're going to do their job and do their best to put up another zero. And it's so forth and so forth.

I think it has a lot to do with that. I think that's just the big momentum thing, understanding that, hey, if he can do it, I can do it type of deal. That's what we've always been together as far as back in the bullpen and that's what we do as far as the plan of attack throughout the game.

Q. You mentioned the slider's a relatively new addition for you this season. Was there something that the Dodgers helped you figure out in terms of being able to get all that extra horizontal movement on that slider? I know you're probably a traditional pronator, but getting that extra horizontal movement without sacrificing too much velocity, was that something they worked with you on?

ANTHONY BANDA: Yeah, the idea with it was very simple. The biggest thing that they kind of communicated with me and understood with me was I had a misunderstanding of how to throw the breaking ball. I thought you always had to get the fingers to the front of the ball and all this other good stuff.

But when they told me that this is going to fit you and just throw it like a fastball, let it work off your pronation, that was the key thing for me was, what do you mean as pronation.

And then when I saw it at Edgertronic, the slow-motion camera, that's what really, really opened my eyes in the sense of, okay, we spin the ball through the pronation part of it, not through getting the fingers to the front of the baseball type of deal.

I think that's what really made it click for me, and understand that, okay, I could do this and then when we tried it, it kind of just really worked. It wasn't anything special anything. But it was just the communication part of understanding the idea of it.