MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 28, 2024

Max Muncy

Yankee Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Now that the Yankees are back home sleeping in their own bed, how tight does this defense have to be because I'm sure they're going to make some adjustments now that they're home.

MAX MUNCY: Yeah, we've just got to keep playing our game. Doesn't matter where we're at. Doesn't matter the stadium, the location, we've just got to go out there and play Dodger baseball. We've got to prepare, do the little things correct. Just play a clean game, and at the end of the day, if we do that, then we trust in the roster we have.

Q. Shohei is back in the lineup. I guess he never left the lineup officially. How does that help this offense just to continue their dominance at the plate?

MAX MUNCY: Well, if you keep the best player in the game in the lineup, that's usually good for your team. Having him in there obviously, it's a big guy to have in there. It helps a lot. He's had some big moments for us, and we're obviously expecting a couple more big moments out of him.

Q. Just on Shohei, how concerning was that night when he left? How much do you guys pay attention or worry about that these last couple days, just his status and whether he's going to be in there today?

MAX MUNCY: He texted the whole team as we were on our way to the airport and said he was going to be fine, and that's it. He said he was going to play, so we all put it to the side at that moment.

We said, all right, he's got us. We'll be ready for him to be in the lineup.

Q. The text literally said I can play basically?

MAX MUNCY: There was more to it than that, but yeah. Come on (laughter).

Q. Max, you've been very adamant just this entire postseason that the mindset is every day it's 0-0. It doesn't matter that you guys are two games up in this World Series at the moment. How important is that approach, and how have you found, whether it's been in years past and you guys' success in the World Series or just kind of with taking things in that sense?

MAX MUNCY: That's something that's been preached to me for a very long time. I try to bring that to everyone else, and that's something that this organization's always done a good job with. Whether you win or lose the previous game, it has no effect on the next day. When you show up, it's a 0-0 ballgame.

You control the things that you can control. In this game, that's not a whole lot, but there are certain things you can control. The biggest ones are how you prepare for the game, how you game plan for the game, how you show up. Do you do your routine? Do you do the things you need to do to be sure you're ready for the game?

Those are the things we try to preach. Stuff's going to happen in the game, and like I say, you control what you can control because you can't control the game. There's no telling what's going to happen.

Round bat, round ball, you've heard us say that. The ball might hit a rock in the infield, might catch a seam in the air and do something weird in the outfield. There's no telling what could happen during the game. You control the things you can control, and that's just how we prepare.

Q. In regards to just different guys stepping up and meeting the moment throughout this postseason, Dave said back at Camelback, he looked at you guys and said, no matter what position you are, no matter what your spot is on the roster, that's what it's going to take to win a World Series to deliver in the biggest of moments when the pressure is the highest. I was wondering if you remember that kind of speech from him and how you think it's manifesting itself now.

MAX MUNCY: Yeah, absolutely. I believe his exact words are "you need to want to be the guy." That's why we're all here. We all want to be in this situation. We all want to be the guy in that moment.

To win a championship, it's going to take more than just one guy. It takes everybody on the team from the guys that aren't even active to the guys that are active. You guys heard me talk about Brent Honeywell throwing to Mookie Betts in San Diego. It takes the entire organization to win a championship.

That's definitely something that sticks out to you when your manager calls you out like that in Spring Training saying, hey, you guys all need to want to be the guy in that situation. You can't leave it up to someone else. It's proven true already how many guys have come through in big moments for us.

Q. You've been here a while now with the Dodgers. There are obviously some advantages the Dodgers have, but there's never been a letdown. Year after year, they're always there. What has kept the Dodgers in this position to get this opportunity every year, besides just the payroll?

MAX MUNCY: It's the entire organization. It starts up top with Andrew and Gomes. It starts with the ownership, and then it goes down to Andrew and to Gomes, and then it goes to Doc. They want to win. They've created the culture of winning. They've created a good culture in the clubhouse to where we bring in guys every year, and within two days they can tell a difference how it is in the clubhouse. That it doesn't matter about you, it matters about the team, it matters about winning.

Everyone is going to do whatever it takes to help this team win. If it gets to a point where you can't help the team win, then it's time for someone else to step in, and guys understand that.

You look at what Freddie did this postseason with taking two days off in big, key moments for us. You're talking about an elimination game in San Diego and then a chance to clinch at home. He took those two games off, and that's just understanding it's about the team, it's not about you.

Q. What is it about you and your teammates that gives you such great resolve that you have short memories when things happen in a negative fashion?

MAX MUNCY: It starts in Spring Training, and that goes back to what I was saying, how when you preach the right things every single day, you create that culture. And that's not something that you can just decide to turn on in July or August. You have to spend the entire year trying to do that.

You have a tough loss the night before, it doesn't matter. You show up the next day, and you have a chance to do something special. Every single day you have a chance to do something special in this game regardless of what happened the night before or the day before or the day before that. There's always a chance to do something special to help your team win in this game.

Q. Obviously the stakes are very different than when you guys were here in June, but I was just curious. Does making the overall trip here from the time you land to when you get on the field and everything, doing it earlier, does the team find any comfort with the familiarity of the situation?

MAX MUNCY: Wrong guy to ask. I wasn't here for that trip (laughter).

But I was just in New York a week and a half ago, so that kind of helps out.

Q. You mentioned Shohei sent a text. Did he send the text himself in English or through Will?

MAX MUNCY: No, that's himself. Will is not in our group chat. That group chat is for us. That's for the players. What's in there is for the players. It was all Sho.

Q. How was his English in texting?

MAX MUNCY: It was great.

Q. What has it been like to watch Freddie have to rehab an injury while also performing at this level and being able to add a little more to his game every subsequent week that goes by? Now it looks like he's pretty much Freddie again.

MAX MUNCY: Yeah, he looks pretty close to normal. It's been pretty special. You're talking about a six-week injury that he came back from in essentially four or five days.

He obviously wasn't himself. But you're talking about a name like Freddie Freeman in the lineup, that does a lot. Just having certain guys in the lineup does a lot because the other team doesn't ever know how a certain guy is feeling. You can obviously look out there and see, but you have no idea what he's actually feeling like.

For example, you might try to have a lefty come in and face him, and he hits a grand slam. Just you have no idea what that guy is actually going to be like in the box. You just know that that guy's been doing it for 15, 16 years now and been one of the most consistent hitters in all of baseball. It's huge having a guy like that in the lineup.

Q. Following up on Ohtani, given that he seemed to be in significant pain as he came off the field the other night, he had a partially dislocated shoulder, what was your reaction and the team's reaction and surprise or lack of surprise that he is in there tonight?

MAX MUNCY: No lack of surprise that he's in there. Obviously it was very tough in the moment to see him in pain like that, but we were -- was that the eighth inning when that happened? I don't even remember.

Q. Seventh inning.

MAX MUNCY: We were two innings away from winning that ballgame. We knew we had to refocus. Obviously it sucks seeing Sho in that kind of pain, but we still had a job to do in the moment.

After the game we all checked on him to see how he was doing. It was like a buffet line going in there to see how he's doing. Yeah, it was tough in the moment, but we refocused to win the game.

Q. What have you thought of Mookie's season in terms of position changes and lineup and stuff like that? Just what he's done to maintain his level.

MAX MUNCY: He's been great. He's been very unselfish. We asked him to do a lot, and he hasn't complained about any of it. We're talking about one of the best right fielders in the game defensively.

There was a conversation had that he wanted to go back to the infield, and he did that thinking it was going to help the team. Then he had to change to shortstop to help the team. He didn't complain about it once. He went out there, and I think he actually really enjoyed having to put in all the hard work to improve at it.

When one of your superstars is willing to do that, it sends a big message to your team that everybody's all in this together, and it doesn't matter who you are, you'd better be willing to do something to help this team.

Doesn't matter where you need to bat, what position you need to play, what you're called on to do, pinch-hit, it doesn't matter. As long as you're helping this team win. When your superstar is doing that, it sends a big message.

Q. How does a group become collectively good at controlling the strike zone, and how important is that against Clarke Schmidt tonight?

MAX MUNCY: I think it's just being stubborn to your approach. That's something I've always said for myself in my strike zone discipline is just being stubborn to your approach. I think we've had a good year of really enforcing that message to a group of guys.

When your group starts to see it work, it's easier for guys to buy into it. When you've seen it work the entire year, then obviously the whole group knows that it's something that works well. Then you get into the postseason, and it's something that we've struggled with a little bit the last couple of years. Obviously it's questioned whether or not we can keep doing that, but to have the success we've had, I think, now no one questions it for us.

So it's just being stubborn to your approach and understanding really what you want to do in the batter's box. That's obviously huge for anybody. Doesn't matter who you're facing. Obviously good stuff tonight, but you've just got to be stubborn to your approach.

Q. You've had so many guys go down, but when Tyler went down, something happened with these guys. Can you describe the mood of the team and what happened at that time?

MAX MUNCY: Obviously that was late in the season, and it just felt like the entire year we kept getting dealt blow after blow. And then guys would come back, and then another blow, and guys would come back.

It finally felt like we were turning the page and starting to see more guys come back than go down. Then your big pitcher gets told he can't pitch the rest of the year, and that was kind of like, man, not again. It was just a big kick in the gut.

We had to have a big team meeting about it and just remind everybody we still have numerous All-Stars and Hall of Famers in this room. We can still go out there and do this.

Obviously this sucks. We want Tyler to be out there, but we can still do this. We can still believe in ourselves. We had to have that meeting and go around the room and look at ourselves and say, yeah, we still have a good roster. We've dealt with a lot, and this is no different.

Q. When you're talking about players that went down, you yourself went down in mid-May and the Dodgers have a bit of a rough patch. Was there ever a point when you were concerned you wouldn't be able make it back and be part of this?

MAX MUNCY: Absolutely. Especially you start rehabbing a couple different times, and obviously that didn't go so well. Yeah, you start worrying that the season is getting taken away from you a little bit. It was a frustrating one for me. It was devastating to have to just sit there and watch and not be able to help the guys out. Thankfully, we were able to get on top of it at some point and come back.

The whole focus was just make sure that I was going to be ready for October to help this team when it mattered most. To be able to do that, it was very special to me. Yeah, there was definitely multiple moments where I thought that that wasn't going to happen this year.