MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 28, 2024

Brent Honeywell

Yankee Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Mindset of the bullpen coming into Games 3 and 4 where the environment is going to be completely different than Dodger Stadium for you guys?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: We know our job. We know what we have to do. We want to play good baseball around not so much on one side of the ball, we want to play good ball all the way around.

We know coming here into the Bronx, we've got to play good ball.

Q. Was there a turning point for the staff? You guys have dealt with so many guys going down. You guys have to look at each other saying like who can step up? Was there a turning point that you can pinpoint this season where like these are the guys we got and that's it?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: I got here in the middle of the year. I think the one that kind of raised everybody's radar up a little bit was Glas when we were in Atlanta. It was kind the time where we said we've got to buckle down her, bear down, and play some ball and win a game any way we can.

Q. Have you pitched in this ballpark before, and if so, how did it go?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: Yeah, I've thrown here before. I've had a good one. I've had a rough one. It's Yankee Stadium in the World Series. I've never done that before.

Q. When you consider the road here for you, how much does this mean to you, and have you had a chance to just kind of reflect on the journey?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: A couple times. I tried -- after the second time, I was like I want to go out and try to win a World Series any way I can and kind of look at it afterwards. It definitely means a lot to me. It means a lot to my friends and family and people back at home, and especially to people who have helped me get to where I'm at throughout baseball.

There's no better baseball, and I always knew -- my dad always told me, my family, my friends, everybody I played with, have always told me just try and be a part of one of the best. This is what this is about. This is two of the best teams in the game. I want my team and all my players and all my teammates I play with now to be the best in the league. That's what we're here to do.

Q. Are you here because you're starting tomorrow?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: I don't know. Good question.

Q. So much has to go so right in a bullpen game for it to be successful and to do it a number of times. Can you talk about the degree of difficulty to do it three, four times in a postseason?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: Yeah, it's all about doing your job, each guy. You go out, you get the outs that you're asked to get. And once that happens, you've got to watch the guy coming behind you and do the same thing.

It's all about kind of giving a different look. I think our -- I'd put our bullpen up with any bullpen that I've ever been on and any bullpen I've ever seen. I want guys to -- I want to win, and if that's how we've got to do it, that's how we've got to do it.

I know there's 50 other people in that clubhouse, players, staff, that want to win this game and want to win two more games and become world champions, and that's what I'm about.

Q. After two games here in the World Series, what are your early impressions of the way the Yankees have approached their at-bats that may help you somehow formulate a game plan against them?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: Well, taking the first two from them at our place is exactly what I wanted, and I think it's exactly what we want as a team. But we know on that side they're a really, really good team.

There's going to be an adjustment, I'm sure, but we can't worry about that. We don't really care. We just -- we want to get them out. We'll find ways to get you out any day of the week. And that's part of what goes into being in the bullpen that I'm in and having the luxury to be in and to play for a team like this.

So it doesn't -- we don't really -- we just go out there and make pitches.

Q. Have any teammates asked you how to throw that screwball, and have you successfully taught anybody?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: It's harder to do with the older guys. Teaching younger kids to do it is a little bit easier, but teaching older guys like Daniel Hudson is a tough one to get across (laughter).

Q. What makes it such a special pitch for you?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: It's just something nobody throws. I think it's just something that it's a different look. It's just a different look. I want guys to look for it.

I got pretty good stuff outside of that, I feel like, and it's just something that's kind of carried my way. It's been a story throughout, but I like throwing it.

Q. Can you just talk about Josh Bard and how valuable he's been to you, but also just to the bullpen and how you all are prepared for these moments, especially the success you've had navigating through these bullpen games in the postseason as you will tomorrow?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: Bardo has been a blessing to me personally, but I know in the bullpen too, we need him. He is a need for us, and he does a heck of a job day in and day out keeping up with us, making sure we're ready to go on how we're feeling, how we're doing.

There's some game plan stuff that he does that I'm aware of. But having a guy like him in the bullpen -- I try to keep it light, but Bardo is on a different level when it comes to keeping it light.

He's a great baseball guy, and I feel like he wants to win more, if not as much as I do, and that to me goes a long way than anything else. So that guy's done a lot for me.

Q. Having been a starter for so long, have you changed anything about how you prepare for games now that you've been in the bullpen for the last couple of years?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: I think just kind of knowing the game outside of a starting role, it's probably kind of tough to understand that. But there's so many different ebbs and flows of the game that you can see from out there and feel from out there.

Trusting your eyes and trusting your ability to feel which way the game is swinging or how it's going, just to be ready at any given time. Because it happens fast out there, like it happens fast.

If I'm needed, either we're going really good or we're going really bad, or it could be we've crawled our way back into the game. There's so many different scenarios on how I get into a ballgame and how I fit into a ballgame. But it's something I've kind of learned outside of starting.

Q. I know you've talked to me about your relationship with Max and what you've learned from him. Is the dynamic between the position players and the pitchers on this team different than what you might have experienced in the past?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: Yeah, I think it's different in the sense of what everybody's trying to chase. Like these guys, they're very, very, very diligent in their work, and they're going to do anything they can to win a game.

You have guys like Max, you have guys like Freddie. With what Freddie had to go through the last few weeks, it's been crazy to see. But I just know each one of those guys in there, they want to win the game, and they want to take all the pressure off of us as much as they can out in the pen.

Just like we want to take the pressure off of them as much as we can when they're at the dish and they need to go out there and hang up a couple runs. Then we need to get them back in there and do the same thing again the next inning.

We're gelling as a team right now and have been the last few months, and it's been fun to be a part of.

Q. Just wondering your reaction as a teammate on Saturday night when Ohtani goes down at second base to today when he's in the lineup already, what's your reaction? What's your emotion around that?

BRENT HONEYWELL JR.: He's a really good player, don't get me wrong on that. But if he couldn't have went today, we have people that can. It is what it is.