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NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 3, 2018

Nick Markakis

Los Angeles, California - Workout Day

Q. Congratulations, certainly for getting to this point. How do you think the fact that you guys clinched prior to the other three teams not knowing where they were going or what they were doing has helped you and will benefit you moving forward?
NICK MARKAKIS: You can look at it both ways. It's good to have rest, but then also those guys have still been playing, and we've been off for a couple of days for you. So it can go both ways, good or bad. So we just gotta stay focused, prepare like any other game and do what we do out there.

Q. Clayton Kershaw usually starts Game 1 of the playoff series for the Dodgers. It won't be him this time. Were you surprised by that?
NICK MARKAKIS: You know, anything is possible, especially in the postseason, lining up pitchers to pitch. So at some point in the series we knew we were going to face him, whether it's the first game or second game. We still gotta go out there and compete against him. We know what type of pitcher he is, we know what he's going to bring, and we just gotta go out there and have good at-bats off him, pitch and play defense.

Q. Why do you think you guys match up well against this particular team?
NICK MARKAKIS: I think we match up well against anybody as long as we're playing baseball the way we're capable of playing. We got speed. We got defense. We got pitching. Bullpen has been great. And our hitting. We can go up there and swing the bats, sparked by the top of our lineup with those young guys up there, which is good to see. We do our thing and go out there. It shouldn't matter who's on the field. We just gotta stay confident in ourselves and play baseball.

Q. Matt Kemp was on your side this year. Now he's on the other side. What are your memories of Matt as a teammate and what's it going to be like to play against him?
NICK MARKAKIS: Mate is a great guy, very intense guy, in the moment. He's competitive. He's a great teammate, good guy. He's always been great to us. But in baseball, those things happen. You play with a lot of guys that you're going to end up playing against. We wish him well. I'm sure he wishes us well, and we're just going to go out there and do our thing and try to help each other's team win.

Q. What do you think has made Folty so special for you guys this year. Obviously a tremendous amount of confidence in him going for Game 1.
NICK MARKAKIS: I think the biggest thing is just experience. It's tough early on in your career, especially competing at this level, and the strides he's made and the adjustments he's made along the way has been tremendous. He's been a work horse for us on the top of our rotation all year. He's a battler. He's going to go out there. He's not a guy who wants to come out of the game. He's going to compete, and he's a great guy to have on your side.

Q. You played this game a long time at the highest level. How special is this and these types of moments still for you?
NICK MARKAKIS: This is what you work hard for. This is what you work in the off season for, bringing into Spring Training and then the grind of the season. It's always fun playing when everybody else is going about their ways and going home. So it's always a reward to be here in the postseason. Like I said, this is what you work hard for, and these are the games you want to play in and the situations you want to play in.

And you guys know as well as anybody else, anything could happen in the playoffs. You get there, you give yourself a chance and you see what happens. You play baseball, and at the end of the day there's going to be a winner, there's going to be a loser, and you hope you're on the winning end.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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