	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: NATIONALS VS CARDINALS

October 14, 2019

Howie Kendrick

Washington D.C. - postgame 3

Nationals - 8, Cardinals - 1

Q. Howie, when you get squeezed early on like that, does that change your mindset, your focus, or are you the same hitter, doesn't matter what the strike zone is, as the game goes long?
HOWIE KENDRICK: I think I've learned over time that you can't let the strike zone affect your approach. I could have went up my next at-bat and that same pitch probably been a ball. At the time, when -- you saw me talking to him. I just said, hey, man, that pitch isn't close, and I kind of let it go after that.

You say your little bit in the dugout, but after that, you've just got to play baseball because it's not going to change what's already happened. When I was younger, I used to do that, and it would take me out of my game a little bit, but now you can't change those things. So you just got to keep moving forward. Tonight the strike zone got a lot better, and we put some good swings on some balls.

Q. So the last time you hit three doubles in one game, do you want to guess when that was?
HOWIE KENDRICK: Was I in Little League or something?

Q. It was 2008, so 11 years ago. How does that feel to be able to do that again tonight?
HOWIE KENDRICK: You know, I just play the game. I try not to think about what kind of hits I get. If I'm getting hits, that's always a good thing. I think as a team, we always want to try to put good swings on the ball. It feels great, better than getting out. So I'll take anything.

Q. Howie, you guys have won 15 of 17, I think it is. How would you describe the feeling to be this hot at this time? And how would you explain it?
HOWIE KENDRICK: You know what, I don't -- I haven't even realized that, to be honest with you. I think the biggest thing is that just means we're playing really good baseball. Our pitching staff has been doing a really good job for us. That's pretty obvious with what these guys have been doing. Each guy, one guy after the next, and with what we've been doing with the bats. It's been fun. We just try to play good baseball every day. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.

So you just try to let the game come to you, and we just hopefully try not to do too much.

Q. Howie, you came up a little too late for the Angels World Series. You left a little too early for the Dodgers World Series. You're 19-31 at one point this year. Did it ever occur to you that maybe, being on the verge of this, just might not be there for you?
HOWIE KENDRICK: I guess some of the best things come from the unexpected moments. You don't really realize at the time -- we were 19-31. People were counting us out already. I feel like from that point on, we took off. Our pitching was really good. Our defense was great and our bats got hot. I think when you look at it like that, I think anything can happen in this game, and that's why we play every day because of the possibility of where we're at right now.

I feel like those games, playing and being down like that, they're kind of like playoff games in a sense. You're rolling. You're playing games. I mean, every game counts, and that's why we play 162.

Q. Howie, it seemed to a lot of us that you've been on every pitch pretty much all year, but are you particularly locked in now? When did it sort of click to that? And a bigger question. You've been hitting at a much bigger level the last few years. Can you give us one or two reasons for that?
HOWIE KENDRICK: I'm just trying to get smarter. Making adjustments, I would say, is the biggest thing. Trying to be more efficient with my body and my swing. Kevin Long is a big part of that. Kevin lives out in Phoenix, and I live in Phoenix. It's funny because the first time we met, I said to him, hey, what can I do to get better? He had a list, like he had wrote down on a pad of paper. I wasn't expecting it. This was the first time I had ever hit with him. He had this sheet of paper. He goes, all right. This is what I know about you. This is what you hit with this, this, and this.

We got to work from there. Being here with Dusty, I always wanted to play with Dusty Baker when I came over here. I loved the city. I love being here. I love the team, and I re-signed for two years. Last year was bittersweet because I got off to a good start and ruptured my Achilles. Having the ability to come back this year and be a part of this team and to be with the guys in the locker room, that was huge. Me and Kevin and Joe Dillon, we got to continue the process that we'd already started with my hitting, and I just trusted them and stuck with it. They just helped me get better at a time when I really needed to.

Q. Howie, you've been in the playoffs a lot in your career. Are you appreciating this run any differently than maybe earlier in the your career?
HOWIE KENDRICK: I enjoy it all because without all the mistakes and all the hardships and all the successes earlier in my career, none of this would be available. None of this would be possible without all that. I talk with Max quite a bit, and we're like, man, don't you wish you could go back and be how you are now then? And he goes, no, I wouldn't change it because all those failures are helping you with the success now.

And I think that's the way I look at it is all those failures, and even now my failures still help me be successful. You appreciate it even more. This is definitely truly special in a sense that I can appreciate where I came from to where I'm at now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297