NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 18, 2021

Walker Buehler

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. You had success against the Braves with a .257 ERA this season. How confident do you feel to face that powerful lineup and do you feel you can go deeper in the game?

WALKER BUEHLER: Certainly the plan is try and get deep in the game, same as kind of always and throughout the season.

But, yeah, kind of got our backs against the wall and hopefully can get us deep into it and get us a victory here at home.

Q. How do you feel like you bounced back after pitching on short rest for the first time in your career?

WALKER BUEHLER: Physically I felt pretty good. I got a little sick in San Francisco, but, you know, I'm feeling all right, so no worse for the wear.

Q. Is there like a feeling out process just trying to figure out how your body was going to respond to it for the first time at the big league level?

WALKER BUEHLER: I wouldn't say feeling out. It's something you get thrown into and however you feel is however you feel. I didn't know really what to expect, I guess, but it wasn't too different than a normal start, I guess, so nothing real drastic.

Q. How much was that just sort of part of what you discussed with Max and Clayton like before making that short rest start just how your body would bounce back afterwards?

WALKER BUEHLER: I told you I didn't really want to talk about it when I had those conversations, so I don't think I want to talk about it too much now. So nothing weird happened. That's all I'll say.

Q. I got to follow up on that. When you say you got sick, what do you mean? Something you ate?

WALKER BUEHLER: I don't want to talk about that one either.

Q. A lot of secrets today.

WALKER BUEHLER: Yeah, I'm a secretive guy.

(Smiling.)

Q. Have you noticed a difference in the team and just how exhausting things have been with the five games, intense games against the Giants and being outside the bubble and having to travel and home field back and forth?

WALKER BUEHLER: Yeah, whoever was there, I don't know if I would ever say I really missed the bubble a lot, but certainly some of the travel and the stuff that that puts on you as a player, as a staff, as a coach, as a human, I think it's something that you kind of forget when you don't do it for a year.

And there's a lot more that goes into winning the playoffs than just the games. I think handling the travel, handling nutrition, things like that are huge and the bubble we didn't really have to worry about that kind of stuff.

So kind of a re-adjustment period and we've done this a few times before, so hopefully settle back into it and start winning some games.

Q. I won't ask what happened in San Francisco, but did it affect, were you around the team? Were you not around the team? Did you fly ahead to Los Angeles?

WALKER BUEHLER: No, I flew with the team from San Francisco to Atlanta.

Q. And then from Atlanta to here, were you here ahead of them?

WALKER BUEHLER: I flew last night early, yeah.

Q. Not that you would ever make any excuse of it and you're used to it, but does the early start time tomorrow at 2:00 compared to all these kind of 5:00, 4:30 start times change anything at all?

WALKER BUEHLER: Honestly probably less now than during the regular season. As you said, we're playing a lot of games at 5:00, at 4:30, and normally we play at 7 or 6, so it's actually probably closer for a day-game scenario than normal for us, so I would say probably even less so of an effect.