NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS VS BREWERS

October 5, 2025

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. What are your pitching plans for tomorrow?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, Ashby is going to start. What's his first name, Aaron? I just call him Ashby. How many years has he been with us? Fifth year? I've just known him as Ashby.

Q. Who's to follow?

PAT MURPHY: Now you want to know who's pitching and who's coming in the game after that? Do you want to know who's substituting in the fifth inning? I don't know if Priester will be next. I really don't.

Q. Can you give us an update on where Jackson is with his hamstring?

PAT MURPHY: I can't give you a definitive, but I know that we're going to test some things today. He's going to be out there today. I don't know that he'll do much, but the MRI came back and it's inconclusive and it's not a serious hamstring strain, but it's not necessarily something that won't limit him.

We're going to kind of see how he feels. He's going to go through some testing, and if he feels anything, we're going to shut it down.

Q. It's not a Game 2 question - I don't know if the timing is odd - but if Counsell wouldn't have left, were you content in your role? Would you have just done that open-endedly, or were you itching to manage?

PAT MURPHY: That's out of left field, isn't it, a little bit? Was I itching to manage? Yeah, I wasn't content. Yeah, I mean, I loved what we had going. We had a good run here. But I knew it was coming to an end at some point. We were going to do something different. I didn't know for sure.

I had been contacted by some teams over the years about a managing position. Yeah, so I was not itching to do it, but I was hoping that it would happen.

I kind of let go a little bit in terms of, like, pursuing things. When you let go, I think you sometimes have a better chance. Now we're getting deep in the weeds here, but you know what I'm saying? Sometimes when you're anxious to do it, yeah, I want to do it bad, let's get in here and interview for this job, can you call him, can you call him, do you know him, I'm the best guy, I can prove -- when you let all of that go, it's kind of a better way, I think.

It happens more authentically, and then I think more good things can happen and you can keep yourself more centered when you do that.

I kind of let go of that I'd say 2020, '21.

Q. Murph, on Chourio, one of the things since he's come back is there's that mental hurdle about not wanting to experience that big pop again. How challenging is that for a player who feels a little tweak and now you're trying to figure out how to move forward?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I think that plays into it definitely. You never know how much. Jackson is a super tough kid and he's a great competitor. When you've never been injured before and you're 20-something years old, early 20s, and then all of a sudden you have a major injury and then you miss a month, then you come back and you kind of are fighting through am I really 100 percent healthy type thing and trusting people around you and all that kind of stuff, I think that comes into play.

Then you feel it again, oh, God. I think that's probably in there. But how we could measure that, I don't know. Although let's get the R&D team on it; they measure everything else.

Q. Collins had a good rookie year for you. The last month or so offensively his average kind of tailed off. Is that just teams adjusting to him, or what do you think was causing the issues over the last month or so?

PAT MURPHY: I think it's very common in professional sports, much less baseball. Batting average isn't the indicator for us. Saw what Isaac Collins did yesterday. He ball-striked it, he got called out on a back door cutter, a great pitch by their pitcher, and then hit a ball 107 miles an hour; didn't get anything for it.

Made some plays in the outfield and he was a big contributor for us, yes. His last half, like other guys I could pick out last half or last month wasn't so great, so you could do that in a lot of cases.

The fact that Chourio came back and was able to play squeezed him a little bit, playing-time. He wouldn't have made the team if we were coming off spring training 100 percent healthy. Thank God he did and thank God he did what he did for us. He was great all year for us, and will continue to contribute.

Q. If Chourio can't go tomorrow, would Collins be the guy that slots in?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, most likely.

Q. The last couple days we're trying to get your lineups, we're trying to get your pitching plans, we're trying to figure out Chourio, and you're trying to push those answers as long as possible, right? How much of this time of year, especially against a very familiar foe, is trying to keep as many of the few secrets left between these teams a little bit secret?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I don't think lineups and starting pitcher -- everybody kind of knows what the other guy is going to do, give or take a guy or two. I don't think it's as strategic as you guys are making it.

The Ashby thing, so what are they going to say? Well, Ashby -- he hasn't thrown a complete game this year; he's probably not going to throw 95 pitches. But if someone would ask me that question, I'd say, he could go as long as we want him to; know what I mean?

But knowing if you're following our team, that's just an answer that really is saying you don't follow our team so you wouldn't know the answer to that. But I don't think there's as many secrets as you think. It's not as strategic as you think.

We're going to have plenty of time to prepare because we're so familiar with the player that we're preparing for.

Q. Speaking of Ashby and the year that he's had, what do you think is the key or one of the specific things that's led to his success consistently throughout the season?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, he's matured, and he's realized that he can. His confidence level has went up. He realizes, wow, I'm pretty good, and I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses, I know what it takes for me to be good. He's very consistent.

He's a diligent worker. He loves to throw. That enables him -- and he's found the role for him that he really likes.

Q. During the season you say you normally don't like breaks, you like the rhythm. You have a break today. What does this do for your team looking forward?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure the break today was necessary. But I mean, it's the schedule, so there's no complaining and explaining. We'll take it. It was an emotional day I think for a lot of people getting back and playing, but being in a rhythm is important.

Q. They like to call this place Wrigley North -- not the Cubs, but fans, media in Chicago. I'm sure it's not ill-natured, maybe a little trash talky but meant in fun. What do you think when you hear this place called Wrigley North, and how do you characterize this environment for big games compared with elsewhere in baseball?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, so the part about Wrigley North, I've never had anybody say that to me. I guess I probably have heard it before. Yesterday wasn't Wrigley North. There just didn't seem as many Cubs fans here.

The second part of the question was how do I rate the environment?

Q. Yeah.

PAT MURPHY: Because they're cheering for us, I think it's a great one. There's a lot of great environments out there. We just came from San Diego at the end of the season; it was a great environment. LA has got a great environment. Philadelphia is a great environment. Atlanta can be a great environment. There's so many great environments in Major League Baseball, Seattle, Houston. There's just so many. We've been so lucky. I'm lucky.

You get to go around to these parks as a somewhat competitive team and they come out to see you play and want the home team to beat you. So there's some great environments we've been part of, really great ones.

But this one I can only judge from my standpoint that it's like they're cheering for us, so this is more comfortable.

When it comes right down to it, what's crazy is you don't focus on it all that much, but it does have an effect, especially when you're playing in a stadium that there's very few people there and it feels like Spring Training or it feels like the COVID year, and we've played in a couple of those, too.

But no, there's some great road environments. I wouldn't pick one as the best. They all have their own little twist to it. Yeah, Toronto, great environment. Yeah, it's fun.

Q. Imanaga is a guy you've seen three times this year. If you think back, what are some of your takeaways from the times you did face him?

PAT MURPHY: He's good. His heater, the number on the board, his heater plays way up from that. If it says 91, the hitter sees it as 95 to 96. He's got a great breaking ball, great split. Seems like a great character. Seems like a little -- I don't know. I feel like he's a great character of the game. Real successful pitcher, and they went out and got him, spent a lot of money on him, and he deserves it. He's been great.

He's been here two years; is that right? He's had two great years in my opinion.

Q. When they do the pregame chalk lineups, why don't you shake your players' hands?

PAT MURPHY: When we do the pregame --

Q. You line up on the first baseline, all the players come running down, they give their teammates high fives and then you stare Blake Perkins in the eye and don't shake his hand. Why do you do that?

PAT MURPHY: It's tradition. It's been a tradition. I've done it for 10 years now whenever we've had introductions. I just think it's -- I call it happy horse manure. It's a bunch of happy horse -- sounds better when I use the other word but I'm not going to use it because I don't use that kind of language in a public setting.

But it's just like a lot of happy horseshit; know what I mean? Then you go down the line and shake their hands and then they go warm up and they come in the dugout and you shake their hands and do some crazy handshake with them; you know what I mean? This is a lot of happy horseshit; let's play the game.

And it's kind of tradition, and if you remember way back, I don't know what year, Garcia like punched me really hard in the chest and almost knocked me down. Yelly is kind of doing that. But he knows it; Yelly has been there since then. Some players like Vaughn was like so sincere. He didn't know it. Some guys forget.

But I never go down and shake their hands. I just go right to the line. I didn't know you noticed. I didn't think anybody noticed.

Q. Murph, to use your phrase happy horseshit has become way more common among players --

PAT MURPHY: We're bleeping this out, right? Bleep.

Q. The handshakes and the dances at second base, and it's just part of the game. From your perspective how did you come to accept that and not infringe on their individuality with that stuff?

PAT MURPHY: I mean, again, who am I to say how it should be done. I didn't play in the Big Leagues. I didn't -- I don't think I have any right to dictate how things should be done.

I err on the side of it's not about you, don't make it about you, but if you do, have fun with it. Do nothing to impact another team. Don't hurt another team in any way. Don't draw attention to put them down or to make them look bad or something like that.

Don't embarrass a pitcher. Don't try to -- and I think it's kind of cool, like Lindor, I tell the story all the time, Lindor hit a homer against the Braves last year to get them in, and I was so impressed. I don't know the guy. I wave at the guy before the game or whatever. I don't know the guy, but I'm guaranteeing you he's a good teammate.

He hits the homer, one of the biggest moments of the year for the Mets, 2024, and just puts his head down and circles the bases. No back flip, no look at me. Again, guys that want to do that -- I never hit a home run in the Big Leagues so I don't know what that feels like. It's probably pretty exhilarating. But I like guys that hit it and go, hmm.

But to do something with their bat, they can be expressive if they want or they can stand there and watch it. If you hit like a Pedro Alvarez 2014 homer at 490 and you hit it in the river, I can see you looking at it for a second, not too long, and then circle the bases.

So I'm not -- that's just my preference. I don't begrudge these guys from doing whatever they want to do. I love the emotion. The blue haired kid, the way he plays with emotions, I love that. That's part of our game.

Q. You don't seem all that tense. Some people get tense at this time of year.

PAT MURPHY: Tense?

Q. Sure. You don't seem stressed out very much. Are you really good at hiding it?

PAT MURPHY: I've got two kids 10 and 6. You want to come in my office right now and see what'll make you stressed out? If Jaxon doesn't eat the right amount, he gets cranky and then it's a tough day. That's stress.

I'm grateful for what I do. I'm grateful -- I get nervous like everyone else, I get uptight and all that kind of stuff. You see me after a loss, I'm messy. After a loss there's only two guys in here most times. Sophia doesn't even show; she's like, the hell with you.

I get like that. It hurts. Every loss hurts. Before the game I was nervous yesterday. That's just all part of it. This stuff is fun for me. I like you guys, and it gets me in a good -- like a good place when I get to sit and chat with guys and people I don't know that well and people that are familiar. I love these guys that hang out every day and talk to me and then write s--- I never see.

It's beautiful because they come in the next day tippy toeing like I wrote that I was an idiot or did whatever, and I never see it, so how would I know, and then I treat them just the same.

That's how Kurt and I are such good friends.