NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 12, 2025

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Why do you do this?

PAT MURPHY: It makes the room happy. You know what I mean? Except for Mike. Is Mike even here anymore? Mike's up there. He gets pissed, and I kind of like that, part two.

Q. Your team handled the Dodgers, six games to nothing in the regular season. I don't suppose your team is the type to get overconfident. But I'll ask you.

PAT MURPHY: We're not overconfident, that's for sure. The Dodgers are a powerhouse, what can you say? You don't see many commercials in the United States, Canada, Japan, anywhere across the world, you don't have Dodgers in it because they have the star power, and they're great players.

I happen to think that Mookie Betts is one of the most underrated stars -- I say "underrated," that's kind of crazy, right? But I don't think Mookie Betts gets the credit.

Freddie Freeman is like my favorite person, player in the game. He's ruined Brewers history many times, but I still love him. I think he's a terrific player and even more terrific person.

Ohtani, you know, one of the all-time greats in, I don't know how many years he's played but he's one of the all-time greats.

But Mookie Betts, what he's doing, transitioning back to the infield and playing shortstop on America's team, like, are you kidding me? And doing it so well. I mean, his performance this year is far the most underrated. If you're watching baseball and value to a team, that dude is some kind of special.

He's like -- it would be like Steph Curry playing forward, you know what I mean? He could do it because superstars can do that. Mookie is doing something in our game that's unprecedented, I love it.

I respect the whole team. Teoscar, one of the great dudes in the game. And he's just performing in the clutch. They've got great ones. The Rojas kid has killed us. If he hits against us, he gets a hit. He's been unbelievable. So I respect the heck out of them. I really do.

Q. You're a "be where your feet are" kind of guy. I know you say you can't coast uphill. With that type of philosophy about baseball and life, how do you appreciate what you guys were able to accomplish last night while also understanding what lies ahead?

PAT MURPHY: I admire this team. I admire the guys in the clubhouse, what they've overcome, what they're about, the "who." I say that a lot. I hope I'm understood. I understand myself, but I'm not sure anybody else does.

But the "who" that they are impresses the hell out of me, just like how they go about their business, how they show up to perform every day, what they talk about, how they care about each other.

They're not baseball players that are comfortable. They're still hungry. And hungry players, they make the manager look good, that's for sure. And it's, like, I'm just proud as hell of those guys.

And I don't underestimate them. You can't look on paper and say, how many of our position players would be on the Dodgers team. You can't really project that many of them would. But somehow they find a way. And that's why I really admire our team.

Q. You just came out of the meeting. Anything you can share as far as roster breakdown anything like that?

PAT MURPHY: Sure, I'll just give it to you before we have to share it with the Dodgers. I'll just send it to you.

Q. (Indiscernible)?

PAT MURPHY: Why would I reveal that right now?

Q. You did it the first time?

PAT MURPHY: I did? That was stupid on my part. I'm going to be more strategic.

Q. How about your starting pitching plans for 1 and 2, and more generally the challenge of navigating a seven-game series with two off days versus a five-game series with three?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, it's a huge challenge on the pitching front. So it makes you a little more mindful of length, guys that can give you length. But of the guys that we're going to keep most likely -- we haven't decided to be honest with you -- we don't feel like we can make a final decision and we can't shed a position player right now. Because the way we, our options and what they are, we don't feel like we can probably shed one.

If we're only going to keep 12 pitchers, then we have to have a bunch of guys with length, so that opens the door for others that might not have been on the roster the first week. So, we've got to look at that.

Q. Starter for 1 or 2?

PAT MURPHY: I think our success using an opener is -- Freddy is going to pitch Game 2. It's probably pretty obvious -- it's his rest, it's what we can do, we can bring him back at the end if we need him. I think you can look at that as a probable.

Game 1 looks at, okay, who is on our team that can give us length -- Quintana, Priester, something like that -- give us a bulk. We may use an opener in Game 1. And then we'll look at Game 3 when we get to it.

Q. You guys had more -- opposing defenses committed more errors against you than any team in baseball. You scored more unearned runs than any team in baseball. How much is that good fortune, or to what extent is that it a result of something you're doing that causes teams to make mistakes against you?

PAT MURPHY: I think there's the threat of the bunt, the threat of the steal, the positioning thing, because we do so much of that stuff. I think that probably creates people being a little uncomfortable, a little more out of position. I don't know.

I think a lot of it is good fortune. I think a lot of it is guys that are really short on our offensive team that kind of mis-hit the ball a lot and it kind of puts everybody by surprise. Outfielders don't know where to play. They're, like, this kid is 5-foot-4. Where should I play him? I think there's a little bit of everything in there.

Q. The Dodgers have more righty starters than you saw in that last series and guys that are going to go probably longer in the games. Does that make you consider more strongly doing a situation with Bauers and Vaughn in the lineup together? Or is that just sacrificing too much defense in your mind?

PAT MURPHY: Yep, that's the discussion. You could be in our discussions if you would like to join us. Those are the things that I'm contemplating. Like, do you put Bauers in the outfield? Who do you sacrifice? And what does that do to the rest of your outfield defense? That type of stuff.

Some version of that -- Collins. He's been a huge part of our team. Some version of that is there.

Q. What Misiorowski did for you guys in the DS, how does that -- especially coming off his end to the season, how does that color your perception of how you can use him here?

PAT MURPHY: No question, that's a great question. Truly, Miz stepping up the way he has, we have more and more confidence in him. And he's back in the groove a little bit. And I think that helps our team.

We're going to have to piece it together. That's how we do it. It's patchwork. It's proven to be pretty good. Yelly calls it the collection of misfit toys. Everybody has been DFA'ed or moved around or been through really tough stretches, whatever. And it's kind of all hands on deck and they're ready to do whatever. It's kind of cool.

Q. Going back to 2015 with the Padres, obviously you and Doc were on that coaching staff. Kotsay became a manager. Will Venable became a manager. What do you remember about the baseball acumen with that team. And what have you learned in the 10 seasons since?

PAT MURPHY: My baseball experience in the big leagues in 10 years, I've been around -- I was around Buddy Black. He's unbelievable. I was around Brad Ausmus, Trevor Hoffman, Mark Loretta, Dave Roberts, Hoffy's brother.

Q. Glenn?

PAT MURPHY: I knew that. Glenn. I mean, around so many good baseball people, you know what I mean? That whole Padre experience helped me grow immensely.

I've done the minor leagues for three, four, five years there. And that helped me, but then the first time in the big leagues, all those guys around. And some of those guys were just getting started in coaching. Doc was just getting started coaching.

Some other -- I was around Darren Balsly the pitching coach there. Just some really just great baseball people. I'm just really thankful because they all had plenty of laughs on me and we had a great time, and I learned a ton. I learned a ton.

Q. Back to Misiorowski for a second, will he start in this series, do you think? Or do you like middle of the game?

PAT MURPHY: I don't know. I really don't know. That hasn't been concrete yet. There's a possibility he'd start.

Q. Logan Henderson has been in Arizona, we understand.

PAT MURPHY: He's actually here. And you knew that. I think you knew that.

Q. You expect him to be part of this?

PAT MURPHY: Could be. Could be. It's tough. The guy hasn't thrown a pitch in a game, in a real game for a while. It will be tough to put him on. But I think he's here. It's a rumor, he's here.

Now before we close this up and, again, I don't want to take up any of the Dodgers precious time. They're on a shoestring budget. They can't go anything extra. How about any of the Japanese reporters, ask me a question. It would be a thrill for me.

Q. Your team is really young. What's the key to navigating a young player in their biggest moment like this?

PAT MURPHY: I think each other. I think the fact that they have each other and they rely -- and they feel responsible for each other, and I don't want to let him down, my teammate. I want to do the job for him instead of, it's all about me, I've gotta do the job, I gotta look good.

I've got to be responsible to him. I think it's a teammate thing when you have young players.

Q. You may possibly face Shohei as a pitcher. What are your impressions, your ideas about him as a pitcher?

PAT MURPHY: My impressions as a pitcher is that he's unbelievable. The game I saw him pitch the other day was, like, uh, a split-finger from the top of the zone all the way to the bottom. Amazing.

The guy's amazing. What can you say? The guy is amazing. I've never seen a baseball player with that much ability. So, yeah, we'll have our work cut out for us.

The other kid is pretty good, the lefty. What's his name? Shell? Snell. I'm joking, of course. I've been very disappointed when he's pitched and I'm in the stadium. He's really good.

And Glasnow is really good. And Yamamoto is really good. The guy at the end -- who is the guy at the end throwing 100 with a split? That shouldn't be fair. We're going to try to petition the league and see if we can get him suspended for something (laughter). Isn't there something we can get him on to get him out?

You know how goofy I am. Look at this, I've got stuff -- think of this lineup, okay. This is in my scouting report still: Seager, Bellinger, Gonzalez, Utley, Grandal, Taylor, Puig, Barnes, Hernandez, Granderson, Turner, Joc Pederson.

What year was that? '15. Was it '18? Yeah, it could have been.

I got these things from way back when because some of the signs never change -- Kershaw, Hill, Jansen -- I love Kenley Jansen. You guys miss him? I love him. Romo, Morrow, Stripling -- Cingrani was on the team. That's beautiful. That's my life.