NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 13, 2025

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Dodgers - 2, Brewers - 1

Q. A lot happened in the ninth inning there but the eight innings before that with the way Snell pitched, how many times have you seen a pitcher look that in control in a game like that?

PAT MURPHY: He was great. His sequencing in terms of throwing his change-up is effective. His change-up and slider were incredible. The kid is incredible. I've seen him pitch like that before.

I think it's the most dominant performance against us. I've been here 10 years, I think that's -- the kid Schwellenbach from Atlanta had one kind of in the shadows, it was kind of different. The kid was amazing.

Will Smith, the way he called the game, it was unusual the way he did it. He didn't go back and forth, back and forth. He went change-up, change-up, change-up. The ball was moving so much. It was such a great pitch. He recognized it, stayed with it. I credit Smith, too, and Snell was unbelievable.

Q. We kind of saw it throughout the times in the regular season, even on nights where a guy on the opposite side was throwing the ball really well, you could at least work the pitch count up get him out of the game early by not chasing, working longer at-bats. Did it feel like how Snell was throwing tonight, he kind of took away your opportunities to do that?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, his breaking ball was so good, he could flip it in there for a strike and then have the one below. It was really hard to discern, and the change-up was dominant to right-handers. So it was really, really difficult to get a bead on it.

He did. We couldn't get anything going. Those pitches are really hard to bunt. They're really hard to put in play. We don't usually punch out 10 times. But, you know, it's what happened.

And our defense was great. Our defense played great. The play Sal made. Collins made a great play. Turang made three or four really nice plays. That was a great performance on our behalf.

Our pitching staff, for the most part, did a really, really good job. Freddie Freeman has been a Brewer killer for a while. So hopefully he'll oversleep tomorrow or something.

Q. On that double play to end the fourth inning, have you ever seen anything like that before? What was your view of it from the dugout?

PAT MURPHY: Just what happened. Sal caught it. Then it touched the wall. A baserunner got confused, and we got it in as quickly as possible, made the play at the plate. And heads-up, William got the out at third.

I mean, it's very unusual. It's tough for the baserunner to figure out what happened. But it's one of those plays in baseball, we got very fortunate there.

Great defense on our guys' part for Sal and Contreras to be that heads up, Joey make the throw. That was big. We had another big double play after that, after we walked Ohtani. It was a pretty special defensive night. And a night, to hold the Dodgers down two runs and a lead-off walk, it's a different game.

Q. You made the decision to intentionally walk Shohei twice, even though the numbers show that he's really scuffling. Is that a situation where he's just so good that he can bust out of it at any time and he's the guy you don't want, you decided coming into this series, that's the guy that's not going to beat you?

PAT MURPHY: It wasn't as hard a decision as you think because when a bag's open and you can turn it into a double-play situation, you've got a right-hander on the mound, you kind of have to go for that.

Shohei is at least dangerous enough, struggling or not, he's dangerous enough to hit a fly ball. And you can't give up the run there. With the way we were swinging against Snell, we couldn't give up a run.

I don't think those were like huge risky decisions. The numbers didn't matter to me.

I told you guys the first day here, I think Mookie Betts is one of the best players in baseball for a lot of reasons. But it was no disrespect to him. It was just the right thing to do with a right-hander on the mound and Shohei coming up with his ability to strike the ball so hard and put it in the outfield.

Q. On the double play, just making sure, it seemed like everybody on the field was confused except your three guys who handled the ball. So I just wanted to make sure, do you ever talk about plays like this or practice plays like this, or is that impossible?

PAT MURPHY: Sal is one of the most intelligent baseball players you are going to find. He gets it. And he's a great outfielder, playing center field for the first time in a while.

But he's mad that he didn't make the catch. But if he did, the runner would have scored easily. So it's kind of one of those plays, like, unfortunate for the Dodgers that that happened.

But the heads-upness of Sal to just get it in as soon as possible, and then for Joey to turn around and say, where else to throw it, throw it to the plate. He saw the guy going. So it was great.

And Contreras, heads-up. Really heads-up that it wasn't a tag play; it's a force play.

Q. Did you know it was scored as a grounded into double play?

PAT MURPHY: I'm mad at scorers anyway right not because of not giving Yelich the stolen base in that game and explaining it like indifference when it's a stolen base. That's all there is to it. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know everything.

But putting it that way, I guess I don't know how else they would term it, how else would they term it.

Q. Millions of Americans, probably in the ninth inning are yelling, "Just wear it, just get hit" at Turang. What did you think and the reaction of it?

PAT MURPHY: It's a natural reaction if someone turns and makes a gesture towards you, you're going to -- it's the same thing when the ball is coming towards you your natural thing, it's a breaking ball, your natural thing is to do that.

And I know he was thinking the same thing after the ball passed. It happens. He'll learn from that situation. But it's hard. Even if you try to maneuver yourself, it's hard to get hit by the pitch because it's so reactionary.