NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 3, 2026

Brent Suter

Dodger Stadium

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Brent, how would you describe the last not quite 48, but 36 hours for you guys? The highs of getting past the Phillies and now everything getting to this point?

BRENT SUTER: Adrenaline glands are working, let's put it that way. Unbelievable job in that last series, "all hands on deck" type mentality, guys stepping up big time. Then getting all the travel plans going, families coming on the trip. It's been great.

Then getting ready for this great challenge ahead of us with the Dodgers. A lot of respect. Obviously a great team and a lot of respect for how they do things over there. Preparation mode now.

I was talking to everybody in the clubhouse, everybody woke up 6:00 a.m., adrenaline spiked, we're all ready to go. Just a matter of harnessing that and channeling that in the right focus out there between the lines. Just a lot of fun.

It's a great opportunity. Personally I'm so grateful to be in this position and be with a great team like the Braves and great organization. Just very, very happy, grateful, but also ready for the challenge.

Q. I'm going to ask you to be an environmental science major nerd here for a second. When you see a game-time temperature of triple digits here in October in Los Angeles, are there any specific environmental science thoughts running through your mind? Do you go to your teammates and say here's how we cope with this? Are you being active in that regard?

BRENT SUTER: It's a good question. I haven't yet. I've just been kind of like how are we going to deal with the heat now? I haven't been using it as an alarm bell for environmental causes. We're a little bit more focused on the game right now.

Definitely in the back of my mind, I'm like 100 degrees in October in L.A., that's definitely not normal. Obviously super El Nino is a big thing to do with that. It's going to be a challenge for both sides to stay hydrated, especially the position players. I don't know how they do it day in and day out with some of this heat.

Yeah, just making sure everyone is hydrated and staying loose and getting electrolytes in us for sure. It's definitely in the back of my mind environmentally for sure.

Q. I know Dylan's got some starting experience obviously from a few years back, but for him to step in as an opener, any conversations you've had with him or just the bullpen as a whole trying to prepare for that type of role?

BRENT SUTER: Haven't really talked to him yet. We were just getting loose together and getting excited. He's ready. We're all ready. It's kind of "all hands on deck" mentality today for sure.

Yeah, we definitely all want the ball. We all want to be able to help our team win and go out there against a very good lineup and attack really is the main thing, just attack.

He knows. He's a pro. He's been doing it for a while now, and he's really good at his job. He's a very well-prepared pitcher, just a great, great kid too. Great makeup, great kid. Super excited for him.

Q. I'm curious just I'm sure externally you're aware everyone looks at the Dodgers, oh, two-time defending champions, they're rolling through. Do you guys see yourselves as underdogs at all? Kind of how do you frame just the way you guys look at the series?

BRENT SUTER: I'm sure we, like some guys have heard the noise, that the Dodgers are favored or whatever. But we look at ourselves as a really good team. We look at ourselves as a World Series team. I think everyone looks around -- I'm certainly -- I have kind of an outsider perspective with the Braves because I got traded over here two months ago, and when we played the Braves earlier this year and just playing them the last several years, it's some of the best teams I've played against, some of the best lineups, core, pitching staffs.

To get over here and see how they do things, it's just been that much more impressive to see the behind the scenes. We've got the aces of all aces in Chris Sale. We've got great lineup, great bullpen. We are, I think, a very, very good team.

Yeah, it's certainly the Dodgers are back-to-back world champions for a reason, they've done it, but we are ready for the challenge, and we look at ourselves as a very good team.