NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 3, 2026

Christian Yelich

Brandon Woodruff

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Could you just provide us with an update of where you're at right now currently?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: I'm progressing, getting to a point where I can get off the mound here pretty soon. Last few throwing progressions or times out, throwing has been pretty good. Just trying to get to a spot where I'm comfortable and can get off the mound. And last few I've been doing pretty good. I don't have an exact date, but very soon, yep.

Q. Christian, when you look at the Padres pitching staff, it's pretty veteran, and there's a lot of postseason experience there. What do you think, starting with Ray and the other guys that they might throw at you, are the particular challenges of that group?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, I mean, they've got a great pitching staff. They've got a really good team, honestly. Pretty well rounded and can beat you in a lot of ways. We're going to have to play well. We're going to have to take advantage of the opportunities that we do get, make sure that we're executing well and playing well. And we anticipate it being a great series against a really good team.

Q. Brandon, you said you were kind of hoping possibly to get ready for the postseason. I'm assuming the earliest possible would be the World Series if you get that far. Would that be correct?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: I think that would be fair to say, yeah.

Q. But you're still holding out hope for that possibility?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: Oh, yeah, for sure, yeah.

Q. Christian, Pat Murphy told us that the biggest theme for him this season is just how he's gotten to trust you guys, everyone in that clubhouse. Obviously, I feel you guys will always have trust with each other, but when do you feel that the trust evolved to where it's undeniable at this point in the postseason?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: I think we've always had it, since day one of Spring Training. We've had a lot of the same team together. There's a couple new pieces from over the years, but from the most part, we were ready to go since Spring Training and knew what we were capable as a team. So the whole year we believed in ourselves, believed in each other, and a big reason why we played well.

Q. Brandon, as a fellow pitcher, from what you see from Misiorowski, how does he do what he does? What's the most amazing thing you've seen him do?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: Gosh. I mean, nobody has seen a starting pitcher quite like Miz. I think what we saw last year in the kind of step he took forward in the playoffs last year was kind of the jump-start for him.

And the big thing with Miz is just getting him in zone. I think he had a great offseason and came in Spring Training, you could see early on that he had a different fastball. Something was a little bit extra there.

And we've seen the maturity of how he's handled outings and bounced back and not that he's had any bad outings this year, but he's grown up. He's grown up. He's maturing as a pitcher and that's cool to see, and he's only in year two.

But 105 is -- we don't see that. But he does it consistently. That's not the norm. So it's kind of weird because we get desensitized to it a little bit because we see it every five or six days, but what Miz is doing is incredible.

Q. And Henderson's had a great season too. You've seen the way this team develops pitching and cultivates pitching. What is it about the Brewers that produces such good pitchers?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: I think one, it starts with our staff, from the front office down. I've been with Hooky a long time now, Jim a lot. It's just instilling confidence in the stuff you have. Maybe we have some tweaks here or there.

A lot of it is game planning, understanding who you are. And just the environment -- I think our clubhouse and our organization is a great place to be. And it's just instilling the confidence and getting in the spot where, once you see the success, you just keep going.

I think that's a big part of the formula and just trying to build off of that. So I don't think there's any secret sauce. We just, internally, we know how to look at guys and see how we can get the best out of them.

Q. Christian, when it's a Miz day, can you describe the confidence inside the clubhouse, how you feel going into one of those starts?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, I mean, we're confident when he goes out there. We're confident when any of our guys go out there. We know that if we play well we play our game we have a good chance of winning. Obviously Miz gives us a good chance of winning most of the times when he's out there.

So we're excited that he's going out there for Game 1. And really trust him to give us a great opportunity to win a game. And like Woody said, he's had an unbelievable season been a great pitcher. Looking forward to tonight.

Q. Christian, yesterday Matt was talking about this team having a bit of an edge. Jake was saying maybe last year you guys didn't have the full belief that you could do it, but this is totally different. Do you feel that in the locker room? If so, why do you think that is?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, I don't know. I believed in us last year. I believed that we could win last year. It just didn't work out for us. We played a great Dodger team and ran up against some great arms. We didn't play great for whatever reason, and that was that.

I don't know why you wouldn't believe in yourself at this point. I don't know what team that's made it to the postseason doesn't believe that they have a chance to win it all or doesn't believe that they're a great team.

I just can't fathom not having the belief to go out there and win and believe in your guys and believe in your teammates. We've got a great group. We've got a confident group, guys that have experienced the postseason before. We've experienced some great moments, some tough moments, everything in between.

So we're ready to go. And everybody believes in each other. And we like our chances.

Q. Woody, Murph has talked a lot about the youth of this pitching staff. And I know you've been a sounding board for these young guys really throughout the season. Now that it's into the playoffs, is there any different advice or something different you would tell these guys, talk to them about, to kind of prepare them for the big games, the higher leverage that's coming up here?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: Yeah, once you get to the postseason, I think it's kind of a freeing experience where there's nothing to lose. You just go out and you're worried about winning that day, and that's the mindset.

But truly, it's getting in the moment, the pitch-to-pitch, the kind of cliché sayings, but it truly matters this time of year.

And just drawing from experience in the past, just being able to -- you don't have to change anything. It's just, you know, there's a little more scrutiny on each pitch, maybe more cameras here, whatever. But it doesn't change the day-to-day preparation. And you have to put no more pressure on yourself.

So I think that's kind of the message is it's almost kind of a freeing time to just go out and kind of just let it eat and see what happens.

That's served me well in the past. You kind of let guys do their own things, but that would be the one thing is just be in the moment. Be in the moment, go pitch to pitch as a pitcher, try to execute as best you can. And you live with the results. And I think that's all can you do this time of year.

Q. Do you ever think about the sliding doors moment in 2018 when the Brewers almost acquired Manny Machado at the trade deadline. And so what might have been different in 2018 if you had him. And then also I wonder if you're surprised that eight years later Brewers fans seemingly have not forgotten Manny Machado's play in Game 4 of that series?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: Yeah, I don't know. 2018's almost 10 years ago. We're the only two guys left from that team here. So some of our guys were 10 years old when 2018 went down. So I don't think they're thinking about too much of it either.

Fans will be fans. They feel obligated to boo. So that's their right. They can cheer. They can boo. They can do whatever they want. We're focused on the game, and that's kind of where our attention is going to be.

Q. How do you feel getting set to walk into the atmosphere tonight? What's special about Milwaukee and the fans?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: It's just postseason baseball is exciting. You never know how many opportunities you're going to get to experience it, how many times the team's going to have that opportunity.

So it's always exciting. It's exciting to have the opportunity in front of us as a team and the chance to do this again for another year. I think you don't take that for granted and realize just how special that is.

And there's a lot of energy in the building, and it's been a great place to play in postseasons past. I think everybody in there is just really looking forward to getting started tonight.

Q. Woody, you've had moments in your career where you know, okay, you'll need surgery, this season is over. You've had to push in the offseason to get ready and get ramped up. Maybe this is one of the first times where, you know, there is a chance this season at the end of the postseason if you're able to make it to the World Series. Just how hard have you pushed knowing that there is a chance?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: I went to a point where I genuinely was going to have surgery, but the information that was in front of me and going home and things kind of settled down, the dust settled and things healed up, and I got back to throwing.

I didn't really know the path forward in terms of what that looked like for me. But, yeah, I mean, going through any type of surgery is -- the rehab is tough. The shoulder's a little bit more complicated.

But, yeah, I mean, once I broke down the calendar and kind of looked, I've said this before, whether it's smart or not, I don't know. But it's just in me.

How many times do you get a chance to pitch in the World Series? Yeli has been playing a long time. This is my ninth year. We've never gotten to do it. It may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I understand the repercussions that could come with that. But I'm at a point where I'm okay with it.

That's not to say that -- things still have to go right for me leading up to this. The team has to play great. We've got to put ourselves in that position. But I'm at least going through the proper steps to try to give myself an opportunity. And obviously the clock's ticking here with the amount of days.

But I always have a belief that I can get guys out at any moment, and I think that will never leave me. But, yeah, I'm trying to take the proper steps, be smart in it in the way leading up. But if we can get that moment, I would love the opportunity and the chance to be able to do it and give myself that opportunity. So that's what I'm shooting for.

Q. Christian, you've been one of the constants throughout all of these playoff runs here in this organization. Is there anything that you've learned throughout the years or changed regarding how you approach these kind of games?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: No, look, you've got to take advantage of the opportunities you get in the games. There's a couple plays each night that determine the outcome usually. You've got to make big pitches. You've got to get big hits. The times you do, you usually come out on top. The times you don't, then it's tough for you.

This time of the year, you're playing a great team no matter who you're playing. And no matter what round you're in, it's a great team. It's a team that's played really good all year and has earned the right to be here.

And to beat good teams, you've got to execute, you've got to play well, you've got to do most things right. And I think we know that. I think obviously the times we haven't hasn't gone well for us in the past, and it was kind of the same for us as a team this year.

When we played well and we played our game, most of the time we came out on top. And we beat ourselves or didn't play well, those were the few nights that we lost this year. And I imagine the same will be true in the postseason.

We just go play our game, do what we're capable of doing, I think that's a freeing thing for the team knowing that you're not playing any new teams or teams you haven't played yet this season.

And when we went out and played our brand of baseball and a clean game, we always liked our chances.

Q. Going off your last answer there, given the news about not having surgery frankly changed the outlook of the rest of your career to a degree. Is there a balance of that and pushing it at the end of this season, if that makes sense?

BRANDON WOODRUFF: Yeah, there definitely could be a balance. That's why I'm trying to put myself in a good position to be able to -- that's why I mentioned -- I don't really know if it's smart or not, you know? But you don't get that opportunity every day.

And I'm progressing. I'm feeling good right now with what I'm doing. So I'm not going to stop that. I'm going to give myself that opportunity. And I'm not really thinking about the future at this point.

Going through the surgery, going through the first time and going through the last couple of years, I've learned not to look ahead a lot. That gets you into trouble.

So I'm living in the moment. Obviously, this is about the guys in the clubhouse, this team. We've got a great team. It's about them. And I'll be cheering in the dugout. I'll be doing everything I can from that standpoint.

So I'm not too worried about the future, in a sense. I'm kind of living where my feet are and trying to be a good teammate for this team, this round and hopefully we can keep moving on.

Q. Wondering if both of you guys would mind responding to this one. How is this day, the first day of the playoffs, different when you're a player who's, not to be presumptuous, but maybe closer to the end of a career than the beginning? Is it different?

CHRISTIAN YELICH: I think you're just as excited as all the other times. The only difference is you probably know there's not 10 more years ahead of you for opportunities to play in the postseason and win a championship.

But I think the feeling and the excitement's the same as for the first one. I think there's so much hard work that goes into getting to this point as a team. And it's been the goal since Spring Training to get here and keep progressing throughout the postseason. And only a few teams get the chance to do it.

I think there's a lot of excitement surrounding that. You realize how precious the opportunities are. I think you just enjoy them. There's more enjoyment than anything. I think kind of living, like Woody said, living in the moment more, kind of just take it all in, leave it all out there.

BRANDON WOODRUFF: Piggybacking off of that, just enjoying these times. Earlier in your career you kind of, as a player, you know you've got a lot of years left. So it goes by super fast.

This is year nine for me, eight in the playoffs. And it has gone by in a blink of an eye.

So I think just taking a step back, enjoying these days, relishing these days. I was at the ballpark like at 11:30 today. A little too early. That's okay. I was excited. I'm not participating in the series but I'm just excited for our team, our organization, the city.

This is what has become the norm here, and it's something that's been established, like, playoff baseball in Milwaukee is different, and I'm excited -- I woke up excited; what's the stadium going to be like tonight, you know what I mean? The energy around not only the game, but just the fans. Man, it makes this place special.

So I'm trying to enjoy these however many years I get to play, I don't know, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it, and we'll see where this year takes us.