NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 3, 2026

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Can you walk through the calculus of giving Yelich the start against Ray over Vaughn?

PAT MURPHY: I don't think there's calculus involved in that one. I think Yeli's career speaks for itself, what he means to this team speaks for itself. He's had success against Ray. He's swinging the bat good this last seven or eight days. There's been a lot of positives.

Vaughn is going to be an important part of this. There wasn't a whole bunch there.

Q. One of my esteemed colleagues here asked Misiorowski yesterday about we saw some teams using their starting pitchers on throw days in the game instead of on the bullpen mound. Do you think in a series like this is possible? Is that door open for a pitcher of his caliber?

PAT MURPHY: Of course, you know, first mindful of the person's desire versus how sensible it is from a physical standpoint, especially a guy that throws the ball the way Miz does. Is it sensible? It's gonna be his throw day, but we're not looking for him to bump 101 in his bullpen session. You know what I mean?

If he's coming into a game with the warmups and the adrenaline. So I think it's more reserved for veteran pitchers. But it's not out of the question.

Q. Brandon was just here talking. He hasn't gotten to pitch for you much in the last few of years. But just the example he's set for younger pitchers trying to work his way back to where he is?

PAT MURPHY: You know, there's just a great relationship, if you will, between Woody and the Brewers. He feels so connected, and he really cares about his teammates. He grew up as a teammate.

When he first came in the league, he understood the responsibility of being a teammate, and he took it to the fullest and he lives that now with the injuries and the setbacks he's had.

He's earned so much respect because most of these guys don't know the old Woody, they don't know the guy that stood there pumping high 90s and attacking. But they know what they've seen when he's pitched for us at 92 like he's got 99 and very effective.

That's the beauty of what Woody has done. He's been super effective with whatever's coming up, and they see that and they earn respect for it. So his words matter in there.

Q. With Joey Ortiz, how did the week off help him? And how is he doing today? Obviously we see him in the lineup.

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, we're hoping. We're definitely hoping. He's not going to be 100 percent. But we're hoping that he feels good enough to play.

I think the injury was bothering him even before that. At least the abdomen was bothering him before that. I saw a little trending down of his focus, and I knew something was bugging him.

But we're going with it. We feel like he's ready. He's worked hard this week. And at the same time we've catered some of the work so he didn't have to get overexposed physically.

Q. Can you talk about the decision to ultimately put Kyle and Dustin on the roster? And what were the discussions like with Kyle the last couple of days?

PAT MURPHY: Harrison you're talking about? I don't know all their names front and back. I just know nickname is usually the way to go. In the postseason there isn't a runner on second in extra innings, so it's very real that you could have an extended game.

We felt like Kyle has done a lot for this team and he's got length, as opposed to a guy like Grant Anderson that doesn't have that kind of length. That outweighed everything else.

Q. What about Dustin May?

PAT MURPHY: Dustin May has had great success versus the Padres. If you look at his numbers this year versus the Padres it's better than anyone.

And he's got some experience in this situation. So that wasn't a tough one either. I say it wasn't a tough one. It wasn't one we had to have long debates about.

I had a quick discussion with Kyle. I said, you're on the postseason roster. He said good. That was it.

Q. I'm just curious what your opinion is on, in these kind of games, on the value of experience and having been there before for a player versus just raw talent. Because this group you have, you kind of have a little bit of a mix of both. So I'm curious how you think those things play out in these kind of games.

PAT MURPHY: I think a couple things. You've got the lay-off where we're not in the rhythm of games. You've got the emotion of the game. You've got youth. We've got to overcome that. Those are the three things that we've got to overcome.

And every team's got to overcome something in this thing. You had to sit; that's better than having to play because anything can happen. History has proven anything can happen and the Wild Cards can beat the seeds or whatever.

So you have to overcome that. You have to overcome the emotion of that layoff and the inexperience.

But when you have a belief, I truly think this is true, when you have a belief, you back up the belief with action. And as long as they're willing to go out and act and behave the right way without just letting the emotion try to force them to do something good, I think it's more about understanding how to play winning baseball than just pure talent.

If you're playing winning baseball, you're not allowing guys with just talent to beat you, you know what I mean? You're exporting the things that maybe they don't do things as well.

Q. Where do you stand with Bauers' outfield availability right now?

PAT MURPHY: That's a tough one. I think it's pretty tough to say that if he was 100 percent healthy, you might put him in the outfield and put him on first. It's not that he can't play out there. It's just that the risk and the risk of losing him and the risk of less defense, that was the decision that I felt was the right one.

Q. What were the conversations that went into not carrying a third catcher? And how do you anticipate that hamstringing your ability to use Gary off the bench in the series?

PAT MURPHY: We played 140 games, let's say, 130-some, with two catchers. So we go back to that mindset. That doesn't really hamstring us. But we're not going to hit Gary in the third inning probably.

Q. Cooper has been on a bit of a roll these past couple of weeks. And putting him sixth in the lineup tonight, he hasn't bumped up that high up in the lineup at this point. Just what have you seen growth from him? What have you seen (indiscernible) moments to move up?

PAT MURPHY: When you're developing a lineup, there's so much more that goes into it. I would love to have that discussion if we had an hour and 45 minutes. But there's so much to developing a lineup and why and when and if this but this.

You're considering the other team, your own team, your individual player, his psyche, the options it gives you later, the mindset of who's pitching.

There's so many things that go into it. Now when you say "Cooper," he has, he's given us great at-bats. Joey Ortiz was in the second half -- you can pick any segment of time you want -- you can say Joey Ortiz could be there, if you were just rewarding the place in the order based on who is hitting the best, if you just hit the best hitters 1 through 6. It doesn't always work like that.

But we feel like with what we're facing, Cooper is the best option there and letting Joey hit down in the order.

Q. You've experienced your fair share of postseasons. What most excites you about this specific postseason getting underway?

PAT MURPHY: Well, I mean, I feel like we're going to play two teams that -- this week and next week, we're going to play two teams that prepare us to win the World Series, you know what I mean? I really do. You can beat these two teams, you're right there, because they're two of the best teams in baseball.

Now whether it's the Braves or the Dodgers, I don't know. But if you can beat those two teams, you can be champs. Not that I don't respect the Yankees or Tampa Bay or Cleveland or Chicago. Respect the heck out of them.

And when we get there I'll tell you at that time, this is the greatest team in the league. I'll pull some stuff like that.

(Laughter).

I shouldn't have said that. You guys know that. You knew that already.

But this is a great test, a great test. But this is what you have to do if you want to be champions. If you just want to say, hey, you're the best in the regular season again, still leaves you a little like kind of empty. Great job. It's not what it's all about.

The city, the fans, the state, now that's what this is about.

Q. Have you guys had any more ABS conversations, strategy, discussions, things along those lines during the week off ahead of the postseason?

PAT MURPHY: Here's one of the things, do you coach? Have you ever coached?

Q. No.

PAT MURPHY: You might coach some day, right.

Q. Tee ball in the backyard?

PAT MURPHY: You might coach some day.

Q. Oh, yeah.

PAT MURPHY: Keep this in mind. What you know you don't have to tell the player because sometimes telling them things, it's too much and it paralyzes them.

Now everything's different. You don't want them to have that feeling that everything's different. They're going to feel that it's different. And if you fill their mind with, okay, no ABS, and no ABS after this. It's really hard.

You kind of have to let it flow and you might mention general, hey, man, remember, green only. Could put you in a bind.

I also think umpires will be on their -- they'll be really good. Don't ask me that after the game.

(Laughter).

Q. This Padres bullpen gets more chase outside the zone than any other bullpen in baseball. They throw a lot of secondary stuff in the late innings. What kind of test does that present for your guys knowing how highly you value swing decisions?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I think that's the message. You're going to see great stuff. I'm going to say the next however number of games it takes, we're going to see great stuff every guy standing on the mound. Whether it's the Padres, Dodgers or Braves.

So swing decisions become crucial, but no more crucial than we've demonstrated all year.

Knowing how good stuff is, what happens is you get geared up because the velo is so good, you get geared up, and then that ends up you making a hasty decision because you can't calm yourself down and say, hey, I've just got to touch it.

Q. I think the Brewers social media team has done a great job taking us into the clubhouse for some of your pep talks. Did you have one --

PAT MURPHY: I really can't stand the word "pep talk". That sounds '50s. When were you born?

Q. '50s.

PAT MURPHY: I doubt it.

Q. Have you had a message for you guys?

PAT MURPHY: I had a pep talk.

Q. Did you have a pep talk or pepto?

PAT MURPHY: No, I had a conversation.

Q. What was the conversation?

PAT MURPHY: Huh?

Q. What was the conversation with your guys?

PAT MURPHY: Just had a conversation, open discussion of where we're at, what we need to do, what's happening on the bus. We call it the bus; we're all together on the bus. It's hard for other people to understand what's going on the bus.

We talked about what is going on, what are some things going forward. Some players spoke up.

If I told you everything then I might have just invited you in the room. You know what I mean? Did you get an invitation? No. You ask, I might have considered it.