NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 3, 2026

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Brewers - 3, Padres - 2

Q. How is your heart rate after that game?

PAT MURPHY: Great ball game. I think the only thing that you could probably figure on the ball that everybody's going to be talking about is that Ueck decided to put his hand on it and swat it down so Chourio could catch it. So thanks, Ueck.

Q. Do you think it was out?

PAT MURPHY: It was going to be a foul ball. It was going to be a foul ball for sure. I'm standing right on that line a hitter that talented. They would have liked to have, a hitter that talented, they would have liked to have that hitter back up there with another strike.

Q. On that ball, how much credit goes to Jackson Chourio there for watching it all the way to your glove on that?

PAT MURPHY: Chourio is somebody you've got to talk about all night tonight, the way he swang the bat, the way he played defense.

You think about, he really set the tone for us once we got comfortable hitting the ball that he did. Then the next two at-bats he hit the ball on the nose. Made that play on defense, made another play to cut off a ball that could have been a double. He was -- he is sensational.

We had a lot of good performances.

But the pitching staff, what Megill did at the end, Contreras, he's been doing it all year long, but he excels this time of the year. It's fun to see.

Q. You said yesterday that home runs are thrown and maybe you guys weren't as ready for them as other teams this season. How do you feel about the two home runs you hit tonight?

PAT MURPHY: They were helpful. They were helpful. We'll take 'em.

Q. I know Miz's fastball command wasn't the greatest that it's ever been tonight, but what did you think about going away from the fastball in that second inning. He got all the hits were on sliders and cutters?

PAT MURPHY: It was not the plan. That wasn't the plan. But his velo dropped five miles per hour almost in the second inning. He wasn't in sync.

And in the second inning his heater wasn't as a strike very often. He was missing his spots and they felt like they had to go to off-speed.

I would have liked to have him continue at 104 and throw it over the plate. But his pitch count was getting really, really high.

After you see the play, why didn't you just throw a fastball at 103? But they weren't feeling good -- and Miz himself -- they weren't feeling good about the heater command after the first inning. And even in the first inning, he was 20-some pitches in.

But Senzatela and Ashby, Uribe, Hall -- Hall comes in and gets that bases loaded out, pitches well. Megill was masterful. All five relievers did a heck of a job.

Q. What did you make of Contreras going 0-for-2 on his ABS challenges? Particularly that first one, how did that impact the decision-making on that going forward?

PAT MURPHY: William has free rein. He's been incredible at it all year and both those misses, the one was like .01, right? He's gotten a lot of those, and the other one was a little bigger miss than that but it was still close.

He knows what he's doing back there. I trust him. But it does change the game, especially if there's a lot of edge balls. There was a lot of edge balls. You guys give me the report tomorrow on how many balls and strikes were missed and that type of thing. It seems like there was a lot of close ones.

I know -- what a game William had, throwing that guy out at second base. But that pitch that he threw the guy out at second base was a strike, called the ball. Mitchell's strike three was a ball. So there was a lot of edge pitches. I'm not blaming the umpire. I'm just saying there's a lot of edge pitches. And when you're out of challenges, it makes it tough.

But you can't second-guess when you miss by .01 especially on an at-bat-changing call that was strike three or not.

Q. You talked so much about, you joked about the storyline for you has been that the trust in this team and that's what you've hung your hat on. How much do you trust this bullpen? Feels like they've been the unsung heroes this season.

PAT MURPHY: I don't know about unsung, but Ashby is terrific all year. Uribe, Megill, DL Hall comes on late. Then we picked up Senzatela and Romero to do great things.

So they have been sensational for us. And when you have all rookie pitchers, you're going to have a heavy load out of the bullpen. And these guys have taken on that heavy load and taken pride in it.

Q. Outside of those couple of home runs, you guys had some runners on throughout the night and couldn't quite cash in. Putting the results aside, how do you evaluate the at-bats overall, process-wise, like, swing decisions, contact quality, that kind of stuff?

PAT MURPHY: We had some guys hyped up. We had some guys that emotionally probably weren't at their best. We left some guys on base, too, not maybe as many as them. But you've got to understand who we faced. You know what I mean? That bullpen is recognized as the best in the game, if not one of them. So to do it against their best guys was quite a feat.

I think it goes without saying that some guys would be a little jittery. We had three guys in there 22-and-under. And a lot of guys kind of didn't have their best days. But there were some good things in there, and they got their feet wet, and that's a good thing.

Q. You mentioned Contreras. The home run obviously stands out, the difference in the game. You mentioned throwing the guy out at second. What else did you like about what he did tonight?

PAT MURPHY: Well, he navigated six pitchers and understood what the other hitters -- that's a really good offensive team who is playing really, really good. And I thought if you had to pick a star of the game, you'd have to pick William with Chourio and Megill in there.

But William, he took us a walk when he needed to. He hit a missile to left field at 100 or whatever and got caught. Great catch by their left fielder. And then hits a go ahead home run and throws a guy out at the plate. Controls six pitchers. I mean, he was magnificent.

Q. Jackson wasn't jittery, but you've seen this from him. What is it about him being special when the light shines the brightest?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah. He's gifted. He's a beautiful spirit. He's gifted mentally. He's smiling every day and nothing gets him down. You never see Jack-Jack down.

It doesn't matter if he's going through this, when he was injured for a time, he's got that smile on his face. Contreras, on the other hand, he's always grumpy looking, you know what I mean?

Q. To wrap the game up, is there an element of after you give up 16 base runners, ball hits a cable, you don't get your timely hits, is there an element of "how did we come out of that?"

PAT MURPHY: I'm telling you, Ueck reached up there and knocked that ball down like a basketball center rejecting a ball, you know what I mean? I think Ueck was involved.

But our guys, we played every pitch. We played hard and they got some hits and capitalize on some things. They got a couple of infield hits that scored a run. We misplayed a ball at first, scored a run.

I'm not taking anything away from them. They swing the bat good, too. But I mean we hit six, seven balls on the screws that got caught. So this wasn't a give-away game. You know what I mean?

I feel like we earned it. I really do. I take nothing away from our guys. We earned it. We weren't perfect. But we swang the bat pretty darn good.