NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 10, 2026

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Not many players in MLB wear the C on their jersey. What was your thought process in thinking of electing Christian as your captain?

PAT MURPHY: I think it goes without saying, anybody that's been around our team for the last number of years know the leadership that he brings, and I wanted to make it official. I knew he would take that responsibility even more serious than he did when it wasn't on his jersey.

He welcomed it, and I talked to him about it, and the way he welcomed it made me understand how positive of a move it was. He's got a tremendous way of doing it, and I think all young people today that are coming into the game should be so lucky to be guided by a guy like this.

He doesn't bully them. He's not trying to browbeat them. He's not trying to convince them of everything. He's just living his life the way he lives his life, and he's welcoming -- he's got so many great qualities, and he lives it.

Q. You guys faced Skubal back in April. I was just wondering what you remember of that matchup and how you think that might benefit you guys going into Game 1 tomorrow, if at all?

PAT MURPHY: I see where you're going with it, but everybody's seen everybody. Nobody is going to be brand new to anybody. Everybody's seen somebody. Everybody can put it on Trajekt. Everybody can put it on -- my 11-year-old was in there yesterday facing Skubal on Trajekt, no kidding. Everybody wants a look.

Yeah, I don't think there will be too many surprises. It's about being in the now and executing the pitch. It always helps you to know them, but we're all exposed right now. Everybody knows I'm going to come in here and what I'm going to say. You guys could write this script without me being in here.

Q. How did he do against Skubal?

PAT MURPHY: He struggled.

(Laughter).

Q. A two-parter here. We didn't get to ask this after a Game 4. What was Joey Ortiz thinking in the first inning not turning the double play? What was his reasoning?

PAT MURPHY: What was Joey thinking? I'm not in Joey's head. I have no idea what he was thinking. Yeah, not good.

Q. Did he tell you his rationale at all?

PAT MURPHY: I didn't ask him because I was a little upset. I know not to speak when I'm upset. Like when you try to ask me a two-part question.

Q. Last year in this series, you just alluded to it, you played that underdog card pretty significantly. How do you view your guys going up against the Dodgers this year? Is it a similar situation, or is there a different feeling in that regard?

PAT MURPHY: I think any time there's familiarity it could help. You fight a guy once and you fight him the second time, you should have a better idea. Everything's different. The guy is a little different that you're fighting the second time, even though it's the same person, they've got a different strategy, maybe different personnel. We have different personnel. But the familiarity doesn't hurt.

I'm sorry I played that underdog card. Heck, we're -- I probably shouldn't have played that, used that as an excuse for why we didn't play well.

No, I don't care who the underdog is. I don't care who the favorite is. It's about getting in the ring and fighting it out. That's what it's about. We've proven during the season once again that we can win baseball games. So we've got to figure that out this series.

Q. To follow up slightly on that, how would you compare the emotional tenor right now with the clubhouse compared to especially after that Cubs series last year, which was such a juicer of a series, took a lot of energy. Not that this Padres series wasn't, but compare and contrast.

PAT MURPHY: Those two DS series for us were intense, every game. Like there wasn't more than a two-run separation at any time. I couldn't even tell who had the lead. The crowds were incredible at both places. So there was juice.

The fact that we have an extra day or two I think can only help settle everybody down and get them refocused quicker. How that helps, we were in the game till the ninth inning Game 1 against the Dodgers last year. I think that it can't hurt us, but who knows how much that's going to help us?

We've got a goal in mind. We're on a mission. I'm sure they feel the same way.

Q. It's been so lovely here in Milwaukee today and tomorrow. Do you know if they'll have the roof open? Have they told you? Do you have a preference?

PAT MURPHY: I have no idea. I don't even know what it's like out. You could tell me it's raining, and I wouldn't know. I haven't seen outside in a while.

Q. It's very sunny and warm. Do you have a preference for night games with the roof open or closed?

PAT MURPHY: I don't care. I don't even know most times if it's open or closed to be honest with you. Not paying attention to it.

It's a great place to play baseball. American Family Field, it's a great place to play, whether the roof is open or closed or raining or snowing. It doesn't make any difference. It's just a great place to be during a baseball game.

Q. You navigated the NLDS without Drohan, Harrison, or Patrick. It's kind of just the way that it played out in that series. What do you anticipate their roles being on the NLCS roster, and what's your confidence level in that trio right now?

PAT MURPHY: So you want me to reveal the roster right now? Is that what you're trying to get at? Did you learn that from Adam? That's kind of his thing.

(Laughter.)

Yeah, I think they have a chance to have a role. It's a seven-game series, and hopefully we can stay healthy and everybody can contribute. I trust those guys. It's just the way it worked out, it was the way to do it.

I anticipate all of them having a role.

Q. What has allowed your team to score so many runs this season while hitting, relatively speaking, so few home runs?

PAT MURPHY: We didn't score too many this last series. I don't know if you're watching. We hit more home runs than them. I gave them the home run supplement late in the season, and we went from 30th -- didn't we? We went from 30th to --

Q. 29th.

PAT MURPHY: See that? Load up on those supplements.

It's offense. It's a commitment to offense. And I think every team does it. So we're not the only team that does it. I think our relentless way helped us score runs because I think guys are interested and they know how to win baseball games. So they stay on it.

That helps you win because offense is touching those bases. So however you touch them, touch them. I like the home run. I like grand slams the best, then three-run homers, then two, then solo shots. I like them all. We're not trying to not hit home runs. Yeah, you know what I mean. But every other way you can touch a base, let's try to get it.

Q. When you think of Brice Turang, when we've talked to you about quantum leap, we've talked about World Baseball Classic, what more are you excited for him to develop as now he learns what it takes to be successful in October?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, it's a very small sample size. I know the home run he hit last year in Game 5 says everything you want to say about Brice in October. His last two at-bats in Game 4 the other day were fantastic. And people are pitching to him tough because they know his capabilities.

Numbers in the postseason, numbers don't indicate much. Would anybody not have voted in our little series, if you guys followed it, would anybody not have voted for Jackson Chourio as one of the stars?

But what were his numbers, you know what I mean? The RBIs, I guess, were good. In today's modern day of calculation, the numbers weren't that eye-popping, but everybody would have said he's one of the most valuable players. So it's really not about numbers.

Brice was in here last night until all hours of the evening working on his game, and people don't have to do that. He's a baseball guy, man. He loves it. He loves it. There's nothing he'd rather do. That makes you just have confidence in him to see him get in there last night after the whole workout is over. I'm in here with my kids flipping balls, and he's in there off Trajekt, he's in there working with Vogey. It's impressive.

Q. When you think about Yelich's kind of development to be captain, can you think back to 2018 when you first met him and he was kind of the best hitter on the planet for a couple years? What has that development looked like to get to the point where he's the clubhouse captain?

PAT MURPHY: It's him just embracing all that comes with the game, the full catastrophe of baseball, coming up the way he did in the Marlins system, getting traded, new environment, MVP, injuries, COVID. Going through not putting up numbers the way he wanted to, taking on the big contract and the responsibility he felt to the city, to the organization.

Going through all that, that development, and then having the year, 100 RBIs last year and 29 homers, whatever it was, having the year and leading the team into such successful times.

I think the last three years we have the best record in baseball. Christian Yelich is at the forefront of all of that, whether he's injured or not injured or whatever. He's leading these young people that nobody expected. Nobody picked us to win the division one time in those three years. And he's in middle of it all, helping these young players believe in themselves.

It's a great story of the superstar who just didn't think about himself, he thought about others, and what a lesson that is for everybody watching and everybody around. I wish it was told more who this dude is. He doesn't try it. He ain't trying. Nobody's going to walk next to him one day and go, yeah, I can feel it. There's no BS about this guy. It's organic. It's genuine. It's appropriate. It's kind. It's all the things that, you know -- it's not some gruff "I'm going to tell you what to do" authoritative figure. It's pretty nice. Special.

Q. You've talked about the value of the guys having taken the at-bat with their experience. When you think about the younger guys like Cooper and Lara, even Gas, what do you want them to take away from the experience of the DS and what's ahead of them?

PAT MURPHY: How can you not get in those four games, you know what I mean, and go, whoa, that was intense? That's baseball. That's postseason baseball, you know what I mean? All the ramifications and all the adversity and all the pitch to pitch, if you don't know how to be in the now during that, you're going to get swooped up.

Like you said, Bobby Gas and Lara and Coop, Coop throwing the ball away and coming back and making a diving play and then having the at-bats he had, heck, he's just come such a long way, it's so beautiful.

So I think they all take that valuable experience that you just can't explain. You can't go down to the guy you played with in Double-A this year and go, hey, let me tell you about this. You can listen to it all you want, but until you experience it, it's just different. I don't care what profession you're in.

I think back when I was in Triple-A and the Brewers asked for permission to talk to me about a job here with Padres, Padres said no. And I'm sitting in Triple-A like, What am I doing? Oh, they're going to bring me to the Big Leagues. They're going to bring me to the Big Leagues. And how can I prepare? I was so unprepared.

Like you just can't prepare for what you don't know. You can talk to everybody you want. They can tell you things. And you go, oh, that's what they meant, as you just made another mistake. You see what I mean? You've got to experience it, and that experience for these young people is going to change -- could change the direction of their career.

Q. As a baseball purist, what about this series excites you the most?

PAT MURPHY: I'm grateful for the opportunity to compete against the Dodgers because they are -- obviously have proven to be a dominant baseball organization, and you can complain or explain or say it's this or say it's that, but the opportunity to get in the ring and do that is pretty special.

That's the way you'd want this storybook ending to this -- when you're writing the last words of the Milwaukee Brewers championship, you'd want it to go through the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's the way it has to be if it's an incredible story, for lack of a better adjective.

But if it's going to be that incredible story, you want it to go through the Dodgers, and I respect the heck out of so many of their players and Doc and Freeman and Betts, Muncy, that group, Ohtani seems like the classiest dude in the world. I tell you, I love these guys. They're just tremendous guys, but we want to kick their butts. Yeah, I think it would mean a lot.

Q. Last series, the DS, the defense was a bit uncharacteristic. You guys committed five errors. What do you make of that? Does that worry you at all? How do you use that with a young group, kind of on the other question, but how do you use those five errors?

PAT MURPHY: I'm going to scream at them. I'm going to get in the infielders in there and just go, "What the hell is going on," and use that schtick and just, "Pfft." It's an option, you know.

I think that, again, the magnitude of those games, the intensity of those games sometimes bring about miscues. The beautiful thing is what I mentioned in Game 4, Cooper had not played his best defense and then came back and played great, made big plays. I think that response is what this whole thing is about, responding, because things are going to go haywire, and be able to respond.

Q. You said that Garrett Mitchell came to you before Game 4 and said he was -- he was ready to go for that game and obviously proved it on the field. How has that accountability helped your team get to where they are now?

PAT MURPHY: I think the standard and what the team wants to do makes them accountable. They understand overriding in the room is not your status, your contract, your accomplishments, your whatever. They understand it's being ready today. Whatever that means, being prepared, being ready, and being accountable to each other as teammates.

I think Garrett just wanted me to know, Murph, I'm on it. I've got a plan. I know what I want to do. This is what got me here, and I love that. Once you verbalize it, you verbalize it, you'd better stand behind it. And he did.

Q. This Dodgers offense was one of the best in baseball against fastballs this year. You guys have a young pitching staff that pitches off their fastballs. How does a pitcher use his fastball and pitch off his fastball against fastball hitters.

PAT MURPHY: Those generalizations, like every team is a fastball-hitting team. I don't care what anybody says. This team also hits breaking ball very well. This team has some of the best hitters in the game. There's basically an All-Star at every position.

So great, so now you've got to execute because executing pitches is what it's about. That stops offense. By executing pitches, that stops offenses. We're still going to pitch to our strengths, and we're going to try to go -- it's like any other fight. It's like styles matter, but we can only do what we can do. I can't all of a sudden become a counter puncher if I'm a Mike Tyson, and they can't be Muhammad Ali if all year they fought like George Foreman.

You have to be who you are and execute in the now. For you guys that analyze every little thing and what could happen, it's bringing ourselves and being the best version of that and being ready for them to be the best version and somehow getting an edge and winning the ballgame. Just like San Diego. There's nobody that can say we played great. Was that because the Padres were good or because we weren't good?

Let's be honest, the Padres were the hottest team in baseball. They beat everybody convincingly, and we beat them 3 out of 4. That's just the way the game can go. In a seven-game series, it might have went to seven games. Who knows?

But we can't worry about changing what we do. We just have to go in and be a little better at the things we do.