NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 10, 2026

Max Muncy

American Family Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. I think there's going to be a lot made of the rematch of last year's NLCS, but these are two completely different teams. What is your guys' approach of how you view the Brewers coming into this?

MAX MUNCY: Obviously they're a good team. To me there's no such thing as a bad team in the postseason, and when you get to the NLCS, it's kind of the same mentality. You don't make it to the NLCS being a bad team, so they're obviously an extremely good team.

For us, it's kind of always been the same mentality. You don't necessarily play the other team as much as you play yourself. For us, we have to go out there and be prepared, do everything we need to be doing to get ourselves ready, and we need to worry about ourselves.

Q. There's obviously been a lot of dinosaur discussion in the last couple weeks. Just the general discourse about your guys' age, is that a motivating factor for you guys at all? How have you managed that piece and all of the games and the travel that you guys have had over the last couple of years to be where you want to be mentally and physically this time of the year?

MAX MUNCY: We've heard it, but you can't focus on the outside stuff for us. This goes back to kind of what I was just saying. You worry about yourself. You worry about how you're getting ready for the game, how you're preparing for the series. Are you doing the things you need to do?

You don't need any extra motivation when you get to the postseason. If you do, you're already in a bad spot. For us, again, it just goes back to worrying about ourselves and worrying about getting ourselves ready to play a series.

Q. You guys have already seen Mis. I'm curious if there's any advantage to that, and how different you think the guy you saw this year is compared to last postseason?

MAX MUNCY: I don't know if there's any advantage to seeing a guy that throws 105. It's 105. He's going to mix it. He's going to be amped up and coming at us with everything he's got.

To me, I don't know if there's an advantage to already seeing him. It's very fast. Everything is coming at you very fast. It's big-time extension, big guy on the mound, and you have to be ready to go in the box.

I guess maybe you could say just having seen it once, you kind of understand a little bit what it's like, but it doesn't really give you any advantage having seen him before.

Q. I'm wondering what have you learned about Tarik Skubal in your relatively short time being teammates with him that maybe you didn't know going in before the trade?

MAX MUNCY: For me with starting pitchers, when it's their start day, it's always kind of an interesting debacle, we'll call it. With him I've never seen somebody be so normal on a start day. To me that's really refreshing and really awesome to see.

He doesn't change his attitude or his mind, the way he acts in the clubhouse with the other guys. He doesn't change any of that on his start day. For a guy to be as competitive as he is on the mound and as fiery as he is, it's really awesome to see how he goes about every other day exactly the same. He doesn't change it when it's his start day. That's pretty rare to see.

Starters have this thing going when it's a start day, it becomes a big ordeal for him. With Scoobs, he treats it the same. So it's really cool.

Q. It's your third time coming here for this round of the playoffs. I'm curious, in 2018 we saw the genesis of a lot of the heavy bullpen, lots of playing matchups early in the game, kind of very aggressive playoff managing that's come to dominate the game in the years since. I'm curious if you've had thoughts -- reflections or thoughts about how the game has changed in your time playing the Brewers in the playoffs?

MAX MUNCY: If I'm not mistaken, I believe in 2018 Wade Miley started three straight games, is that correct? Something along those lines. That was always interesting. You're trying to play the matchups early. For us that allowed us to get David Freese an at-bat leading off the game, and then we went to a right-handed batter right after that.

I guess it's part of the analytics of the game that's been moving forward, is you're trying to get the best matchups at every single point of the game. You never know which at-bat is going to win or lose you the game. In the postseason, it could be the first at-bat, it could be the last at-bat. You just never know.

Q. Going back to Skubal, I guess, if things had played out differently this summer, you'd be facing him possibly in this series. Just how much of a relief is it having him on your side?

MAX MUNCY: Obviously that wouldn't be very fun to come in here and face Mis then Skubal and the other guys the Brewers are going to roll out there. It's a very good staff. Yeah, I'm very thankful they don't have a two-time Cy Young winner like Scoobs on that staff right now.

Q. As somebody who played with Clayton Kershaw for a while, how jarring was it to see how Skubal acts on his start day? Do you remember when you noticed like, oh, hey, I could talk to you?

MAX MUNCY: It was his first start. He came up to me and started asking me questions and talking about something that wasn't even involved in the game. I don't remember what it was, but he was talking about something -- it just completely threw me off.

Like you said, playing with Kersh for all those years, it's the complete opposite. That's where I go to the word "debacle" a bit. Us position players always laugh about the starting pitchers just because could you imagine if we acted that way every time we had to start on the field?

Those are the main guys. They have their routines, and they're that way for a reason. You can't win games without them. So you really need the starting pitching. Whatever routine they want to go with and whatever show they want to put on, we're here for all of it.

Yeah, Scoobs and Kersh couldn't be more opposite in terms of their start day routine.

Q. We're talking about a series that was eight years ago. You've been here a long time. I'm curious, like now given the age of some of this roster and the contract statuses, to what extent did you guys enter this season thinking like hey, this could be the last ride, not of the Dodgers, but of this sort of core of the Dodgers?

MAX MUNCY: There's been some talk of that. I don't like thinking about it. We've been having a really good run, and I like the fact that we've been keeping it going. For us, it's about playing for each other, and that's what makes it so special is just the group that we've had for several years now, a lot of us have been through a lot of moments together -- good, bad, in the middle -- and I wouldn't want to share those with anyone else, that's for sure.

We've all become a family. That's what makes playing baseball special is you grind for seven, eight months, play in 162 games, Spring Training, and you get to these moments and you kind of get to just see everyone's personalities that you've seen all year long come out a little bit more. You grow to love everybody, and it just makes it really special.

I don't like thinking that this could be towards the end because I don't think it is. I think we still have a lot of good baseball left in us. Hopefully we can keep going.

Q. On that note, you're one home run away from becoming only the seventh MLB player in history to hit 20 postseason home runs. You'd be joining the likes of Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, guys like that. What would being part of that company mean to you?

MAX MUNCY: It would be really cool. Hopefully if I do that, it's a home run that's allowing us to win the game. To me that's always been the most important thing. You win the game, you move on to the next one, you try to win that one.

My personal stats have never been important to me when it comes to that. It's always been about how many rings can we get? How many wins can we stack up? Those are pretty cool names to even be associated with because I consider those guys the absolute best in the history of baseball. Just even being in the same conversation as a lot of those names, it's really, really cool. For me, hopefully, that comes along with more wins.

Q. Some of your Dodgers teammates have avoided staying in the Pfister Hotel because of rumors that it's haunted. Has that ever stopped you from staying there?

MAX MUNCY: No, I let it go. If there's a ghost in there, come on in. If the TV turns on, I know he's friendly. Hopefully he's just not there to disturb me. I welcome them. If there's a ghost, let's have a good time with it, come on in. It is what it is.

Q. We're talking about your postseason home runs. Obviously we know what Kiké has done in October, the other guy in Chourio who already has October records for them at 22. I'm just curious if you think there are certain guys that are better built to handle this stage than others?

MAX MUNCY: I think the obvious answer to that is probably yes, but I think it just takes a certain personality to want to be in this moment. It's not easy. October is not easy. Like this part of the baseball season is not easy.

There's so much that goes into it. The preparation is doubled. The knowledge is doubled. Emotions are running high, especially for a team like us who traditionally we don't play with a lot of emotion during the regular season. So when you get to the postseason, all of a sudden we're all playing with a bunch of emotion. It's very draining.

It's just tough to play baseball in October. It's really, really hard. It definitely takes a certain kind of personality to lock in during this time, and we have a lot of those guys. It's cool to see the guys that can go out there and do it.

Q. Just to kind of follow up on that, how much of that is just experience playing as many games as you guys have had, and how much of that is, especially after '24, being able to ride that confidence and sort of each ensuing series like, hey, we've been through this and also been through this and won in that way?

MAX MUNCY: I do think experience plays a huge role in it. There's no simulating a playoff game. You can't simulate the emotions that go through it, the mental drain that goes through it. To know what you're going to get into this time of year, I definitely think there's a huge value to that. Unfortunately, there's not a number you can really put on that.

There's several things in baseball that you can't just quantify. You talk about clubhouse chemistry and postseason experience and knowing how to win -- those are all things that you don't have any type of analytical number you can attach to it. That's where you see a lot of the old-school baseball guys talking about this guy just knows how to win, this guy's a baseball player.

To me, a lot of that comes with having experience. If you know what it's like to play this time of year, you understand what you're getting into. You know I've got to keep my emotions in check, whether it's early, whether it's late. You can't ride the roller coaster. You have to find a way to stay even keel. You can't do that unless you've been in it. So I think experience is a huge role in all of that.