NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 11, 2026

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. What's the decision on not playing Christian Yelich even though he's been really hot?

PAT MURPHY: Wow, you really are in the business. I thought you were too young, nice boys. Now I'm starting to question it. You're like all the rest.

No, it's about our team and what's best for our team today. It might not be the whole game, but it's what's best for our team today. You kind of look at matchups and you look at history and you look at how the guy pitches a guy potentially and what it could bring.

And this kid that's playing instead of Yelich in the first part of the game, he's pretty good. And he's had a pretty good history against the guy pitching. That's what led to it.

Then there's a guy named Jake Bauers, whose toe is broken, and he can't really get to the outfield. He was playing some outfield, like 40-some starts in the outfield. We can't kind of do that right now. So that's the weight of it all.

But as long as you tell the player like early on, in case you get out of this business and get into coaching, a real business, you tell the player beforehand.

Q. What changes have you made since last year's NLCS?

PAT MURPHY: Let's see, what changes have I made? What changes have I made or what changes with the team?

Q. All you guys.

PAT MURPHY: Oh, with the team you're talking about. Well, it's more of a new roster than you think. We probably have 40 percent, maybe 50 percent of the guys. You guys can figure that out. We've got kind of some new guys that haven't been here last year. We had to obviously incorporate them into our team.

A year older, a year wiser. The guys on the team are still very young. I think our average age is probably 26, and I think every year creates an awareness, and I think that awareness prepares us better for series like this.

Q. When you look at Mis and you watch a big start like this of his, what are the earliest keys that you look for that tell you he'll be able to get deeper into a ballgame?

PAT MURPHY: For him it's really about delivery. If you look at the timing of that delivery, if he's on time, and even his misses, if they're in a certain spot, then you're like he's on it. Sometimes he can overthrow and kind of pull out of there and the ball will sail on him, or if he's just yanking everything, then he's got to make an adjustment.

Q. Then with Bauers, you referenced him earlier, the toughness that he's got and you think about it now, his third year here, can you just maybe trace back your initial impressions of the player he was when he got here and you look at him this year, career high in games played, and he's obviously become a really important player to you.

PAT MURPHY: I knew Jake way back in the Padres system, when I was first in the Minor Leagues with the Padres, and the buzz through the camp was, hey, this guy can hit. Then we traded him to somebody, Atlanta or Tampa or somebody, and then he was gone.

Then you hear his name plodding through, and I hear we sign him. We invite him to Big League camp, rekindle with him. I guess he was with the Yankees the year before that. And just talk to him about what he's trying to do. He had some aptitude about hitting.

The next year -- he was a part-time player, but the next year he came back as a non-roster invitee. It was tough on his brain, you know what I mean? But he put it together and did really well again. Then what he's done this year is just -- it's been tremendous. Really happy for him. He got his chance, and he broke through. To see that happen and to see a guy have that belief system, I tell you guys, that's the greatest feeling in the world.

Q. Since you were asked about Mis, Mis against Skubal, it's a special matchup. I know you've got a vested interest in it, but I know you're also a guy who appreciates what a matchup like this means for our sport. I'm just wondering how you balance those two things as a manager going to battle and understanding the meaning of the matchup?

PAT MURPHY: You're giving me way too much credit for my creative or altruistic mind. I just want to step on his throat, you know what I mean? I mean that respectfully because I really like Tarik, but I just want to beat him. That's it. My brain can't go anyplace else.

The bigness of the game and the pageantry, all that kind of stuff, if you're in it, you can't let your mind go there. It's just about, ding, go to work. That's the only mentality I can have. I can't think of that -- what would you call that? I just don't have a very good vocabulary, but whatever you'd call that. I don't think like that. I just think about let's get it done right now.

He's going to be fine. I'm sure he's going to be able to feed his family and be a great dad. He can lose tonight and be fine.

Q. You've got two rookies in your starting lineup tonight. They've been up for half the season, a little longer. Could you just speak to the challenge of them reaching the Big Leagues, and not just like transitioning to being a Big League ballplayer, but on a team that's built to win right now.

PAT MURPHY: They helped us win. They helped us put ourselves in this position where we could host this game. The moment's not too big for them, and they understand their responsibility. And I think they have maybe not a lot of awareness, but enough awareness of their responsibility and the standards we have to play to. And that's what gives me confidence that they can handle that at 20 -- however old they are, young 20s.

Q. I've noticed that the fans here, they really embrace those two young guys in particular. They do the Coop chant, and they go crazy every time Lara makes a play. What role does that play in helping the player become comfortable?

PAT MURPHY: It does. It's the human condition when you feel valued, when you feel important, when you feel like you have a role, and you feel safety. You feel like, hey, they believe in me. Lara played one game last week, but now he's getting another chance, so he's feeling like they believe in me and I have a place here, I have a role, and it's safe, and I'm important.

I think that's feeling the love, and I think the fans add to that in a big way. I really do. Then one day they can hope to be booed because that's the ultimate compliment, right? Because they never boo a bum, right?

Q. With Mis, a guy that's never been afraid to show his emotion on the mound, in a start like this with as much on the line for him and the group, is that something that you have to watch for in the start tonight, him getting himself amped up, the emotions, the adrenaline?

PAT MURPHY: That's a really good point. That is it. Mis is emotional. And that is good. We want him to be himself. We don't want to bottle that up. But as he's matured this year, you've seen huge changes in this kid on how he's handled situations. He's not just excited to get out of the first. He doesn't want to burn any more energy. He wants to get out of the seventh.

Q. Shohei Ohtani has struggled a little bit lately, but is he still dangerous?

PAT MURPHY: Relatively. What's the question?

Q. Is he still dangerous in the lineup?

PAT MURPHY: Oh, God, are you kidding me? This guy knows how to perform this time of year, and he's just super talented. It can take -- you know how it is in this game. You can go on a 1 for 28, and then all of a sudden something happens. Pages, right? He gets a game-winning hit, and he's off to the races.

Ohtani is such a ballplayer. I still respect him, and our players do too, like he's at the top level of his performance, and you have to treat it that way.

Q. Because you brought him up at the beginning, why does Springsteen resonate so much with you?

PAT MURPHY: Can he be fined for a stupid question? Do you have that thing going where you could fine people? Let's start that. Why not? If we all raise our hand, like a certain number of people raise their hand after a question like that, what's a stupid question, then he has to give -- like for every hand up, five bucks.

Q. Who wants to hear his answer, though?

PAT MURPHY: No one.

Q. Why Bruce?

PAT MURPHY: I saw him -- I was in Florida, I was in college in 1980. I drove down in the pouring rain to the Hollywood Sportatorium because I had a person I was fond of and she wanted to go to the concert.

I had no interest in going to the concert, and I went there in the pouring rain at the Hollywood Sportatorium, which is a pretty good hike, and I had a purple mail Jeep that I drove. You drive on the other side, it's one of those mail Jeeps. Your tires are that thin, and I'm going, if you knew where the Hollywood Sportatorium is, really west.

It's pouring rain, and I've got those doors that they slide, like the old mail trucks. There's water coming in. I'm miserable, and I'm like what am I doing? I don't even know if I like this girl, you know what I mean?

He played for 5 1/2 hours. I was just amazed. It wasn't even how good the music was or bad, it was the River Tour, and it was incredible. So it sparked my interest.

When I got to Notre Dame, there was a kid on the team that came up to me and said something about Springsteen, and I said Springsteen? He goes, yeah, there's a concert, whatever. John Flanigan. I went to the concert, and it knocked my socks off again.

Then I just started following him, what it's about, what he sings about. The message just resonated. He grew up a catholic kid in New Jersey. I was a catholic kid from upstate New York. There's just so much that resonates with me how he speaks about things. It's just become like this -- and I've never -- I've had all these chances to go backstage, and I've never met him. I don't want to meet him that way. I want to meet him one-on-one.

I don't know that I ever will, but I'd like to meet him one-on-one and sit and talk to him. Not take up too much of his time. Yeah, I don't know what it is. His language, his way of relating to people, it's just incredible.

I saw him in Wrigley with Flanny whenever he was there, what, two years ago, three years ago. Still at 70-some years old, he's just killing it. It just mesmerizes me. And then you run into people -- you know, Paul Molitor, huge Bruce fan. Randy Johnson. There's just so many people that you run into, and you're just like -- it's like a little subculture.

I'm not a connoisseur of music necessarily or know anything about it. I can't carry a tune or play an instrument, but this guy just speaks to me, man. I didn't grow up on that type of music, but it's just amazing.