NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS BREWERS

October 13, 2026

Pat Murphy

Dodger Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. As you are game planning for an opponent, which kind of player is tougher to prepare for? Is it the veteran who maybe has an MVP award in his closet but there's a big book on him because he's been in the league for nine years, or is it the 21-year-old rookie, full of potential, a lot of talent, very small book because he's been in Triple-A all year?

PAT MURPHY: That's a great question, by the way, and I'm not used to those.

I think that you have to consider both in a different vein. When you're touting the rookie, you've got to take into consideration the adjustment to the Big Leagues. This young kid, he's got incredible power, right? His strike ball is really good. So you don't see that rookie come up with that ability to strike ball.

So what do you entice him with? Now you've got to go strike the ball with the pitch, you know what I mean? You have to decide where you're going to go with it. How do you get ahead in the count? You've kind of got to decipher that and take into consideration his aggressiveness, knowing that he wants to make an impact on the game.

The cagey veteran, like Freeman last night, he's done well against Ashby, but he got a backed-up breaking ball. Well, nobody hits that. It's a backed-up breaking ball that he anticipated it was going to be here, and it just never got there. So that sometimes changes at-bats.

It comes down to executing the pitches and doing what you can to neutralize those great ones. You understand what they're capable of, but you can't give them too much credit and constantly pitch around them. You have to go right at them.

That's kind of our whole theme coming into this thing. Hey, guys, yeah, they might be this, they might be this, they might be this, that's great, but that's for other people to consider. How do we play the game? Let's just play the game the way we play the game, and let's go right at people and see what we can do. That's not going to change.

Q. On Ohtani, have you guys approached him in the same way you would if he was a hundred percent healthy, the kind of player he's been over the course of his career? Just knowing some of the physical limitations he's been dealing with, has that allowed you to be more aggressive in how you've attacked him or changed anything at all about the approach to him at the plate in this series?

PAT MURPHY: We remember vividly at this time last year that he maybe had the best baseball game ever played the day he pitched against us and hit a home run every time up, it seemed like. You can't forget that, his capabilities, whatever.

But still, all that being said, do you know how tough it is to execute what he did? You still have to go at him. You have to go at everybody.

Q. Would you be surprised if he's not in the lineup tomorrow?

PAT MURPHY: I'm not going to speculate. If he's injured, I understand guys trying to play injured. Obviously that's out of my hands, but surprise, whatever, nothing in this game surprises me to tell you the truth. Right when you think you know something, be careful, you might not.

Q. Has your defensive play in this postseason surprised you in a bad way?

PAT MURPHY: This is what I live with 162 games a year. At least Adam is on vacation seven or eight weeks, so I don't get him every day.

I don't assess -- our defense as a whole is good, and a couple miscues that we've had are part of it. It's part of it. It's what we do in response that matters. These guys are good Major League players. They've proven that they belong in the Big Leagues. They've played good defense. There's going to be miscues. That's just part of it. It's what you do the next play.

Do I like it? No. But if we keep playing defense like this day in and day out, are we going to win? No. But we're not going to worry about that right now and make some big assessment so you can write a story. I'm just going to consider tomorrow. Hopefully they're ready to play.

Q. As manager, how tough is it to sit or bench a player that means so much to your organization? Say the Dodgers don't play Ohtani tomorrow. How hard was that for you to sit Yelich in Game 1? I think you said you regretted it or you wish you hadn't done it?

PAT MURPHY: Well, from a strategy standpoint. There's times when you go, You know what? I don't think that was necessary. And Vaughn did a great job against Skubal. He hit the double in the corner. He's had a history of getting a few hits. Nobody dominates Skubal, but he had a few good swings off of him.

I think more of it was was the way Yelich sat and the way he took it and the way his readiness to go in the game at any time. He prepared the whole time, he was in the cage, back out of the cage, whatever, stretching his body. He was ready to go at any point. That's just that team element that you love.

Yeah, it's tough. It's tough to make critical decisions, but you make them. And when they work out, you guys never mention them, you know what I mean? When they don't work out, you guys bring them up.

You know what I'm saying, it's hard. It's very hard. And it's deeper than what meets the eye. There's so much going on there.

Q. You're talking about because what he means to the organization?

PAT MURPHY: Not only because what it means to the organization, but the possibilities, the possibilities he could bring. Especially when he's playing as good as he's playing, the possibilities he can bring you are pretty special.

Q. This is kind of off the beaten path, but this is your second California trip in two weeks, tight turnaround and everything. Everybody's got to go through it this time of year. How do your sleep guys factor into this, in rest and recovery?

PAT MURPHY: Do we have sleep guys?

Q. That's what you said.

PAT MURPHY: Find that quote.

Q. I'll dig it out. What are your medical people maybe --

PAT MURPHY: What are sleep guys?

Q. Sleep specialists, high performance, sleep guys.

PAT MURPHY: I call it the low performance team.

Q. You've spoken too about you don't get much sleep by nature anyway.

PAT MURPHY: We had a conversation with our high performance team and our trainers, and they put together a plan for the guys, actually gave them cards to kind of go by about rest, nutrition, hydration, some cute little anecdotes you can do when you get off the plane, during the plane ride. But both teams had to do that so there's no --

Q. Does your sleep schedule change at all? You told us you don't sleep a lot anyway by nature, being a father, being a manager.

PAT MURPHY: Those are two great jobs. It's not like I work two jobs. I'm not complaining about my sleep. As you get older, you don't sleep as much. I made some -- I'm not sure I made any adjustments. I'm not considering that. What's the difference if I'm well rested or not?

(Laughter).

You see what I'm saying? I deal with it all year with these guys. That's why I probably do need more sleep.

Q. You talk about how important the response is, like you did to the defense a moment ago. How impressed, or what have you noticed about Cooper Pratt's response yesterday? Misplay early, but then he's able to get the bunt down later, get the hit later, about him specifically?

PAT MURPHY: I can't say enough about the way Cooper Pratt has handled his transition to the Big Leagues. There's so many factors in play here. First of all, he took a job over from a guy that is revered by this organization, by our fans in Ortiz. Then Cooper comes up, plays an important defensive position, as we know, and does it at his young age, and then offensively performs the way he has.

For every miscue that we all make, the key is how we respond. This kid has responded over and over. That ball chewed him up a little bit. You can break it down and say what you could have done, but in the moment a topspin, a 100-mile-an-hour ball, and then he bounced back and makes the next play. Like you said, got the bunt down, got a knock after 101 in his head. The kid's a baseball player, man. He's a baseball player.

Got a small lead and got thrown out. If I had a taser, I would have tased him. But he responds. That's what I love about the kid.

Q. Murph, your guys are so sort of focused on the day-to-day every day, and now they find themselves two wins from the World Series and maybe that possibility seems real for the first time. Is that something that you want them to embrace, to ignore? What's the proper way to address being this close to something they've wanted their whole lives?

PAT MURPHY: When you're climbing a mountain -- the way I look at it, you're climbing a mountain, and you're getting really close to the top, and when you are, usually that path narrows a little bit, you know what I mean? It's not as wide. When you start the mountain, it seems like this wide. Then as you get closer and closer, most mountains are like that.

I think, as you get closer, you've just got to keep your footing, keep your head down, make sure you keep your footing, and you can't look too far ahead. When you look up for the prize, oh, where's the top, you might step in a crack or a pothole. You've got to keep your head down and go forward and don't -- adversity is coming. You know all that kind of stuff could possibly come, whatever, just keep responding, keep your head down, and keep going.

The belief had to be there at some point. They didn't just wake up yesterday morning or this morning and say we could do this thing. I think their belief has been there. Yelich has spoken openly about it. I think the guys followed the lead. Contreras has spoke openly about it. This is what we're doing. But you've got to keep your head down and take each step.

Q. I'm sure the feeling you had last year getting on the plane and leaving L.A. wasn't a good one. Did that feeling help drive you and the franchise this year to get back to this point knowing likely you've got to beat the best to get where you want to be in the Dodgers and getting a second crack at it this year?

PAT MURPHY: Again, two years ago in '24 we gave up the home run to Alonso when we had the series won in whatever inning that was, ninth inning, Alonso hits the homer and puts them ahead. We were shellshocked. I announced at that time, look, guys, somehow, I don't know how, but somehow this is going to help us. The awareness of that and what can happen. Somehow this is going to help us.

The next year we came here off of an incredibly emotional Division Series and didn't have to play that Wild Card series. So we took a step in the right direction and then won that Division Series. I said that at the end, hey, guys, remember this. It hurts, remember it. I think they remembered so far. It seems like they remembered, and they're not going to roll over. They're going to put up a fight.

Q. Your bullpen's been wonderful. What is your plan going ahead with Ashby and Uribe?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, keep putting them out there. They can rest next year. Familiarity is a thing, though, you know what I mean? Familiarity to a team is a thing. You have to be conscious of that too.

We're not going to go forward without other people stepping up. Some other people have to step up.

Q. Right along those lines, you have three pitchers in the bullpen you haven't used at all this postseason. Is there value in three games in a row and the usage of the other guys to get Patrick, Harrison, Drohan in the game, or are you comfortable riding with the six guys that you've used to this point?

PAT MURPHY: This is a seven-game series potentially. We only played four games in the last series. This is a seven-game series potentially. We just have to keep these guys sharp. This isn't tryouts. We're trying to win tonight. If there's not a game tonight, then the next time there's a game, we're trying to win it. So whatever dictate that's.

Familiarity is a thing. So again, we brought in Dustin May yesterday, and everybody was like first relief, what are we doing? And I didn't see you coming up to me after the game going, Murph, great job, you know what I mean?

Again, those are things you do, those are decisions you make that not everybody understands what's behind them all. Yes, we have that number of pitchers on the staff because we think those guys are capable of helping us. So the three guys we haven't used yet, yeah, they're probably going to have to help us. That's what we're planning on. But we're not going to employ those guys just to give them a try.