Q. When I asked Giancarlo Stanton about the Blue Jays in the clubhouse after you guys won, he said the past is in the past and we're not thinking about that. Do you think this team is better than when you played Blue Jays earlier in the season?
MAX FRIED: I think we're very much the same team, probably just been playing a little bit cleaner, a little better baseball. This Blue Jay team has been really good. They put a lot of pressure on other teams, and you have to play your game and not beat yourself.
Q. They're a team that can make you work as a pitcher taking a lot of pitches. What's the biggest key in facing this lineup?
MAX FRIED: It's a really good lineup, they're going to battle, and they're not going to give up very many easy outs. They're going to put the ball in play and make you earn it.
Q. Over the course of the year as you've gotten to watch Luis pitch and gotten to know him, what's impressed you as you've seen him develop over the course of the season?
MAX FRIED: Any time that you get a little delayed in a season, you always feel like you're playing catch-up. So for him, just getting back to form. There's been a lot of kind of ups and downs, but he's really hit his stride here over the last however many starts.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of his season last year, but from everything that everyone's told me, it's starting to line up and look a lot similar.
Q. You're facing a team that doesn't strike out a lot. Does that change your approach at all?
MAX FRIED: No. I think at the end of the day, you've just got to go out there and attack. This is the playoffs. This is a team game. We're here to win. Don't want to try to put too much on your own shoulders and know that you've got a lot of guys behind you that are there to pick you up.
Q. You mentioned the team playing cleaner of late. How much comfort does that give you when you know you've got those guys behind you playing the way they are?
MAX FRIED: You've got to keep that mentality the whole year. We've been playing some good baseball, and we're not going to do too much. Just keep playing the brand of baseball that we've been playing over the last month or so.
Q. Ben has been learning first base basically on the fly at least at the Major League level. What kind of growth have you seen in him defensively from the start of the year till now?
MAX FRIED: I feel like he's kind of just been learning everything on the fly. As far as catching at the Big League level, he didn't get very many opportunities and then kind of got thrown into that, but also at first base. He's someone who's extremely smart and hard working, and you know that he's putting in the work every day to be the best player that he possibly can be.
The growth that we've been able to see from Ben this year on the defensive side has been tremendous.
Q. What makes Vlad the difficult at-bat that he is?
MAX FRIED: Just he's got the ability to do a little bit of everything. He's a smart player, and he puts together really good at-bats. If he's on time, he's going to hit the ball 115, 120 miles an hour. When you've got a little of everything, it makes for going out there and needing to make some pretty good pitches.
Q. What's it like in your mind when the ball is hit to Ryan McMahon at third base?
MAX FRIED: A lot of ease. He's pretty sure handed. He's really great over there. I feel like anything over in that area is pretty much a sure out.
Q. What kind of difference has he made since coming over here?
MAX FRIED: He's just a great teammate, great person, obviously a fantastic player, but he's just fit in perfectly. You saw the play that he made last night coming in off the bench. No fear, wants to win, and that energy is contagious.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports