Q. It's a short series to win two of three games. There's a big chance that the other team, the Dodgers, put guys like Glasnow or Sheehan in the bullpen. Are you guys prepared for that kind of scenario?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, one I hope we get to the bullpen, which would be good. They're deep. We know that. Not too many teams can put pitchers of that caliber into the bullpen. They're deep. They can.
But we'll just go play. We'll go play and see if we can -- regardless who is in the pen or who starts or what, if we can be just one run better at the end, we'll be happy.
Q. You have a lot of young players on your team. How do you think they're handling this situation, this series?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think I even that out by being old. (Laughter).
They're actually okay. They understand that it's baseball. If it was something else, we'd all be out-of-our-mind crazy, but it's baseball. And it means a lot to us, but they know how to play baseball. And they know how to compete. So we'll go do the best we can.
Q. I did this with Elly, but how much do you think having Ke'Bryan next to him defensively has helped kind of lighten the load and make it a little easier for him to play defense?
TERRY FRANCONA: Maybe even play a step or two more towards the middle. I remember the first week or so when Ke'Bryan came here, there were a few plays where you could see Elly, like, after Ke'Bryan came over made the play, Elly was like, damn.
It's real. It's not just what he does, but it makes the guy next to you better, too, for sure.
Q. What's the difference in feeling managing the Reds in the postseason compared to Cleveland that you just did?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know yet. I'll tell you after the series, I'll tell you better. It's all special. And there's always a different reason for it to be special. I feel really fortunate that we're here and we have the honor to compete and see if we can beat a really good team. I get a big kick out of that.
Q. Have you been watching the Cleveland series, today's game?
TERRY FRANCONA: I've watched as much as I could have of everything so far. Yeah, it's kind of nice when you play later, you can watch all the other games. Yeah, I enjoy that.
Q. Do you get a sense of how big this moment is for Hunter Greene personally, coming back home, first playoff game. He was drafted, developed and now he gets to start as the number one guy. Do you get a sense how big this is for him?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think we're trying to make it bigger than it needs to be. Like, again, it's baseball. The things you're talking about are kind of like outside noise that we don't need it to impact the game. He just needs to go pitch. He can do that.
The other things, like I said, it's noise. You try to take that out of the equation.
Q. These two teams obviously have drastically different payrolls. How much of a factor does the payroll have in a team getting to the postseason?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know. I mean, we never -- I don't think I brought that up once all year. I hope I haven't. I never will. Because I was on the other side. In Boston, I don't think people now want to hear if he was okay then -- but we don't have the ability to outspend mistakes. So you try not to make very many of them. And nobody's perfect.
I give Nick and Brad (phonetic) a lot of credit, a lot of credit. They went and got guys like Lux, Trevino, Austin Hayes that really changed the dynamic of our team. And they did it with some constraints. That's just being -- but once the game starts, nobody's going to care what you're making. That's what I love about it; let's go play baseball.
Q. Going back to Spring Training, you talked about how much you liked this team, the makeup of this team. You said it all year long, even when there were some rough patches. What is it about this group you really like?
TERRY FRANCONA: We told them on day one the things that we want to live by and believe in. So come Spring Training and now what together, probably 200 days, maybe a little more, and we never had somebody late for a meeting the entire year.
I told them, I said, if you're late you're announcing to everybody that what we're doing is not a priority. So we can't be late. They never were.
Saying it and doing it is two different things. But those are things that I believe that guys that will live by that, they're the same guys that will run balls out. They're the same guys that will back up bases. It's not always convenient to be somewhere on time, but they did it.
Q. Hunter Greene mentioned yesterday that this is going to be like a full-circle moment for him. He even mentioned that he grew up as a Dodger fan. Elly De La Cruz keeps saying LA is his city, it's his city. How do you take this?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know. I didn't see that. My comment, my answer would be I hope Hunter pitches great and I hope Elly plays great. I don't know that quotes to the media are going to determine the outcome of this game. I never probably feel that way.
Q. The year off you talked about how much healthier you were feeling and obviously the match here just kind of made sense. I'm curious, getting through 162, what this experience has been like for you, if it's been rejuvenating, exhausting, what you kind of feel?
TERRY FRANCONA: It's a little bit of everything. It's hard. I mean, it's a lot. I think I was better situated. I just got to a point a couple years ago where I wasn't healthy enough to enjoy it. And then you start to get short on patience, and that's not a healthy recipe for being a good manager, I don't think.
So I came here for the right reasons, the people, just like I did in Cleveland. And when you're together through a lot, because we've been through a lot, and those relationships grow stronger, you know you made the right decision. That's how I feel.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports