Q. Since it's been more than 24 hours now since you hit that walk-off home run in the 18th inning, are you able to take it in more? Are you just so deep into the series still with where you're at you can't really process it?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, to be honest with you, I haven't really thought about it at all today. Obviously, yesterday coming into the field it's kind of fresh on everybody's mind. But, yeah, I kind of almost forgot about it because of being tied 2-2 in the World Series, and we got to get the win today. So maybe I'll think about it after the series, especially when we win.
Q. Just as far as what's being said in the hitters' meetings, I know you guys have had different type of approaches when things are not going your way as a group. Have you had any of those type of discussions before any of these games or do you plan one today?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I mean, we obviously didn't have anything -- just kind of went over Bieber yesterday in the hitters' meeting, but we didn't have a talk or anything just because we won the day before. But, yeah, I think it's what, like, three runs in the last 27 innings, I would say, somewhere around there, 20 innings, and obviously, as an offense, we know we got to score some runs.
So it takes pressure off Blake if we can score some. Just we need to string some hits together. Just get some hits, get guys on, work the counts, get guys on, move 'em first to third, get 'em in. Kind of like what we did in the second inning yesterday. We just need to continue that over and over and over again. You got to put pressure on 'em. If we're going up there just trying to hit home runs, it's just not the name of the game.
So we'll see. We got a hitters' meeting in about 30 minutes, so maybe when we come out for BP and defense, I'll let you know if there was one.
Q. How do you feel knowing that for this team to be successful you have to be successful?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: (Laughing.) Well, I take pride in that to being in the middle of the lineup. That's what you want to be. There's a few of us that need to be successful. It can't always just be Shohei. So we understand that. We are just going to try to do our best to -- we already faced Trey once, so hopefully we can have the same plan. I thought we did a pretty good job against him in Game 1 getting him out after four innings. Just get the ball up and stay off the bottom of the zone and hopefully put good at-bats together and score some runs and let Blake settle in and let Blake be Blake Snell.
Q. I know winning that game was the most important thing, but knowing this is the end for him, what was it like seeing Clayton have that moment to get out of that bases-loaded jam? And did you see the video of Ellen reacting?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I did not. I pretty much stay off social media (laughing), so I don't really know what's going on. To see Clayton come in in that massive of a situation -- he's been doing it over and over since 2008. Whenever his name is called, three days' rest in postseason, just doing whatever he's needed, and for him to come in in that situation, get out of it. I was more happy about the fact that his first slider was 89 miles an hour. That's got to be the hardest pitch he threw all year. I have PitchCom, and I think he went slider, slider, slider. I was like, come on throw a fastball. I want to see how hard this fastball comes in, because he was obviously feeling great and excited.
But massive moment getting us outs, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's another moment that Clayton comes in and gets us out of another one.
Q. You've obviously been in this World Series position. You're all about routine. At this point do you add anything, do you subtract anything from video, nutrition, anything?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: No, it's about the same. My routine's being cut into right now because I'm up here (laughing). But no, it's about the same. I go back and forth of hitting BP on the field or outside or inside. So I usually -- I know Bill knows, if I'm hitting outside, it's because I'm trying to find something. But I feel pretty good right now about my swing, so I'm still contemplating if I'm going to hit outside today.
But most of the time it's -- I hit three times a day, I do my knee drills, my hand drills, and I take ground balls, and that's about it. Stick to the same routine. It usually seems to work, so I'm going to keep going.
Q. You talk about guys trying to hit home runs, not building innings. Why do you think the offense has slipped into that mode?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I think it's just human nature. It's the World Series. Sometimes you want to do a lot. That's just kind of how it is. I think we've got a few games in, and you recognize what's going on, and then you can reel it back in. We're all human, we all want to hit home runs in the biggest of stages. It's just kind of what happens. We're four games in, we have seen the patterns, and now it's on us to stop that pattern and get back to being who we are.
Q. Kind of slipped into that before the World Series though. This is --
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I don't remember the regular season. (Laughing). I remember yesterday and we scored two runs and we got to score more than two runs today.
Q. What's your feeling these days about the intentional walk? Is it outmoded? Like, the other night that game was extended 18 innings because Ohtani was walked four times, and now with the new rule, as opposed to when Barry played, you don't even have to throw the four balls. So it's like an automatic down, it takes 12 pitches away from relievers. Do you think at this point that make pitchers pitch around guys if that's what you want to do, but no intentional walks?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I think the last few years it's been about speeding up the game, and I think that intentional walk just stops from four pitches and keeps the game going. But it's all strategy, routine. I mean, I don't want Shohei, if I was a manager, to beat me, so you got to let the other guys beat 'em. So we'll see how they attack him today, and it's obviously on us to make sure Shohei touches home plate if he's on base.
Q. The other thing about it is that baseball's the only sport where you can take the bat out of the best player's hand. You can't do that in any other sport.
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah. I feel like that's an opinion (laughing).
Q. People are paying a lot of money to see those guys hit --
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, but they're trying to win a game. That's what baseball is. One team's got to win and they're trying to do the best they can to win the game, and if that's to take Shohei out of the lineup, and not pitch to him, then that's what they got to do. But that means Shohei's on base, so that's also good for the Dodgers.
Q. Not to get too in the weeds on the offensive stuff, but when you talk about the approach, is it more you guys not sticking to the right approach of the kind of pitches you're swinging at, is it just the kind of swings you're taking?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: I also think baseball's hard. They're really good. It's the World Series. They wouldn't be here if they didn't have good pitching. It's a lot of combinations of things. We can always talk about the offense isn't doing good, but you got to realize that's Major League pitching on the other side, and they're really good, and they're in the World Series as well.
So it's 2-2. It's the best of three now. We understand that we need to score runs and it's actually sometimes -- like, today we have to get the ball up. If we are on the bottom of the zone and chasing down there, that's not going to be good for us. So there is one -- one plan today and it's to get up, so maybe that will help us lock in on that one approach.
Q. And not to take you back to the regular season, but are there things when you guys were going through some of the second-half struggles and then got out of them that you can take from those moments and apply them right now?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: A lot of that during the regular season is just like ebbs and flows of the season. We're all not swinging the bat good sometimes and then all of a sudden a week later we are swinging the bat good. Obviously things are magnified in these situations, and we understand that. So I do think we just need to check down and have, like, almost a 0-1 mindset and just build innings, extend 'em, work counts, be who we are. We are always a team that gets starters 70 to 90 pitches by the 4th and we got to do that again and just build innings, keep putting pressure on 'em, and not have quick 1, 2, 3 innings.
Q. Have you been surprised by the revival of splitters the last few years, and how hard is it for you to pick it up and deal with that?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, splitters they are definitely coming back. It's definitely a tough pitch when you don't see 'em very often and now they're coming back. Obviously, in this World Series, there's a lot of 'em, a lot of guys that throw 'em. It's a very tough pitch, depending upon -- Yamamoto throws it at 92, 93, and then you have Trey today throwing them at 81, 82. Gausman -- it's -- they're all different too, especially Trey. He's such a high release point that it can do so many different things. He was cutting before, he's faded 'em, they go straight down. So it's a definitely a tough pitch because we don't grow up facing that kind of stuff, so you just got to get acclimated to it quicker. But it's definitely coming back, and it's a tough pitch to hit. But like I said, the approach, we got to get that ball up.
Q. Also, I assume Charlie made it up until the 18th?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Oh, he did. All of 'em did, by the way.
Q. Did they watch it or did you have to --
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Charlie said he missed it. I don't know what he was doing in the family room, but he said he missed it. He said he heard a cheer and looked at the TV and I was running around the bases, so I guess he asked my wife to watch the replay. (Laughing).
Q. Over the course of the year the team was tested so many times. What do you think this team is made of, what is this team's kind of identity?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, we faced so many bumps in the road. I think in spring training everyone was saying, this is how the season's going to go, and obviously it didn't go that way. At one point we had our whole starting rotation was injured. We have gone through rough spells of the offense, the bullpen, everything. We've all been through tough times. I think that's -- when you go through that and win in 18 innings, and come back and didn't play the way we wanted to yesterday. And we know we got to bounce back, we understand that. But we have faced so much adversity throughout the course of this year that we're ready for it. We're counting on Blake, and hopefully as an offense we can bounce back and put up better at-bats and get going, because that's who we are.
Q. Obviously today's most important, but Yamamoto is starting Game 6. What is, is it something about his personality or anything about the person that sort have has gravitated, that you guys have kind of gravitated towards him as a person the last couple years?
FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, Yoshi is incredible. It's just -- to come over from a whole, to a new country, and new routines, new everything, and to settle in, and have that contract given to you, and then just to live up to it so fast, and just be counted on by us every five days. It's a special, it takes a special person to do something like that. You saw him warming up to come into the 19th inning the other day after one day's rest. I think that's just all you need to know about Yoshinobu, he will do anything to win a baseball ball game. I heard he was like throwing like 10, 15 miles an hour in the bullpen, and they said, Hey, like, can you go? And he said, Yeah, I can go. And they're like, Well, you need to pick it up, because you're going to come into the 19th inning. And they said his next pitch was 97 dotted, down and away, in the bullpen. And I was like, yeah, that's, it's incredible. I hope it epitomizes Yoshi as what he was going to do for us two days ago.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports