Oct. 11 Joe Maddon postgame interview

Q. Besides getting the win and avoiding having to play a deciding Game 5, is there any bigger message sent by the way you guys did finish this off against a team that’s been so tough to eliminate?

JOE MADDON: Well, I think as a group, obviously, it’s two years in a row now that we’re getting to this particular level. I think it validates on a lot of different levels the job that we have done to this point. I think if you’re a player on this particular team within the organization, it’s getting to the point now you want to expect to get to the postseason and you want to expect to get deeply into the postseason. It also speaks to the way we played. Javy just touched on it that there’s 27 outs and you don’t give any of them up and you keep playing for all 27. After the game, even on the mound there taking the photographs, the guys were chanting “We don’t quit, we don’t quit.” We don’t quit. That’s really what it comes down to. You hear that all the time, everybody says it, but you have to actually live it. And I have to tell you, I’ve seen it so many times from this group. And that’s a big part of our philosophy. And I like to keep things simple, and that’s simple, and I can’t — I don’t want to get complicated. We just play 27 outs.Q. Would you agree that Anthony started to get better at-bats tonight?

JOE MADDON: He walked. He walked. That’s it. What did he have, two walks? Two walks and a line drive up the middle, right? When guys are struggling at all, more than likely, for me, they’re expanding their strike zone. That’s it. That’s normally what causes guys to go backward. And he, being who he is, and like I said before the game, they’re going to target him. They’re going to say we’re not going to let him beat us. We’re just not going to pitch to this guy. And I’m sure that was part of the game plan. So, he finally made the adjustment today. We just — he just needs to take his walks, if they want to do that and move it along to the next guy. Zobrist’s double, pretty big play. Very large play today. So we were maybe non-conventional in the way the lineup is built. I think I pinch hit for Addison for the first time ever today. But they all knew coming into it. Double switch for Jason Heyward yesterday, they all knew coming into it. I explained it to them before, things are just a little bit — it’s the same but everything’s different in regards to the kind of moves you may make at this time of the season. They’re all on board, and it just happened to play out.Q. To use like a video game analogy, you see it as you’re kind of just going to the next stage, the next level, there’s so much expectation in this club, you’re two steps away now from —

JOE MADDON: Yeah, and we love it. I’m telling you, man, that’s a good word. Expectations is a good word. Because normally it means that you have something good attached to it at the other side. Pressure expectations, I want our guys to thrive on those two words for the years to come, I want the organization to. In the end that means there’s a lot of expected of you. Good. There should be. We should all have a lot expected of us. And then it should be it should manifest itself in the sense that it should bring out the best you. And I think that you saw that tonight within our group. You’ve seen it all season, that’s actually like 106 wins I think for the year. That’s pretty significant. So all those things I want to have us channel in a positive direction.Q. Any thoughts tonight on facing either the Dodgers or Nationals, knowing that neither Scherzer nor Kershaw can pitch Game 1?

JOE MADDON: Honestly, I don’t have any desire either way. I really don’t. Washington’s a shorter plane ride. Couple time zone changes going out west. Know Andrew with the Dodgers. Andrew Friedman and I are friends. Washington, I don’t know as many people. We have a house, I mean, there’s all this kind of stuff. It doesn’t matter. Because when you start worrying about who you’re going to play, it could bite you. Because it really shouldn’t matter. We played both …

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