Oct. 22 Joe Maddon postgame interview

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. I know we talk about Javy’s instincts for baseball quite a bit, but to do it on this stage in this level of pressure, what does that speak to him as a player?

JOE MADDON: Obviously he’s able to control his emotions, he plays it as it should be, it’s a game. That’s how he plays it. He grew up in Puerto Rico, played a lot of baseball as a youth, played a lot of winter ball. He’s been taught properly and well. And when he goes out there, man, you saw him before the game sitting on the bench, saw him waving into the camera, he’s just being himself. I love that.

I love everything about that because when he goes out there he’s not afraid of making a mistake, and that’s big thing when you get players that are en masse not concerned about making mistakes, really good stuff can happen. That’s, he leads the pack with that.

Q. You talked about taking things through the process and not thinking too far ahead, but what was it like when you guys got the double play to end it, and is it different than what you expected?

JOE MADDON: It’s one of those things that it’s everything you think it is, but then again you have to — you need time to really process the entire situation. You stand out on that platform afterwards and you’re looking at the ballpark and the fans and the W flags everywhere, and truthfully I do think about everybody, I think about the fans and their parents and their grandparents and great-grandparents and everything that’s been going on here for a while. So you think that — I think about my coaching staff. My coaching staff gets to go to the World Series. From a financial perspective that’s great for coaches because baseball coaches in the Major League level don’t really make that much money. People don’t realize that. So I think about them and their families. All these things come to your mind. I think about my wife, Jaye, my kids, my mom back in Pennsylvania, my dad who wasn’t here. Those are the kind of things you think about in that particular moment, and it’s pretty — it’s overwhelming and it’s awesome.

Q. This was a two-hit ballgame.

JOE MADDON: Yeah, it was.

Q. You said this was one of your best played ball games this year. What does that say about in a clincher like this?

JOE MADDON: That’s my point. We had a stuff start with this series. They’re up 2-1, and all of a sudden a bunt turns the whole thing around. That and then we got out of that winning with Montgomery, took out John Lackey, and almost got out of it clean, but on the double play ball that went off the glove. But that’s a big moment, holding the lead right there.

So to me there’s two seminal moments, probably is the bunt and that particular play where it goes a ground ball to short. We didn’t make the play, we get out of the inning only giving up two runs. …

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