During Tuesday’s pre-Wild Card Game workout at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers right-hander and starting pitcher Max Scherzer, Dodgers third baseman and unofficial team captain Justin Turner, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts held actual live-and-in-person (not Zoom) press conferences. Without any fluff, hype, or hoopla, here are several key comments from each.

Max Scherzer:

“You draw on all of your postseason experiences, especially in elimination games, as well. It’s one game, you win or go home.”

“You’re always on pins and needles in these situations. You just gotta be calm, cool, and collected and go out there and execute, and go out there and pitch your best, pitch your game.”

“Look, you have to win your division. We didn’t win our division. There’s no crying in baseball. So, we’re in second place, we’re in the Wild Card Game.”

“I threw my bullpen in order to be able to throw a [game] 163, and obviously when that didn’t happen, I just came in (on Monday) and just got off the mound and threw a couple pitches off the mound to keep my feel. So I was ready for either scenario.”

“When you have two teams, when you get in these situations, there’s a premium on every 90 feet on both sides of the ball. The ball always seems to find a way to have weird bounces in these situations. You get in these games and something happens. And so, you just gotta be ready for it.”

“You can’t ride the emotional roller-coaster because there’s gonna be some unbelievable highs and some unbelievable lows. You just gotta ride through it just knowing that you gotta be consistent and just go out there and play good baseball. Never let the situation get to you, always just worry about the next pitch no matter what just happened.”

“The ball feels really good coming out of my hand and now it’s just go out there and compete. It’s postseason. Anything can happen.”

“As awesome as it was to win one, you definitely was to win it again. That’s what you play the game for is to be able to win the World Series. It starts tomorrow and we have to win tomorrow – there’s no if, ands, or buts about it – so it’s going to have to take an incredible effort in order to be able to get through this first game.”

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Justin Turner:

“I feel great. I feel like I accomplished what I was trying to do for the most part. Other than a couple games in New York, my goal was to be available for Doc to use me everyday this year and I came pretty darn close to doing that.”

“Obviously (Max Muncy) is a cornerstone of our offense, the at-bat quality we’re certainly going to miss. But we still have a pretty dynamic line-up and I think the best way to look at it is an opportunity for someone else to step up and take good at-bats for us.”

“I feel terrible for him and what happened, and obviously he was prepared to be a big part of this postseason run we’re going to have. But he’s already texted all the guys and let us that, no matter what, he’s going to be there every game doing whatever he can to try to help us win – whether the cheerleading or hanging around the cage, or whatever, he’s still in it with us and that won’t be lost on us.”

“There’s a ton of postseason experience in our room, so being basically a Game-7 tomorrow – an elimination game – we’ve got a lot of guys who have been through it before. So that certainly helps – the mentality going into it – and knowing what’s at stake, and knowing how to prepare, and knowing that you’ve got to play 27 outs, and take advantage of every opportunity you can.”

“(Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer are) two very similar competitors – great guys in the clubhouse and enjoy being around guys and having fun. But when it’s start-day, you see a whole other animal. It’s all about business, it’s all about going out and competing, and Scherzer’s the same way, Kersh is the same way, and that’s how I think they’re so successful; they just know how to lock it in and go out and compete. And once they do their job and their job’s over, then they go back and being that fun, exciting, goofball teammate that they are for the other four days. So, very similar between the two of them.”

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Dave Roberts:

“(Max Muncy) did some testing, so what we do know is that there’s not a UCL tear, it’s not going to require surgery. As of right now, that’s our expectation.”

“Still trying to hold out a glimmer of hope that he’ll be able to join us later on in the postseason, so I don’t know what that really means, but I do know that he’s been known to heal quickly and he’s determined to try to help us in any way he can, so I don’t want to close the door completely on that. So I guess right now looking at where we were on Sunday, it’s probably the best-case scenario than originally we saw.”

“I haven’t decided on who’s going to start at first base tomorrow. Obviously, guys that we have actively: (Matt) Beaty, (Albert) Pujols, Cody (Bellinger) has played some first base obviously – more in years past, (Billy) McKinney potentially could be on the roster, play some first base. So, we’ve got some options, but I’m going to think about it for another 24 hours. But if a guy starts a game, he might not finish a game there, and trying to keep some optionality with the line-up, with the defense, and all that stuff.”

“With Max, the potential (Division Series), very unlikely. Then I think that, for right now, I’ll just wait and see, and hold judgement going forward.”

“Clayton, it’s… the great thing is that the scan showed that there’s no ligament damage, so that’s something that is a sigh of relief for everyone. It’s sort of… he’s working out as per usual and obviously we don’t expect him back for this postseason, but I think that short, long-term, not to having ligament damage was a huge sigh of relief for all of us. (Tommy John surgery is) not on the table, which is great news.”

“The last few weeks, Gavin (Lux) has done a lot of good things as far as versatility, as far as specifically the offense. The truth of the matter is that he hasn’t played a whole lot outfield, and I do think that the incident in left-center field took some innings away, as far as kind of giving him more chances out there. I’m certainly considering (having Lux play centerfield) – whether it’s a start, whether it’s to fill in – it’s a possibility. Having his bat available in a spot makes sense to me, so, yeah, Gavin’s in the mix to be in centerfield if I want to put Cody at first base.”

Play Ball!

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