The Dodger bullpen has been stellar all season long, and a big part of
it is their left hand or Alex Vessia. Thanks a lot for the time.
Great to be with you in the concrete jungle of New York. Thanks
Dave. Happy to be here, you got me, had a good time.
We got route about ten minutes before we go and play some catch and
feeling good. Yeah, so a daylight today, coming off the high of
last night. How is it for you to be out here? It's great?
Let's do it again tonight. Yeah. I love that attitude got to
in the bullpen, and that's the goal is to be ready day in and
day out. You know, it's yeshair was a good one. Today we
have the opportunity to do it again. Am I allowed to ask you about
last night? Sure? Absolutely? What you got? Well? I thought
it was so impressive. Number one, you come in with the bases loaded
in the sixth inning, no margin for error against one of their better hitters
and Anthony Volpi. How do you manage that knowing that there's nowhere else to
put them one pitch at a time. Yeah, that was basically my mentality.
It was keeping the heart rate down, making sure I was, you
know, going to my strengths, and I felt like Will and I were
on the same page right from the get go. And you know, we
executed some pretty good pitches, got them to pop out. So for me,
all I was looking for in that situation was one out, didn't I
didn't care how it came. Yeah, all good. That's gotta be the
biggest key to being a pitcher, and certainly a relief pitcher. Not getting
too far ahead. Yep. Absolutely, try to stay in the moment.
Like I said, one pitch at a time, right, you know,
everybody loves you, but yeah, it's you know, for myself, not
focusing on the pitch before or even what pitch I'm gonna throw in two or
three pitches, it's basically the pitch at hand, making sure it's executed to
my best abilities. Alex Vessi is our guest and front of Sunday Night Baseball
at Yankee Stadium. The guy that just called you the goat is pretty good
himself, Blake trying in. You're surrounded with Daniel Hudson as well, Evan
Phillips. The great group of guys you have, Yeah, absolutely veterans that
I've I've picked their brain on multiple occasions over the last two three years.
They have definitely helped me in more ways than one, you know. And
the thing that I cherish the most is that they don't sugarcoat anything. You
know, They've been blunt, they've been brutal at times. But it's that's
what great friends do. You know, that they tell you how they see
it and and and sometimes how it is. You know, it makes me
look myself in the mirror and and you know where I have to make the
hard decisions and go through, you know, go through hard times, right
like that's you know, I've I've had failure, I've had success. You
know, I feel like I've done a little bit of everything, you know,
and you know, when things are going good, you stay on your
routine and it's you know, like I said, it's clicking, you know,
one one inning at a time, one pitch at a time. We
just take it day by day. Man. It's uh, you can't think
too far ahead, you know, it's we got to win today. What
can you say about Blake trying and being back this year and Daniel Hudson being
back this year, just seems like that bullpen is just nothing tangible, but
just something a little bit more stronger. Yeah, I mean we with Huddy
specifically, I got to play with him last the last couple of years.
We we thought last year was gonna be his last year, and you know,
we had shared a moment last year after the playoffs, and and then
when I saw it on Twitter that he was back, immediately called him and
I couldn't you know, I was super happy to have him back. Blake.
You know, it when when guys go through injuries, you know,
sometimes it's out of their control, you know, and for what Blake has
had to deal with the last two years, I couldn't be more happy for
him getting back out on the mound and then having success right out right out
the gate. You know, we we used him in a couple really tight
spots right out the gate, and the guys just meant for it. You
know. He he does his thing and gosh, it's it's it's always fun
to go on Twitter after his outings and see all the nasty pitches that that
pitching ninja will will post because it literally it doesn't look real, you know,
video game. It's yeah, it's one hundred percent video game. So
yeah, he's he's a special human and yeah, I give him a lot
of credit, a lot of credit. Alex VESSI is our guest before I
let you go. Like you said, it's day to day. You're only
as good as your last pitch or lest outing. So what's the vibe when
you go out and play catch and the vibe in that bullpen tonight, knowing
that you've already won this series. You guys have done a great job all
year. What can you describe just the vibe in that bullpen? Yeah,
so we're I mean, we'll go play catch, well, you know,
make sure everybody's you know, feeling good. I'll talk with Barto and Connor
about about some pitching stuff maybe see if I'm hot or not tonight that that'll
be decided a little bit later. But you know, the vibes are good
in the bullpen. Vibes are really good, man. We we love the
attention that we've been getting lately, you know, with with Mookie and the
guys that you know, when they do hit a double, they they say,
what's up to us out in the bullpen? Like you know, that's
cool, you know, because we don't get to be in the dugout where
you know, for for too long, whether in the first inning or it's
after we're done pitching, you know. So yeah, to have to have
that that little uh we'll call it the spotlight. Right. It's fun,
man, We have a good time and you know it's fun out there.
We've got some good guys. Yeah, you do. Great team, Alex
Vessia. So happy for you. You've been such a big part of this
team the last three or four years. And keep it rolling. Thank you,
thank you. I gotta get to catch play. I'll talk catch it.
See right there he goes, Alex Vessia out with his boys in the bullpen.