The Dodgers are wrapping up the series in Pittsburgh, and I'm here with a
man that certainly inspires his teammates by the way he approaches the game. And
last night, Jason Hayward did that. Man, you were an inspiration last
night, the way you just kept playing and the team almost came back to
complete the comeback, no, no doubt. One one a bad at a
time, one pitch at a time, one play at a time. It's
you know, it's fun to compete. You know, they played a really
good game. They got off to a nice start, and we kept having
abs and our bullpen did a very nice job. Come in. It sounds
like you're quoting Creed the movie Creed, because that's what Rocky would tell Adonis.
One step at a time, one punch at a time, one round
at a time. I've seen it, but I did not even think anything
about that. But you know, I think like that's you know, a
big part of games like that one when you go down early, it's like,
you know, one thing at a time, control what you can.
You know, no different from any other game, but still like literally you
have to lock in and buy in, you know, to that. I
thought we did a pretty good job against their starter. He made pitches,
but we had a B's you know, good AB's team. AB's put us
from runs and like I said, both Pink came into a nice job.
They all sleved this last night. Jason, do you feel like you're starting
to get into the rhythm of the season. Obviously it was stopped because of
the back injury, but do you feel like you're starting to get back into
the rhythm. Yeah, definitely, I would say so. And you know,
in my mind, the rhythm is all about adjusting, you know,
one day at a time, take what you got, focus on what you
do have, not what you don't, go compete. So yeah, it's
nice to be back in the floor of that, you know, knowing my
role right now is kind of be ready for whatever it's always been that,
you know with this group. But uh, you know, still it's just
nice to be focused on the day to day and take care of what I
can take care of and you know, compete with our guys. How would
you take inventory of where you guys are at as a team right now?
We are playing the schedule. We're playing the schedule and you know, competing
every day. What I do love is that you know, our thoughts and
vibes are like, you know, we do this together, you know,
ups, downs, all that kind of stuff, and you know it's all
a part of it, you know. I'm I'm happy to be honest to
see us like needing to figure things out right, need to make adjustments,
be aware of the details that we you know, have to adjust to,
whether it's on the fly or on one day at a time, and then
over the one sixty two. I like what that, you know, the
opportunity that gives us as a group because obviously you know again like the cares
there, the work ethics there, but it's also nice to know like where
you need to aim at work. And that's that's what I really like about
right now. No matter how the stretches, is it fair to say that
offensively or as a group, you guys are experiencing more adversity than you did
at any point in time during the regular season last year. I have no
idea. I mean, I think when I say that, meaning you know,
like schedules or schedules, like sometimes you line up and you get everybody's
best. Sometimes you catch one of their best and and and get another you
know, we'll see how you know, the rest of us have finishes out,
We'll see how the second half goes like. But at the same time,
I think that's that's great with competition is getting everyone's best and uh teams
going forward, so they want to do their best to line things up that
way. But all in all, you know, missing months is very tough,
you know, me not being here for you know that that amount of
games was tough for for our balance and whatnot. So if anything, I
just think like the reality is like, yeah, it's fair to say you're
trying to cover you know, more things at once than than what we had
to go through it in the point last year health wise, But that's that's
the name of the game, you know, is how you handle injuries,
how you handle depth and and make up slack for things like that. But
uh no, all in all, you have to you know, understand like
sometimes the offense is going to be there, the pitching is going to have
a tough game, sometime the picking is going to be amazing, and the
offense is not going to be there. But you keep pushing and you fight
like hell to have that all line up. Jason Hayward is our guest.
And it's funny you mentioned when you catch a team. I remember all the
way back when Don Mattingly was managing the Dodgers, he always said that it's
not so much about the record, it's when you're catching that team in the
schedule, and then it's not excuses. It's just the reality of a one
sixty two reality of even a postseason series where you whether the game starts or
whatever time, whether where you're traveling to where you're traveling from your road to
get there, and how you weather that road. And you know, that's
why I say, like for us right now, like this is going to
be one that's really cool to say it. Our finish is we will be
battle tested, and I think like that it's going to go a long way
into where we want. It feels like just traveling with you guys, being
with you, it feels like you guys are Major League Baseball showcase team and
the schedule is really not giving you many breaks in that respect. And that's
that's a part of it, you know, like you know, most of
us has to be here. You know when I say that, like obviously
guys that are drafted here or whatever, like that's you know that's their natural
progression coming up as a young guy at rookie. But this is what we
signed up for, and we love to be Dodgers. We love to compete.
We love the opportunity that we're giving, you know, to play this
game. And then yeah, like MLB is gonna do that. They're gonna,
you know, make sure that the top teams and they're exciting teams,
and the teams that are marketed are are well seen and shown, you know,
throughout the season. And I feel like, you know, a cool
thing about that is like a lot of us on this team have experienced that,
you know, before this year. So that's that's naturally a part of
it, you know, great, great on MLB's part. But yeah,
no, like when you are a team picked to win it all, like
you're not gonna get any slack anywhere from anywhere. No one's gonna feel for
you at any point. But nor do we, you know, we we
understand that it's real. We understand travel, travel families and all that kind
of stuff. But we still go play, we still compete, we still
work our asses. Okay, so we're in Pittsburgh right now, obviously you're
getting their best shot the Dodgers go to New York and play the Yankees at
Yankee Stadium. I'm sure you're aware of the anticipation for that series. How
do you guys approach that knowing that all eyes of the baseball world is going
to be on you guys on that stage. I mean, that's fun.
That's that's what you live for right there. In my opinion, I can't
speak for anyone else, but like, that's that's the fun stuff. I
always love going to Yankee Stadium. Always love you know, always always love
those games. You know, it's it's cool to be in that type of
market. I've been fortunate enough to do that, you know now, you
know in parts of my career, for the later part of my career,
and like, that's so much fun. So we'll have that, we'll go
compete. But again, in my eyes, it's still it's feedback. It's
instiant feedback on details like what is it we're going to work on? What
is it it? You know that that we'd like about it? What didn't
we like about it? And you know how we leave it. Jay,
thanks a lot for the time. I love the respect your teammates have for
you. You've earned that respect and they certainly show that. So thank you
for the time and we'll see on the plane tonight. I appreciate you,
bro. We'll have a good flight