Oct. 12 Kolten Wong pregame interview

Q. We saw you guys put a lot of balls out of the park in batting practice yesterday. It looks like the wind is blowing out. How much of a difference can that make in this park when it seems like the wind will be blowing out for the game?

KOLTEN WONG: You know, this park is unique, man, because sometimes it will be blowing out, sometimes you can hit a ball out and probably the second baseman will catch it. It plays pretty different on certain days. But it's definitely going to change being able to be a little more aggressive, but then again, we have two good pitchers coming up, so it's going to be a good one.

Q. I think maybe only Peralta has more plate appearances against Arrieta than you. What have you seen there because you've probably seen him over a span of how he's improved, and how do you alter your approach, having probably already altered it many times to try to figure him out?

KOLTEN WONG: That's one thing about being in the Big Leagues is you constantly have to alter your approach regardless of the pitcher. I mean, even the same pitcher you are going to go and have different approaches every single time, because they are going to come at you in different ways so it's just trying to make sure I swing at strikes. He's got so much electric stuff that if you swing at every single pitch, he's going to get you, you know, so my game plan is going to come in, look for a strike that I know I can handle and try not to do too much. Just put the ball in play and let the guys behind me drive me in.

Q. Both as a base runner and an infielder, what's your take on the Chase Utley slide from the other night?

KOLTEN WONG: Man, that's tough. You know, you feel bad for Ruben because he didn't want to get taken out, nor was he ready to get taken out. He was kind of doing a spin, trying to make a play. Chase coming in doing what he did, you can see both sides of it being a clean slide and also being a dirty slide. It's a tough situation to kind of talk about. Yeah, it's a big discussion that they're going to have to figure out.

Q. This is something that you talked a lot about when you were a young player. How do you protect yourself? Can you protect yourself in that case?

KOLTEN WONG: In that case you can't. He's trying to make something happen out of a play that -- it was pretty good of Murphy just to get to that ball in the first place. That's one of those plays where you're trying to make something happen, and unfortunately trying to make something happen, you got yourself injured. It's just part of the game, and it's a -- not a dirty part because it's a scary part of the game being a middle infielder because you can be put in vulnerable positions, and that was one of them right there.

Q. You mentioned in the clubhouse a couple days ago that your swing feels as good now maybe as it has -- like it hasn't for about three months. Was that hyperbole? Were you overstating it or have you felt kind of lost for about three months?

KOLTEN WONG: You know, not really lost. I wasn't able to kind of keep myself back. I don't know what it was about maybe the anxiety of building up for the playoffs, whatnot. I wasn't able to kind of sit in my ways and keep my weight back so I was swinging at a lot of balls and rolling over a lot of pitches where I should have been driving up the middle. Now I've kind of found my base where I'm able to stay back and let my hands do the work. That's something that I felt last postseason, and hopefully it's something I feel this postseason.