Oct. 3 Don Mattingly postgame interview

Q. Can you talk about what you're feeling right now, now that you've got that first playoff win as a manager under your belt?

DON MATTINGLY: It feels good, obviously to put a win on the board really in a series, try to get that first game kind of under your belt as far as a team, not really worrying about myself so much. But feel good about putting a win on the board.

Q. Defensively tonight Crawford made a huge play for you in left field and Gattis kind of in the same area didn't make the play. Was that kind of a difference tonight?

DON MATTINGLY: Well, Crawford made a nice play. I think the difference for us early was a couple of big two out hits. Really A.J. gets a two out hit there. I think Adrian's home run maybe game with two outs, Mark Ellis' two out hit. We kind of just kept adding on.

And when you get Kershaw out there, keep giving him space, you put those -- you put a lot of pressure on the other team. When you've got Kershaw out there you're trying to come back from that type of game.

Q. I'm sure you were noticing Clayton's pitch count, 77 through four and 91 through five. Did you think then he could get through seven?

DON MATTINGLY: With Clayton, you're not quite sure, but there's a lot of times that he's able to, as the game goes on, all of a sudden the innings will come quick. We've seen him do this a few times. I thought they did a nice job with him early, battling and forcing him to throw more pitches to get outs. I think we walked Simmons early that one inning that kind of elevated his pitch count. No, but kind of as the game goes, he seems to get stronger and stronger.

You don't get too concerned, but we talked about letting him go back out. He was probably strong enough to go back out again at 120. He would have went back out. But he's that guy. We've been kind of protecting him. He's thrown a lot of innings but still maybe only once that he's been to 120, protecting him all year long and kind of letting him get to this point.

Q. Before the game did you notice anything different about Puig today? Was he any more amped up than usual?

DON MATTINGLY: He actually seemed calm today, just kind of focused on what we wanted him to do. I thought his BP today was calm, used the whole field. Pretty normal.

Q. Can you talk about your confidence level going into tomorrow knowing you've got another strong arm in Greinke going on the mound?

DON MATTINGLY: Well, you feel good when Zack is pitching. Again, we're going to go out there tomorrow, turn the page on this one. It feels good to get this one under our belt, but we've got a tough game today. And really with Zack, we feel pretty much like Clayton, you feel like he's going to keep you in the game, so he's going to give us a chance. If we can put some runs up for him and make some plays, we're going to be in a position to at least be in a close game that you've got a chance to win. Feel good about that.