Oct. 4 Jason Heyward postgame interview

Q. Your thoughts on the intentional walk to Reed to get to you coming through there?

JASON HEYWARD: Play the matchups. Play the matchups. That's what the postseason is about. You go lefty, lefty there.

Me personally, I'm glad to have an opportunity to come through big for my team right there, got a pitch and I didn't miss it.

Q. Where does this rank among all the top moments that you've experienced early in your career?

JASON HEYWARD: I mean, the top. For right now the top. This is this moment. This is all I can control. Anything that already happened and whatever is going to happen next, I have no control over. So tonight's game was a lot of fun. We want to be in those situations to come through big for your team.

And I was trying to continue to grow up some in this game and continue to get better and continue to be a student of the game and continue to have fun.

Q. A broken jaw is a pretty serious injury. How concerned were you that you weren't going to make it back for the playoffs and how hard did you work? Was it difficult? Was there some concern about health when you got in the box for the first time?

JASON HEYWARD: Well, the first frustrating thing was watching my team play in the biggest part of the season without me, and wanted to be a part of those games, and that was also the second time I had had to be on the DL this year going to the hospital.

I worked really hard to be in shape before my jaw actually healed so I could play, and that is what it is right now. It's not really a concern for me. I know if I was going to step back on the field to help my teammates, I couldn't think about my jaw or anything like that. Get out there and go have some fun.

Q. You guys managed three double plays tonight. After the third one, do you think momentum was on your side?

JASON HEYWARD: Any time you get a double play like that, that kind of kills any momentum on the other side. Name of the game in the playoffs to me is keep runs off the board, put zeros up in innings and don't let the other team score.

We got a two run lead tonight and that's not a very big lead for any playoff game. To be able to put on extra insurance runs late in the game, that's huge when you play some defense like that, help your pitchers get out of innings.

Q. Fredi said you guys thought this was probably a must win game. Did you feel that way, too?

JASON HEYWARD: Yeah, I know a manager has got a different mindset sometimes than the players, but I know we all agree on one thing tonight, every night in the postseason is a must win game for us. You don't want to ever think it's okay to lose. That's been our attitude all year. I feel like anybody that's in the postseason, any team says we need to win tonight. And we came up big.

Q. You guys have said you guys have been resilient all year. That's a term we've heard a lot. Is this a game where that proved to be true again?

JASON HEYWARD: Oh, absolutely. That's what it takes to win 96 games I feel like in a very tough division with some very respected teams. To play as well as we did at home after being down so many times, that says a lot about what it takes to win postseason games for me. We showed up in the regular season and did it, but it's good to do it in the postseason.

Q. If you could just make a comment about the size of the crowd, the noise they made and how that affects you guys on the field.

JASON HEYWARD: Man, I've watched this crowd growing up, and to be out there and be a part of it is a special thing for me personally. I know we definitely feed off of them, and no atmosphere is like Turner Field to me when it's a packed house.