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MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 14, 2015

Ned Yost

CINCINNATI, OHIO

American - 6
National - 3

Q. Ned, with Kershaw in the game, were you just going to use Fielder at that situation, put him in?
NED YOST: Pretty much. When I saw Kershaw out there -- I had Prince Fielder, I know how tough an out he is. I doesn't matter if it's left-handed or right-handed. In that situation, I felt good about Prince doing exactly what he did.

Q. You guys don't really get to see Aroldis Chapman pitch that often. What was your reaction to seeing him tonight?
NED YOST: We get to see him quite a bit in Spring Training because we're close, so we do get to see him. We just know he's got a devastating fastball and he's an outstanding pitcher. We knew how good he was. I kind of felt bad; I wanted to get Moose in the game, I wanted to get some of those guys in the game, and for them to have to go up and face him, Brock Holt with his first All-Star at-bat, Moose with his first, I knew it would be tough. But he's a really good pitcher. I mean, I think he struck Moose out on a 103-mile-an-hour fastball. Pretty impressive.

Q. Can you describe a little bit what this felt like tonight after all finally getting here and being surrounded by your guys?
NED YOST: It was a lot of fun. We've been really working on our game plan for the last week. We tried to punch holes in it every which way we could and we worked it to perfection. We wanted to put power at the top of the lineup and hopefully get a quick strike. Mike Trout took care of that for us. We wanted to try to have a lead by the fifth inning so we could get our real power-arm relievers in that game to hold them down. That worked great. We wanted to get Keuchel through two innings. He pitched great. Chris Archer, of course, was fantastic. So was King Felix and David Price. The plan went perfectly. You sit there and you look at the plan and you think it's a good plan, but the players have to go out and execute it. They did to a tee.

Q. Ned, on any given night, your bullpen is already pretty good just with the guys on your own team. Then you through in guys like Britton and Betances and Perkins at your disposal. Did it almost make it easier for you to manage the game you would a typical Royals game?
NED YOST: Of course it does. That's why we set the team up that way. We wanted to try to have five innings of good starting pitching. In the back end of the game, the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, we wanted guys accustomed to coming in in those situations. We looked at power-arm closers and power-arm setup guys to get us through those last four innings. They did a nice job of doing it.

Q. Ned, when you talked about Mike, it's kind of hard to imagine the guy is 23 and has accomplished all he has and now is the first time back-to-back MVP. What separates him from all the other great players?
NED YOST: He's just special. He's just special. He can do anything that anybody can do on a baseball field. He can hit with power. He can run, he can drive the gap. He's a great defender. He's just special. When you look at Mike, you don't look at a 23-year-old. You look at a guy that is one of the best baseball players on this planet. So he was the one guy that I wanted to leave in the game the longest. He played longer than anybody else because he is such a special talent.

THE MODERATOR: On that note, we're going to let him get up here. Thank you very much, Ned, for everything.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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