	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS CUBS

October 9, 2015

Joe Maddon

St. Louis, Missouri - Postgame one

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joe.

Q. Joe, you had two great pitchers pitching great games. You also had two great catchers out there tonight.
JOE MADDON: Yeah.

Q. How impactful was Yadier Molina being able to steal pitches for them tonight, and as much as a manager never wants to use sour grapes, did that have an impact on the game?
JOE MADDON: I mean, you know, you guys had a better look at it than I did. I voiced my opinion a couple times, but apparently it was the same zone for both sides, and I really can't complain about that.

Both of our catching -- the catching was outstanding tonight on both sides. I totally agree with that. Again, that's just something I really want to stay out of. I mean from the side I voiced my opinion once. It's really hard to argue with an umpire with all that noise in the ballpark, so lest I had gone out there, I would have gotten kicked out. From the side I saw what you guys kind of saw, but you can report on that as you choose.

Q. You've seen Lackey over the years, and it just seemed like, strike zone or not, it was vintage Lackey. Was there any attempt going in -- you've seen him a lot -- just to change things up or you felt that was the best plan of attack, especially with his attacking the outside corner?
JOE MADDON: Yeah, he was just on. He's been on -- since he's come over here, he's really gotten sharp again. That's how I saw him as a baby. He's hitting up to 94, 95. The velocity is back, and that sets everything else up. He's very aggressive with his fastball. He didn't even have to throw a whole of breaking stuff tonight, I didn't think. So his arm must feel good, because the velocity is there and his delivery is good. So both Johns pitched really, really well tonight. It was just an outstanding performance from both guys.

Q. Joe, with runs hard to come by late in the game when they bring in the lefty and you brought C.C. in, was that just a matchup thing or a feeling that you had about Kris as opposed to say A.J. or Soler?
JOE MADDON: Well, actually, Siegrist is much better against righties than lefties. He's just good, but he's better against righties than lefties. Rosenthal is better against lefties than righties. They have a lot of reverse splits within their team. Garcia is one; Wacha is one. Rosenthal is one is one. John Lackey almost pitches to neutral. He used to be kind of a reverse. That's part of their -- I don't even know if it's a concept of theirs or not, but they pitch a lot to reverse splits. And furthermore you're able to -- I like Deno and Soler hitting against Rosenthal if it got to that particular point, too. So you have to balance out what you had available to you based on their pitching, but Siegrist is really good against righties.

Q. Joe, you know Lackey, he helped you win a World Series there in Anaheim. Obviously you didn't expect him to maybe give up no runs, but is that the kind of effort in general you thought you would get tonight from the other side?
JOE MADDON: Yeah, I anticipated low scoring. I thought both guys would pitch well, and they did. Of course, their three-run 8th made it a little bit more difficult.

But yeah, from the beginning I could see that Lackey was on; I could see after that first inning Jon Lester was on, so you just figured like 1-nothing, 2-1, 3-2, that kind of a game. That's what I had in my mind's eye the entire night.

We could not get anything generated. We had maybe like one opportunity when eventually Addison advanced to third base, but they did; they pitched really well all season. That's a big reason why they won 100 games is that they've pitched so well.

Q. Joe, you saw John Lackey's first postseason start when you were with the Angels. In your mind is he as an October pitcher an under-appreciated guy in this generation?
JOE MADDON: Yeah, I mean, he -- I saw him as a young man in 2002; and yeah, he was always kind of fearless. He comes from Texas, kind of does the John Wayne strut out there. He's that guy, but we had the same guy in return with Jon Lester.

I knew going into it, like I said, that I thought it was going to be that kind of a game. From our perspective offensively, I could see from the beginning we were going to have a hard time with John Lackey based on his location, the kind of swings we were getting, the kind of contact, a lot of weak contact on our part. Not a lot of strikeouts. He wasn't punching us out, but a lot of weak contact. I think we had to expand our zone offensively to try to cover some pitches that we normally don't have to swing at in order to avoid strikeouts, and the ball is put in play weakly because of that, so I think there was an advantage from the expanded strike zone regarding us not being able to make hard contact.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Joe, appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297