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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS CUBS

October 10, 2015

Mike Matheny

St. Louis, Missouri - Postgame two

Cubs - 6 Cardinals - 3

THE MODERATOR: First question for Mike.

Q. Mike, were you aware before the game that Jaime wasn't feeling well and can you share what you saw out of him those two innings?
MIKE MATHENY: I found out about an hour before the game. He said he was doing okay. He just had a couple of rough nights' sleep, so we are going to keep a close eye on him. But he wanted to pitch, and he felt good going out there, and you know, really it was fielding that did this. Those five runs were unearned runs, I do believe, but, then we got to the point, too, where it was probably on a baseball decision gonna get him out anyhow, but the medical team also thought it was probably a good idea.

Q. That's what I was going to ask is let's say there was no stomach thing, would you have stuck with him?
MIKE MATHENY: No, he was coming out anyhow, especially with his turn coming to at-bat.

Q. Is it a little tougher to swallow this loss based on the way the second inning went with the bunts and the --
MIKE MATHENY: Yeah, yeah. And you know, we've done a real nice job all season of limiting the extra bases, the extra outs; and games like these are gonna get you.

It is hard to watch a club that's played so well defensively, see a couple things happen that are kind of uncharacteristic for us, but they do happen; we gotta figure out ways to get around 'em.

Q. The decision to go to Lance, was that because this was his day to throw on the side and how did you weigh that decision to go to him or Carlos or Tyler?
MIKE MATHENY: Really what it came down to, yes, we have held him back from the side, and we were going to throw him out there and just see what it looked like. And if it would have been real clean and been able to see something kind of progressing there, we may have rolled with him a little bit, but gave up another run. Good opportunity; he's got his side. He's an option now for us as we move forward to start. He got his work in and didn't -- let Carlos come in and do what he did. He did a terrific job. All the way through the bullpen did a nice job getting us through the rest of that, but that could go any way you really want it to with Tyler and Carlos. With the right-handed strong lineup it's good to get Lance in there and give him a run at it.

Q. Does Lance remain your Game 4 starter or do you go back to the drawing board on that?
MIKE MATHENY: No, I think right now we have options. We haven't used Tyler, haven't shown him, and Lance is certainly the guy that we have kind of penciled for that so far, so -- and anything he did today didn't hurt his chances of doing that as far as healthwise.

Q. Your thoughts on Adam's outing and getting to see two innings from him. Looked like he was stronger in the second than he was in the first.
MIKE MATHENY: He looked great. It was nice to stretch him out a little bit. He was so efficient in the first. And we would have probably had to burn him. We didn't have a double switch to bring in to guarantee him that one plus, but his sharp. His curveball was there, everything right on the mark and got the strikeouts that we needed. Just a great step in a good direction for him and his progress.

Q. We're talking about Game 4. Is it possible -- I'm not asking yes or no, but is it possible if you're down 2-1, John Lackey could start that game?
MIKE MATHENY: I don't think we rule out anything, but my usual answer, we got a game in between that we're mostly focused on right now, so we go out and play. Then we'll figure things out when we get to that point.

Q. Mike, could you share your view of what exactly happened first on the Wong error and second on the Hendricks bunt, just where exactly things went wrong in those plays?
MIKE MATHENY: The Wong error is just lost grip. He just lost the feeling right at the last second and those happen. Physical errors do happen. Kolten has been so good at turning the double play for us this year. I think he's one of the better in the league and he made another great play late in the game but they happen.

As far as the play with the pitcher bunting, that's a well-executed bunt and the pitcher has gotta be aggressively thinking right out of the box if you're going to have any chance at home. So then at the last minute there's a lot of noise. I'm sure Yadi at that point was calling for him to at least look at home, and it was too late at that point because he'd already made an initial move to first. And then off balance, off-balance throws typically end up in the outfield.

Q. On Adam you mentioned he is not stretched out enough to be a starter. Hypothetically speaking, how long would that take? How many weeks, months? How long would it take for him to be able to --
MIKE MATHENY: It would take a little while.

Q. Mike, with Garcia, did he start feeling worse as he continued to pitch? Was there ever a thought in your mind when you did hear that he was ill, what am I going to do as a substitute plan or was it always just no doubt he was going to get the ball even though he didn't feel just right?
MIKE MATHENY: No. We wanted to see what he looked like. When he went out there, he was in the strike zone, making pitches and getting ground balls, and mostly what we had seen every start he's been out.

Like I said, it was more fielding issues that cost him in the long run than anything else. But, yeah, instantly as he came in and told me this, like I said, it was right before we were getting ready to go out, and so we had some plans in place and gave him the option, hey, you good enough to go? And he said, yeah, I'm fine to pitch, but I just want to let you know I've been a little off lately, so we're trying to keep a close eye.

And then things happened pretty quick, and then the 2-run homer was the cap on it. But there really wasn't anything that we were seeing up until that point pitching-wise that looked that much out of character.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mike, appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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