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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CUBS VS METS

October 18, 2015

Joe Maddon

Flushing, New York - Postgame two

New York Mets - 4 - Chicago Cubs - 1

Q. Given how good Jake's been for the last four months, how surprising is it to see you guys down 3 0 that quick?
JOE MADDON: It's not happened really in the recent past. They got on us very quickly, good at bats by the top three guys culminated with the home run, obviously. The three run inning held up pretty well for them throughout the entire game.

Even after that Jake wasn't as sharp as he can be, but he definitely held serve. But the ambush early got us, and then you've got to give a lot of credit to their young pitcher; Syndergaard really was very good today, also.

Q. You saw Syndergaard in his Major League debut back in May at Wrigley. How big of a difference between then and now?
JOE MADDON: Composure wise, just being able to control himself a little bit better this time, obviously. His stuff's always good. I mean, that's really kind of velocity and the other pitches are good, too. But right now he's just a little bit more polished than we'd first seen him.

He's very good. He's going to continue to get better. Their entire pitching staff, we knew that coming into it, and they're demonstrating that right now.

Q. As great as Jake has been, he's coming up on I think almost 250 total innings. Do you think that workload has taken a toll on him?
JOE MADDON: I mean, I can't deny that it might be. I don't know that. If you ask him, he'll tell you no. In the game there if that gun was correct on the field, he might have been down a mile an hour or two, that's what I saw. Overall, and when that happens, the breaker, the commitment to the breaking ball is not as definite from the hitter's perspective, because they're able to see everything better.

So I don't know if that's true or not, but from the side, delivery was good. He was not laboring to throw the ball. It's just it wasn't as crisp as it had been, that's all.

Q. After seeing these two guys and having the prospect of deGrom and Matz and maybe other Harvey again, how do you feel going into these three games at Wrigley?
JOE MADDON: We're looking for several one game winning streaks and that would be kind of nice. Listen, it's never going to be easy this time of the year. They are good; we know that. We're also very good. We just have to string together some more at bats. The home run is a big part of our offense; they kind of negated that a bit here. But you've just got to turn the page, move it along.

We're all about one game winning streaks, very seriously. I really preach daily the one day at a time approach. I know it's psycho babble 101, but it actually works. So all I'm concerned about is the next game.

DeGrom's very good, but we're very good also at the plate. We have a lot of confidence in our players and our hitters, and I'm really eager to get to the next game.

Q. What does your experience tell you about being down here 0 2 going home in a seven game series versus losing the opener in St. Louis in a five game series? And does your youth play into it one way or the other?
JOE MADDON: Well, part of it is obviously if you lose two in St. Louis in a five game series it's a little more daunting, as opposed to a seven game. Then again, I'm telling you, to be with our guys daily and even in the dugout, our guys are fine. Our guys are fine. They pitched well, and they beat us. We only scored three runs in two games; that's hard to win. But we have so much offensive talent and I believe in our guys.

Like I said, if I saw a different look about them or their eagerness or attitude wasn't nearly as good, I'd be a little more concerned, but we're ready to play. We show up, we're ready to go. They got us to here. Like I said, a five game series a little bit more daunting, but for right now it's seven. It's been done before, we can do it ourselves. And from our players' perspective I just want them to focus on the next game, not the fact that you're down two or try to win all three at home. Just try to win the next game.

Q. Is there anything that your hitters can do differently heading into Game 3? Also does having had success against deGrom during the regular season help psychologically?
JOE MADDON: I'd like 15 degrees more Fahrenheit might help a little bit. That's something that would be kind of nice. I'm wishing for that. Beyond that we have seen good pitching a lot this year. We've been able to beat good pitching a lot this year. Again, you just turn the page.

These two guys for them pitched really well. Absolutely, they did. We did not give up a lot of runs in return. I won't have any kind of huge speeches. I'm not into that kind of stuff. Our hitting coaches do a wonderful job of preparing our hitters and our hitters are good. Let's get back to Wrigley, get ready to play and see how it all turns out.

But I really believe strongly in our players that we'll be able to rebound from this.

Q. You mentioned the weather, did the weather have any impact on Arrieta's ability to grip the ball tonight?
JOE MADDON: He didn't say anything. I didn't really gather that or gauge that from him. The first inning Granderson works a good at bat. Hits the ball between the shift guys. I think it was hit and run. I'm not sure, I think it was a hit and run with Wright. He got an elevated fastball and that put them in a good position right there, obviously.

The curveball to Murphy went foul. Almost the same pitch I think that went foul, then went fair to his credit. So I thought there was good depth on the breaking ball, just a good piece of hitting on Murphy's part. Even his last at bat against Richard, that's really good hitting right there to the opposite field. The guy's just really seeing the ball well. So I don't know so much that it was a lack of Jake's ability as much as it was a pretty hot hitter. That's why I walked him as early in the game as we did. I didn't want to mess with it.

But again, moving everything backward, of course, we try to ambush guys in the first inning ourselves. That was the game right there. It was really hard to recover from that, even though Jake wasn't as sharp as he can be, he still gave us some really good innings right there. I think he was right around 90 pitches or so by the time we took him out.

Just an interesting game. Just got to keep moving it forward and we'll be fine.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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