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NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS CUBS

October 8, 2016

Joe Maddon

Chicago, Illinois - Postgame one

Cubs5

Giants2

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. You guys took a long look at Kyle after he got hit. What was the conversation like and is he going to be okay?
JOE MADDON: He's fine. In that particular moment a guy gets hit in the arm and then he throws that first pitch and really yanks it, so I was concerned when I saw that. And my message to him was, okay, even if you could finish this inning more than likely you're going to go in, sit down, and it's going to swell up, you got to get ice on it, you're probably not going out the next inning anyhow. So why mess with it right now. Why make him throw more pitches. That was the message. He knew, he knew he wasn't right. He knew it was going to get sorer, so that's what we did. Apparently there's nothing wrong as we know it right now. I don't know how long it's going to take for him to be well to be able to pitch, but he's fine.

Q. It looked like the bullpen was just set of perfectly for you, left right, left right, and it worked out maybe exactly how you drew it up?
JOE MADDON: Yeah, of course, Woody hitting a home run was part of the plan. I did put him in there because as he was coming up second, that was part of it. Did not want to pinch hit there obviously with the two lefties at the top of the bating order, I thought it was a good spot for him. Did he really well. He's been throwing the ball. You saw the numbers on the board. It's getting back up to 92 and sometimes 93 with his fastball. So he has been pitching a lot for us. I was riding him a little bit too hard. We backed off towards the latter part of the year right now. He's got his energy and his arm strength back and he was very good. And then you could talk about the whole group, CJ, outstanding. And Montgomery, you know, very, very good. The curveball was great to both sides. And then Rondon, it was nice to see Ronnie come in there against two really good hitters, and Chappy has been throwing the ball well. So, you knew that, again, that's part of the playoff situation with the day off the next day, you could be a little bit more liberal with a lot of these different things you may want to attempt to do, although you still only have seven guys in the back of your mind extra innings, extra innings, keeping people back. So the way that it event eventually turned out where we did not have to use Strop or Grimm was a good moment knowing that we could get to Rondon and then Chapman and keep these guys back.

Q. What happened with Kyle tonight with that single that knocked in a couple runs there with the bases loaded, describe what you saw and what kind of boost that was.
JOE MADDON: You saw once again why Javy's such a good base runner. Even on the play before that he was trying to move the runner in front of him. He knew it was down, but on that one he definitely knew it was down the moment it was hit, it was a great read. He's pushing Jason in front of him and he scores. Probably 90 some percent of our guys would not have scored like he did on that particular play. And I would say throughout the industry most guys would not have scored on that play. They would have hesitated, they would not have read it the way that he did. Then of course he made the gaffe on the play where he gets eventually the pull. The call gets overturned, which I still want to see the video of that. But anyway, this guy is incredible. I talk about his instincts and his acumen on the field, it's just different.

Q. What can you say about Travis, he's a guy that got here on the ground floor of the rebuilding, he lost his job as a started last year, didn't complain to us about it and now he's redefined himself. What can you say about what he's contributed here the last two years?
JOE MADDON: He's been outstanding. We lean on him a lot as you can see just based on appearances. When he's right, he's good against both lefties and righties. And he's been getting back to that point right now. He's also a leader in the clubhouse. People don't even talk about Travis, but a lot of guys go to him for different issues. They lean on Travis a lot. He's got a great personality as, you know, he's very calm. He's the kind of guy that likes to sit on the back porch all winter, that's what he does. So when he goes out there to play even in the tightest situation, he's very comfortable with it, he takes his bating practice, he looks for those opportunities and then he seized it today.

Q. You ran through the whole bullpen a little while ago, but how great was it to see the young guys Edwards and Montgomery in such a big spot come up the way they did.
JOE MADDON: It's very large. Moving forward, this is the second game, although would have done it no differently I don't think based on just the way the lineup was constructed, just trying to figure out Strope and Ronnie for the latter part of the game. It was really important to just use CJ the way we did and the fact that Montgomery threw strikes as well as he did. But to get those guys off the ground a little bit, make sure that they understand the playoffs, at home, I thought was very important. To do as well as they did moving forward. So, second game of the playoffs, I think probably CJ wasn't in last year, was he? No. So that's the real first taste in all this. So that definitely makes them a little bit more comfortable the next time out.

Q. You've seen the Giants trail 0-2 and come back to win a series. What is it about them that enables them to do that and what's your message to your club up 2-0?
JOE MADDON: They're pros, man. I have said it from the very first day to respect the half of that group. I've known Boch for awhile. You hear their comments, you watch how they react to different moments. They're never panicked. They're never concerned. So, you're right, the message again is going to be what game 164, 165 on Monday? I'm not going to really not into sending out anything extraordinary right now. Just continue to play the same game. I really believe our guys will come ready to play knowing that they are also. That's just a given. But there's nothing you can do about it except play the game. Control the controllables, we'll do our work, we'll prepare and then it's Jake. They have a nice pitcher, we have a nice pitcher going on that day. It should be another fun evening.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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