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NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS CUBS


October 11, 2016


Bruce Bochy


San Francisco, California - Pregame four

Q. Is Sergio available for you tonight?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, he's available. They all are. Couple of them are short work. Blach, I would like to stay away from him, to be honest. But he says he's fine. So if I need him to help get an out or maybe an inning, I think he's available. We do have Samardzija that is ready to help out, too.

But they're all good to go. We had three guys we didn't use yesterday, even though a couple of them got up quite a bit, and they're fine.

Q. How is the team right now when they came in today, how loose?
BRUCE BOCHY: They're the same always. Their spirit, the mood, the tempo of the club, they don't change. There's work ahead of us. They enjoyed the moment yesterday, but just like the losses, they do a good job of washing those off, too, and getting ready to go to next day.

Q. In that 8th inning, you were going through your batters, and Joe was going through his relievers. Did you foresee a Gillaspie-Chapman matchup? Did you like that? Did you -- is that something you kind of almost were arranging for at all?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I wasn't arranging for it, trust me. I wouldn't do that to Conor. But, yeah, I knew that was probably going to happen. Where we were with our bench, I wasn't in a position to hit. I could have hit Hernandez, but I used Tomlinson up, and that would put Brown in the infield.

But what Conor's been doing for us, I didn't think about hitting for him, to be honest. He's got a good, quick bat. He puts the ball in play. He's got experience. He's a professional hitter.

So I knew my lefties probably had their work there ahead of them, but they're all good hitters against lefties, I think. Crawford. We can talk about Conor, but Crawford threw out just a great at-bat there, and of course Panik walked. So all three of them ended up getting on base.

Q. How long did it take you to unwind from that game last night? You guys go home and knock back a six-pack --
BRUCE BOCHY: I can't put a number on that here, but no, seriously Sabes and I talked for a while. We spent probably an hour, hour and a half after the game, we were just talking about the game and really other things. And it takes you a little bit to unwind. And I got a short walk across the street, and I'm home. So it wasn't too late a night. Got plenty of sleep.

Q. Could you comment both on Derek Law's performance last night and maybe his exuberance coming off the mound and in the dugout?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, he's got a lot of energy. He's not afraid to show his emotions. Even when he was out of the game, he was doing a pretty good job of cheerleading, too.

But what a great job he did. And, really, it's been a good year for him. His rookie season, really stepped up, and he was one of our guys in the 7th, 8th inning and was doing a real nice job.

The workload, we got a little concerned there with him, so we put him on the DL. We could have probably held off on that, but we care about him, and so we wanted him to take a two-week break, just to freshen up and everything. And it worked out well for him.

Q. How's Crawford's elbow today, and do you think you'll get Pagan back?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, Crawford's pretty sore. I just finished talking to him. He took a pretty good shot there, but he's out there. He's tough. He's ready to go. It caught him pretty good though.

With Angel, he is still dealing with the back spasms, so he's not going to start the game. And I'll know how much I can use him as far as pinch hitting, double switch and those things here shortly as soon as I hear from my trainer.

Q. I know you talked earlier about Pagan and knew you may be looking at a possible move there with either or both of them, but who would be the options if you possibly made a move with one of those guys?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, the guys that we have here are Parker and Adrianza. Those two would be the frontrunners. It has to be position for position or pitcher for pitcher. So those are the guys that we have here available. We do have Sanchez, a catcher here, but probably if one of them went, then Nuny, let's say, then it will probably be an infielder, outfielder would be Parker.

Q. Why is Matt Moore a good pitcher?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, it starts with his stuff. He's got a fastball that's around mid 90. He's got a good breaking ball. He's got a cutter, a changeup. A good competitor. He's got experience, too, to go with that.

But he just has four pitches that are plus pitches in the Major Leagues. When you can throw low to mid 90s and have the kind of carry he does on the fastball and then work both sides of the plate, then have that really good breaking ball, that makes you pretty good. Then you put on the competitive edge that I think he has, that's what makes him good.

Q. You guys are obviously pretty familiar with Lackey, seeing him in the playoffs in 2014. But the Cubs have not seen Moore, I think Fowler is the only guy who has had even one at-bat against him. Is that an advantage for a pitcher at this time of year?
BRUCE BOCHY: I don't know. They have all their video and all their scouts. They watch us just like we watch them, so maybe the first time you're trying to get a read on what the pitcher has and get just an idea on the stuff, the movement, the secondary pitches. I know we have a history of having a hard time against guys we haven't seen, but I do think that once a hitter sees a pitcher a few times, it can help him out, just give him a reference on what the pitcher has.

But that's not always the case. You got to throw strikes and keep it simple, and you don't really try to look at too much on a pitcher as far as not seeing them or stuff that he has. He still has to throw it across the plate.

Q. You've been managing a long time, but of course since 2012 your team is 10-0 in elimination games in the postseason. What is it about this group that lends itself to that number? Is there a certain competitive edge that they have?
BRUCE BOCHY: I think so. We put some slogans on them, never say die, you know, you just -- you never quit. You don't lie down until the last out. And this club does a great job of it. And they know what's at stake, and they left it all out on the field yesterday.

We got to do the same thing today. That doesn't change. That's the mental toughness part of the game that you have to have. And it's easy to get down, you're down two games, or get down in one game like we were 3-0, going against a good pitcher. But you keep fighting and really you don't have a choice. That's your job. These guys do a good job of it.

Q. I didn't count up how many pitches Buster caught last night. It felt like about 400. As a former catcher, how hard is that for him to now bounce back and go at it again?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, it's not easy. This time of year, the thing have you going for you is adrenaline. You know what's at stake. But if this was during the regular season, he probably would have a day off, to be honest. That's a lot of pitches. I'm sure he was the least excited one on the field when they tied the game in the ninth. That's extra work for him.

But he's strong, and he'll be fine. But it's a tiring game. On the mental side, it's just not the squatting and catching the pitches, but you're calling pitches too. But he's been through this before.

Q. Can pitchers maybe let up a little bit when facing pitchers at the plate? What's the reason that they have been so successful, their pitchers hitting?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I think sometimes you could have that tendency, but you give the pitchers credit, some of them are pretty good hitters. Now, he's a pretty good hitter. I mean, he's hurt some other pitchers just like our guys, Bumgarner, they pitch him carefully and I don't think they let up, but you have to give the credit to the guy swinging the bat that they have some talent there.

Some pitchers have no chance. But some guys make themselves into pretty good hitters, and those guys do a good job over there at handling the bat, doing some little things. It's about putting the ball in play, good things happen. That's what happened the one game, and then of course the two home runs, those were mistakes that they took advantage of.

Q. After Sergio gives up the home run to tie it, he gets the next three outs, finishes the inning. How easy or tough was it for you to send him back out the next inning, and how important do you think that was that Romo goes a clean 10th?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, really, it's pretty easy to send him back out with who was coming up. I liked the matchups there for Sergio. And I wanted a little length out of him because we're getting a little low on pitchers. And I wanted to have the ability to still do the little matching up if I had to a little bit later.

But he settled down after the first two hitters. And that was critical in that game. In fact, after a home run now he's got to face Rizzo, but he gets six straight hitters out, and I really think that helped. It did help win the game for us because he didn't get unraveled and continued to pitch.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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