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NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES VS BREWERS

October 7, 2018

Bud Black

Denver, Colorado - postgame 3

Brewers - 6, Rockies - 0

Q. Two questions: One, it was a terrific season for you I think you'd say. Having said that, how disappointing is it that you didn't play your best at the biggest time at the end, particularly offensively anyway?
BUD BLACK: Well, I think there's -- first of all, I agree with you. It was a great year, and it's -- and I told the fellas, it's hard. At the end of all this, only one team is going to be happy. We got into the dance. We fought, but we might not have played our best. But that's -- part of that is the opposition, how they played. But again, our guys played how you're supposed to play. That's what I'm most proud of. They came to play every day. They came to play in this series, and they got outplayed. But that's part of competition.

Q. This club took a step forward this year. Good core group of young starting pitchers. What are some of the things that you look forward to going forward as far as --
BUD BLACK: Well, we just got beat about 15 minutes ago. We'll address those things, but you're right, there are some things that went well this year, and there are some positives moving forward.

Q. If you can, can you share a little bit what you had an opportunity to say to your players after the game?
BUD BLACK: Well, I'd rather keep that private between the team and I, but I'm proud of this group. This was a good team. 2018 Rockies, the Rockies' fans should be very proud of this team and how we played. They came to play every night, came to play to win, which you're supposed to do at this level, and I'm proud of that group.

On another note, I'd like to thank -- I'd like to congratulate Craig and the Brewers, the Brewers organization. They had a great series. They played extremely well. They out-hit us. They pitched extremely well. They deserved to win this series, how they played. So congratulations to them.

It was a series that was hard-fought on both ends, close games all the way through. This one got a little extended at the end, but they're a good club.

Q. I know the season just ended, as you said, but what will you look back on in this season as your proud moments or --
BUD BLACK: Well, this is a good group of players. I think we've talked about all year the toughness of this group. I'll truly look back on and say this was a team that was mentally tough, physically tough. The players in that room, you'll go talk to them, to a man, there's a toughness to these guys. And it's the guys who you've been around for a while.

I think that was inbred to the younger players coming up, which is a good thing.

More than anything, that was a team. Those guys played together. There was unselfishness, so many great qualities that make up good teammates and a good team in those guys encompass that. That's what I'll remember. There wasn't a lot of things during the course of a long season from Spring Training to now that got off track. These guys played together, which was awesome.

Q. What's your take on the struggles at the plate over the last week as soon as you hit the postseason?
BUD BLACK: Well, again, a combination of a couple things. They pitched really well. They've got good arms. I think there was a little bit of pressing going on all week. These were games that were high intensity and a lot on the line. You know, the Dodger game, the Cubs game, these three playoff games. I think there were some guys trying a little bit too hard, which is a natural occurrence.

But over time, if this group -- these Rocky teams move forward, we'll become more accustomed to these type of games. I think last year was a step forward, like you said, in the Wild Card game. I think we saw overall better at-bats from a number of guys, but we pressed a little bit. I mean, that's part of it.

But these are learning experiences for a lot of guys.

Q. As always at the end of the season, you have some players that are going to be free agents or leaving, whatever. How do you feel going into next year with the players that you will be keeping and those that you have maybe coming up?
BUD BLACK: Well, again, this is still raw. I'm not thinking about next year. I'm not thinking about that at all. I'm thinking about these guys, this group of 2018 Rockies, and there will be a number of these guys back on this team, and you guys should be proud of that.

Q. I just wanted to ask, do you have any second thoughts about maybe pitching Freeland?
BUD BLACK: No. No.

Q. We haven't talked about German's performance today. There were questions he made the opening day saying it was cold and damp like today. How do you think he performed overall?
BUD BLACK: Well, he went five innings, gave up two runs, two hanging breaking balls sort of came back to haunt him. He walked Yelich, and then he hung a breaking ball to Braun and then Braun fought it off and hit it off to right field to ground ball. Then they scored a run on the fielder's choice, and then hang a breaking ball to a guy that hits homers, a guy that has 30 plus homers connected. Went five innings, pitch count was fine. Probably could have kept going if a spot didn't come up. Could have easily went seven innings and gave up two runs, but a spot came up. We felt as though we had to try to hit some runs. He threw the ball fine. In a playoff game, five hits, two runs. If you asked me, hey, could he have -- he might have put up five zeros, but he didn't, but he gave up two runs.

Q. Can you share your take what you saw in the sixth inning with Oberg?
BUD BLACK: Well, I was -- I wasn't watching Scott at the time. I was engaging in a couple other things. I saw the balk was called. There you can't -- as you guys know, by rule, you can't contest a balk. When it's called, it's called. But after the inning, Alfonso told me that he thought Scott was engaged on the rubber, and the ball came out of his glove. Again, I haven't seen a replay. I haven't had time to look at it.

Again, it was one of those unfortunate occurrences that Scott dropped the ball when the umpire thought that he was engaging on the rubber.

Q. These big games here, a lot of them down the stretch including the playoffs, how can you guys build on that moving forward?
BUD BLACK: Well, experience is the best teacher, right? I think how we played in September was great. I thought we had a great September. We pitched well in September. We got our hitting shoes on a little bit at times in September. The games against that last series against the Diamondbacks, here against the Phillies and the Nationals, where we felt as though we had to win every game to keep pace with all the teams fighting for a playoff spot, we handled that. And then there was a little tough road ahead of us. Dodgers beat us. We beat the Cubs. And the Brewers got us.

I mean, it's pretty self-evident what happened, but again, our guys played their butts off, man. They really did. It just didn't happen.

Q. How impressed were you with the Brewers with their bullpen and the depth of their lineup?
BUD BLACK: Yeah, again, we knew what we were in for. It's been a good group all year, and they've demonstrated it. They really did. So you've really got to tip your cap to those arms in the bullpen. A couple guys came out of nowhere, right? That kid Byrnes had a nice run for him in these games. Hader, Jeffress, All-Star pitchers, continued on, Knebel, Soria, like we talked about. It's a good group, and they assembled a nice bullpen group that -- with some starters that were a little banged up as they got towards the end of the year. They made some adjustments in how they worked their pitching staff, and they got it done.

It's a good team. They made some nice acquisitions as they went through the summer. They added on. They did a nice job. Again, they got themselves in a pretty good position.

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