	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 3, 2019

Mike Shildt

Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 1

Cardinals - 7, Braves - 6

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Shildt?

Q. How important was the come back in the eighth to set up what happened in the ninth?
MIKE SHILDT: That was clearly huge. Good at-bats throughout. But to be able to get the tie and set us up obviously for the ninth as well, but can't win it unless you tie it.

Q. Marcell Ozuna, what did you see in his approach in the big at-bat tonight? You keep him in the clean-up spot all season, and there he was tonight.
MIKE SHILDT: I loved our at-bats. Sometimes the at-bat that you see leads up to the bats previously. I loved our bats all night. And I love Marcell's at-bats. Just calm, letting the game come to him.

You can tell he didn't get a pitch he liked first pitch, chased on the breaking ball, and then you could see him kind of reset, not try to do too much, just put a swing on it. And he got awarded with a nice double down the line with two runs -- big swing, good at-bat, great approach.

Q. Can you sense a difference in the vibe or the atmosphere after Goldschmidt's home run? And how much of a spark was that for you guys, do you think?
MIKE SHILDT: You're down 3-1. Their guys are getting some outs, we're still taking some good at-bats, just nothing to show for it. And then Goldy gets into one and you know you're a swing away.

Definitely got some life back to us, but I don't want to minimize that we didn't have life before that. But when you get down 3-1, next thing you know, boom, 3-2, and here we go. Big swing.

Q. In the eighth, you had a chance to walk Swanson to force Melancon out of the game. What were your thoughts?
MIKE SHILDT: I like the bat with Swanson. We're going to be careful with him. Carlos had his command of his slider and his fastball at that point.

So had some thought process behind it. I'd rather not share too much of it. But numbers were pretty good individually on Swanson and we went from there.

Q. Building on that a little, how do you assess Carlos' night as a whole? Obviously the ninth was a little different than the eighth for him.
MIKE SHILDT: Listen, that's a big out on want Swanson. You got the go-ahead run at second base. He comes in and makes tough pitches to Swanson. That's a big job he did right there.

Goes back out, honestly the only issue I had in the whole inning was the walk to Hamilton. You got a lead regardless of size and you go out and get the lead-off guy on. And he gave up a few homers.

But good news about Carlos and Yadi was right there with him, he wasn't going to back down, made quality pitches got great stuff and made a lot of really good pitches.

Q. If you look at this game and you see big hits, big extra base hits from Carpenter, Goldschmidt and Ozuna. Is this the kind of game that if I told you in March was going to happen in October, is that about right?
MIKE SHILDT: You could have told me that this afternoon. You could have told me that at any point with this group. Carp, great at-bat, really pro at-bat. Ready to go. Locked in. Goldy, big at-bat. Of course we talked about the Ozuna bat.

Another guy that took a couple of big at-bats was Dexter, took some really good at-bats, great base running going first to third. That was big, help set that inning up. Eddie's hit was big, but Bader manufactured a run, bunt him over, steal third, Dex, two strikes, gets him in. And then got us going a little bit in the ninth as well. Good at-bats throughout but not surprising.

Q. What I meant is you guys, we talked the last couple days defense and pitching, defense and pitching, but every once in a while the bats can get going?
MIKE SHILDT: Let's don't kid ourselves, we want to score. We want some good at-bats. We can hang our hat on that and keep us in games, but we don't feel obligated to being two dimensional.

We can do the all four quadrants -- base running, we can definitely hit, swinging bats and guys had great at-bats. Really pleased with where our offense is.

Q. At this point, would you first discuss the unusual, rather bizarre play where they got two runs on the ground ball? And then also talk about Mikolas' game?
MIKE SHILDT: First, it was unique play. To say I loved the play, I didn't love the result. But I loved the play. What I mean by that, Eddie got a really tough in-between hop. And, look, you can try to catch it. You try to catch that ball, it might end up in left field. He just did what he could to smother it. So, he showed some toughness; that's a tough play. And he showed toughness to make it.

Then it kicks away. Pauly is on point, goes over. And at that point he's trying to make a play. And I love the fact our guys are going to be aggressive and look to make plays. And he tried to make a play. Kolten tries to make a pick. Just kicked away, allowed another run to score.

But I had no issue with that play, geo did a nice job coming back in that count, getting that swing.

And just in between on Eddie, kicked off; Pauly tried to make a play; Kolten tried to make a play and didn't get it done, but I love the mindset.

Q. Mikolas?
MIKE SHILDT: Mikolas I thought was really good, got better as the game went. Little trouble early on, getting into his rhythm, getting his pitches to go work with them a little bit, but I love the fact that he just kept looking to get better as the game went.

I loved the fact that when he got in the situations, he was able to bear down and make pitches. And then he got through five; and, listen, he could have gone back out, but we really like the matchup with Webb obviously coming in with the lefties. Miles had had a fair amount of stress during the course of the five. And I felt like it was an appropriate move. I thought Miles was really, really good. I don't want him to get lost in this game because he kept it right there for five.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297