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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 4, 2019

Brian Snitker

Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 2

Braves - 3, Cardinals - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Brian Snitker.

Q. After your division clincher, Kranny said Folty showed him he was a big-game pitcher. Did he show you even more tonight?
BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, it's like, what, three in a row, something like that, division clinching -- no, four, elimination game last year against the Dodgers, the same scenario. It's pretty cool to see for a guy that went through what he's went through this year and where he's come back from and the rough start that he had. And to see him step up like that is something really special.

Q. Even with a runner on first in the seventh, was there any hesitation at all, with 81 pitches, to let Mike go back out there?
BRIAN SNITKER: Well, not really. Just how he finished the seventh, you know, I'm kind of like, you know, he did his job. He did exactly what we needed him to do. And it was a hot day. It was an emotional day.

Not to say, you don't know what you're going to do day-to-day, but you've still got something going right there. If you hit and you get a single now you've got the top of the order rolling around.

I just felt like he did exactly what we needed him to do in that game.

Q. Could you discuss Max Fried, if after the eighth inning, where he got three guys out, two strikeouts, did you consider beginning the ninth with him, or was it going to be Melancon no matter what?
BRIAN SNITKER: It was going to be Melancon. Max, he hadn't done that all year. He's been a starting pitcher. He's a young kid. He did it some last year, I think. I think you're asking a lot of him in an emotionally charged game like that, is to come in do what he did to run him back out there.

He comes in after, like I say, it's an emotional inning. He just was nails. And he sits there and processes everything and goes back out. And I'm kind of worried about the physicality of it also with him.

He's not conditioned to do that, to pitch yesterday, come in -- it's different when he's starting. But I just thought we were -- I didn't like -- it didn't smell good to me to run him back out there, because it's easy to, the way he was throwing.

But he's throwing pitches in the bullpen, warming up now he's pitching stressful, a very stressful inning and did unbelievable. But I just kind of thought Mark's been closing for us all year. He's been doing a really good job.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Duvall and everything he's gone through the last couple of years and for him to have a moment like that after what he's been through?
BRIAN SNITKER: I couldn't be happier for any one individual. He's kind of right in that same light with Folty. How Folty went back this year and got himself going.

And what Adam did out of spring training, how he went to Gwinnett. This guy is a former All-Star, he's a Gold Glove votes. He's a 30 and a 90 or 100-type Major League player. And last year didn't go the way he wanted it to. We got him out of spring training. We optioned him down, he went down and hit, I don't know how many homers. And just stayed the course and worked.

I have so much respect for a guy like that that does that. That's hard. When you've been up here, and you've been an established Major Leaguer, to go back to Triple-A and put the dedication and devotion and everything that he did, it says a lot about the man and character of the man. And I have nothing but the utmost respect for that guy.

Q. Question about that whole sequence about putting Adam in. A moment, one moment that you got 40,000 people booing and cussing you out for making the switch --
BRIAN SNITKER: That boo-yeah moment.

Q. Next they're cheering you. How much tension is that on you in a moment like that?
BRIAN SNITKER: It's tension. It's stress. (Laughter).

Sometimes I sit in that dugout and I wonder, man, we choose to do this. It's unbelievable to me sometimes. I've said that more than once over the course of the year.

Q. Last night you talked about bouncing back from tough losses. You've done it all season. Yet the dynamics are completely different obviously in a playoff scenario. Can you just talk about the last 24 hours for you and your mindset? What's the same and what's different?
BRIAN SNITKER: The thing that's the same is this is the same group of guys. And they've bounced back for the last few years in games where they've had their hearts torn out one night in a big game, and then they come back in one series.

And we had one here last year going down the stretch and we had a big lead on the Red Sox on a Wednesday afternoon. And it was a horrible plane flight to Arizona. And we go on a 6-1 West Coast road trip after that.

And I never doubt these guys. They're really good at turning the page and living for today. And I speak volumes of that. That's kind of -- I just think we worry about today and you don't worry -- tomorrow's gone. What is it? Today's gone, good or bad. You know what I mean?

These guys have a really good ability to turn the page on things and have confidence in what they're doing today and they showed that today.

Q. I think you meant yesterday's gone, but I'm about to ask you a question that starts with yesterday. Yesterday the Cardinals had a lot of extra base hits that got you guys. Tonight you guys suppressed that with Folty's pitching and the bullpen. Can you describe the importance of that?
BRIAN SNITKER: Oh, it was very important. The biggest thing we needed -- and I said that earlier in the day, we needed a really strong start out of Folty. And we got it.

And we talked to Max this morning: How do you feel? I feel great.

I liked, once he went through seven innings, like I say, in today's became, that's really good to do that. And we kind of liked where we were set up yesterday in the ball game, too.

It didn't work out. We had an unfortunate injury. But I think that's huge. You know what, this game is always going to be about starting pitching. I don't care if it's the postseason. I don't care what it is. It's about starting pitching.

Q. You mentioned going back to Melancon. I assume that's a pregame decision -- he's our guy. What were the conversations like with him and the pitching coach?
BRIAN SNITKER: You talk to him when he's out there. They warm up. They throw. How feel? I know it's a lot of pitches. This guy has closed for a long time. It's not a lot of pitches for him.

He'll have tomorrow off. He can go rest and be ready to go the following day. But it's something that you divest yourself are in these guys and trust them and he's done an unbelievable job since he's been here.

If he said, I'm sore, I can't go, then we'll honor that and use somebody else. But we trust him. He's been around -- I trust him to -- he's not going -- and he hasn't because we've asked him that over the course of the summer, and he's honest with us, and I respect that.

Q. What were your impressions of Jack Flaherty today?
BRIAN SNITKER: It's everything that I watched on video. I watched, I know I watched him pitch over the last couple of weeks on TV. I mean, this kid is something special. He's a horse. That's a number one guy right there.

And you know what? He's a young guy. He's just going to get better. He gets bigger, stronger, he's not done. He's going to get better and be something else.

Q. Did you consider running for Mac there?
BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, I did, but then in that time of the game I really didn't want to lose him. If he had got second base I would have ran for him. I probably would have gotten bit in the leg if they hit it down the line and he didn't score. I just kind of rolled the dice there.

I just didn't want him out of the game. I thought the importance that brought with what he was doing, I felt, overweighed the fact that you just automatically run for him. Like I say, you roll the dice there. Might get bit.

Q. I think it was the fourth inning, you had first and third, nobody out. What was going on there? I think Mac might have popped up and Dansby came up and struck out. But was it, you were trying to do the fake steal? You had a pick off there, Markakis?
BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, he was running on a 3-2 count. You hope you draw a throw and flip-flop it. Folty's on deck. We're not going to score that run, believe me. So we'll try anything we can right there.

It's like he holds up; they miss -- Kolten Wong made a great throw on the back pick. If that throw's a little bit wide we've got second third up and Folty, we still don't score. We were trying to steal a run there. Didn't work.

Q. Did you try to have Dansby try to squeeze?
BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, tried a safety squeeze there. And he's really good at it.

Q. What were the discussions about Fried when you put the roster together? And now that you've seen these two games, how valuable can he be?
BRIAN SNITKER: Especially after last night, he can be even more valuable than we thought he would originally when we put the roster together with him on it. I mean, there was no doubt he was going to be on that playoff roster.

Was he going to pitch Game 4? If everything went well, yeah. Now we lose one of our late-inning, leverage guys and now he can fill that role. So things change on the fly.

Max is a very versatile guy. And we've seen -- I think the experience out of the bullpen last year has served him well this year. So you just don't know. It changes on the run when you go through this; you have injuries, whatever. So like I say, we're going to play them a game at a time and see where we're at.

Q. It seems like your left-handed guys maybe have slightly better swings against Flaherty. But with the game -- when you pinch-hit for Folty, you put in a right-hander. Do you think: I need him to hit me a home run over the center field fence here?
BRIAN SNITKER: He'd had minimal success off Flaherty. He had had a home run. That's his second homer off of him. You go look at the matchups, what they've done. I don't know when it was, probably obviously when he's with Cincinnati. But he had hit a homer off him, and you bank on that because I know he was staying in the game anyway. So it worked out for us.

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