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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 4, 2019

Mike Shildt

Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 2

Braves - 3, Cardinals - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Shildt.

Q. Your offense did not record a walk today. Was there an intentionality about getting after Foltynewicz earlier in counts that played into some of that or anything with that?
MIKE SHILDT: I think he had a lot to do with that. If we go off the premise we're trying to get a good pitch to hit, we're going to get our swing off, then you might not get in deeper counts.

But also gotta give the guy credit. The guy was around the plate a lot. And he was around the edges of the plate and he was on and under the plate. Us not having the walks was really as much as how well he threw the ball as much as us being impatient.

Q. What was your take on Flaherty today?
MIKE SHILDT: I thought Jack was really good. I thought he took a while to settle down. They scratched one in the first. And then you could see him hit his stride about the second, going into the third. And then he looked like Jack. Complete control.

Not as much command, but the command was there more in the middle innings. Slider was good. Fastball was good. A lot of life to his fastball. Not quite as sharp with the command, but still really, really good. Gave us more than a chance to win that ball game.

Q. Seemed like you guys saw a lot of good breaking balls tonight, and there were times over the season when some of your hitters talked about that kind of being a difficult kind of pitch for them to handle. How do you sort of contend with that as the series moves along?
MIKE SHILDT: I think, I won't say good pitching always beats good hitting, but I will say that if the guys are locating their pitches and they've got a good sharp breaking ball, and it's on or under, it's coming out as a strike, it's on the plate as a strike, or it's on the corner, it's late and sharp, that's a tough thing to navigate.

I will say we're capable of navigating it for sure. So I won't alibi it to our guys and they wouldn't do it either. But we want to hit more of the rolling breaking balls, the balls that are up. We just didn't get a lot of them today.

But I have full confidence we'll be able to handle spin just fine, just make sure we're elevating and getting a ball we can take a better pass at.

Q. You saw Foltynewicz twice before he got sent down this year. What's the biggest difference you saw today as compared to the May starts?
MIKE SHILDT: Command, command of the baseball. He had multiple pitches working, throwing where he wanted it. He was out of the big part of the plate.

Q. Was there any thought to take Jack out of the game after the home run, maybe just to keep his pitch count down?
MIKE SHILDT: Absolutely, there's a thought to that. We don't want to throw more pitches on Jack than we have to. But same token, Jack, he's throwing the ball well. The ball's coming out. He's 97.

We got what turned out to be a infield double type thing with Acuña. Didn't mind the battle. Had Webb waiting in the wings for Freeman. At that point he earned the right to walk off the field.

Q. After kind of a tough offensive day today, how much did that increase the importance obviously of the comeback yesterday? And what's the feeling of leaving here with a split and still being in control kind of with the series going home?
MIKE SHILDT: You want to be in a position to be up 2-0, we leave 1-1. We're always looking for the best case scenario, but we're going back home with breaking the serve, so to speak. Came back yesterday, fought, scratched, clawed, got it done. Tying run at the plate in the ninth.

I appreciate the effort. Got through a good ball game. Guys kept getting after it. There wasn't any doubt in our dugout or in anybody's mind in that dugout that we were going to come back in this one. We'll leave 1-1. We go work out tomorrow. It will be an optional workout, for you guys that are curious, and play on Sunday, get ready to get after it.

Q. With only 81 pitches, did you figure they might let Foltynewicz go hit for himself in the seventh, or -- and were you okay when they batted for him?
MIKE SHILDT: I understood the decision. In reality I'm thinking about what that looks like as far as the bullpen coming in matchups. But I'll manage my own pitching staff. But he did a nice job. We made them run the 81 pitches.

Q. As much as you love what Harrison brings defensively, do you have to kind of look at that bottom of the lineup at this point?
MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, we try not to live in too big of a silo, but we do recognize these games are silos. And they have weight to them. We're always looking to field our best total team. There's a lot of factors in that. We've discussed that.

Clearly today we went with a combination. Harrison's obviously capable offensively. Carp is in a really good spot as well offensively. It can't be ignored and it will be factored seriously in the lineup on Sunday.

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