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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 6, 2019

Mike Shildt

St. Louis, Missouri - postgame 3

Braves - 3, Cardinals - 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Shildt.

Q. From your vantage point, can you take us through the ninth inning, specifically the decision to face Swanson over McCann?
MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, so, obviously we got a guy at third, tying run. Guys looked over, you know, and wanted to have a discussion about McCann with Swanson on deck. Went out, consensus was that rather take a shot at Swanson, 0-for-6 at that point with Carlos, clearly that's the go-ahead run you're putting on.

But you have two outs, and we play to win. Gotta play to win the game. Everybody felt like that was the best matchup, including the guy on the mound. Took our shot. Didn't make a pitch, and made him pay.

Ultimately that didn't hurt us, in a sense, but we took our best shot to win the game and got a pitch he could handle and put a good swing on it.

Q. Carlos has had some numbers lately, and the last one in Atlanta didn't go as smoothly as you had hoped, but the results have more or less been there. Had you thought about not putting him in a save situation based on some of the numbers he's had lately?
MIKE SHILDT: Not at all. Not at all. If you look at -- he's bent, but he hasn't broke a lot. He's been really, really good a lot. You look at his numbers. One of the big reasons that I'm sitting here and we're playing, is Carlos Martínez and the job he did coming in for Jordan. We didn't miss a beat. He's been outstanding in that role.

So the other day he's got a four-run lead, that walk to Hamilton obviously hurt, and then he made a couple of pitches and made him pay for it, but he was able to bring it home. He's been able to demonstrate it all year. No reason to get knee-jerked without a guy having any setback.

So no real thought about not sending him out there at all. It was his spot.

Q. Moving forward, is that something that you have to look at based off of --
MIKE SHILDT: We'll continue to evaluate it. It's a final, I get it. Now we're in a do-or-die situation, and really looking forward to tomorrow's game, quite honestly. But guys have gotten us here, it's hard to look at them and say, oh, you didn't do something well. The proverbial I've got your back until things don't go well.

But we've also got to recognize and evaluate what we see as well and compete in the moment. And had complete confidence that he was going to be able to make a pitch there to Swanson and didn't happen.

Q. You talked earlier about being able to measure analytics, like you just described the 0-for-6 with the human and the moment. Can you walk that line for me with Carlos? He comes up into that spot. It's not like he's in command of that inning. He had just struck out two guys, though. So the way you're reading, what's in the moment?
MIKE SHILDT: When you say winning command in the inning, I don't completely agree with that. He makes a really good pitch, the first pitch to Donaldson, gets the check swing. Does make a mistake, hits a bullet down the line for the double.

Punch out on tough guy on Markakis, and punch out on Hechavarria, or fly ball. So at that point he's made one mistake in the inning. I get there's not a lot of margin for error, but it's not like this guy's out there throwing it all over the place.

He made one mistake, guy put a swing on it. He punched out a really tough hitter with some nasty pitches. Felt really comfortable and confident in his stuff, to be able to go get a guy that he's had history with. You know, a couple pitches.

Q. One run in the last two games. What do you tell your hitters moving into Game 4, or do you say anything at all?
MIKE SHILDT: Of course, a combination of things, similar story. Their guy was good. That was a pitcher's duel; you talk about some really good pitching.

Playoff baseball is typically, not always -- tomorrow I look forward to scoring 10. One of the reasons the guys are in the postseason is because their pitching's good. And no exception today on both sides of the ball. Waino is spectacular. Soroka was really, really good -- good life to his ball, secondary pitches for strikes, later life.

So just not a lot there on either side for guys to take swings at.

Q. Was there thought to bringing in another reliever after the Swanson hit, after they had tied the game?
MIKE SHILDT: No, no. I mean, we can always look to bring in another guy. But, again, you've got your closer out there. And I feel like if you start pulling guys that have been doing jobs prematurely, then I think that's a sign of panic and lack of trust.

Like I said, it would be hard to go out there and grab the ball from a guy in a tie game that's virtually been lights out all year.

I mean, I don't know exactly the save percentage but it's about as good as anybody in baseball. So that's his spot. He'll be in that spot tomorrow, and I'll have full confidence in him.

Q. Did the point about the line between the human and analytic, Adam sort of fell on the other side of that line today -- pitch count pushed high. He pushed through it, had a little bit of traffic in the last inning and stayed through it. What's the tipping point there that keeps Adam in that game and shows off what he had today?
MIKE SHILDT: Tipping point was pitch-making. He did it all game. There was a lot of soft contact, some fly balls.

The thing that -- the ball that I guess it was Joyce to finish the inning prior, the fly ball, leading off, but the fly ball, that was probably the pitch that got up a little bit to end the seventh, that you thought well, maybe, you know -- but just really liked the way he was competing, liked the way he was making pitches.

We talk about experience. It's real. It's not everything. But when you've got a guy that's out there, scattered a couple of hits, throwing strikes, you know, you take your spot, you take your shot with him.

The big decision was the Albies, that was probably the one where started to get a little -- I was completely comfortable sending him back out for the eighth, obviously. Not even really overly concerned about it.

And then you get the Albies at-bat knowing you've got Miller for Freeman. But at that point it just became about just trust. He'd make a pitch, thought he kind of earned it. But he didn't command the ball as well in that at-bat.

But you say, well, he walked Acuña before that. There were some good pitches within that at-bat. And he's pitching them tough with the base open. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt for that walk. And the Albies at-bat, maybe could have gone to Gio there, but he had earned the opportunity. Miller did a great job to finish it out.

Q. Aside from the position that obviously the team is now in here, is there a particular emotional reaction to Adam pitching as well as he did today in this game having the result that it did?
MIKE SHILDT: There's no consolation to that. It's nice that Adam pitched well.

Q. I meant the other way around, is there increased disappointment because Adam pitched as well?
MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, you're one out away from being up 2-1. There's disappointment. No question about it. That's what I'm saying we took what we felt was our best shot to win that game and it didn't work out.

So there's disappointment, absolutely, because you get invested for eight and two-thirds and go out and lay it out there and play the game and you get a great pitching performance, to your point, from Waino. And Miller comes in, gets the big out on Freeman. You go out and, like I said, you're an out away. Ground ball, punch out, fly ball away from being up 2-1, being able to close it out at home. Yeah, that doesn't feel real good, but we'll be ready to go tomorrow, I can tell you that.

Q. You said you're ready for tomorrow. How confident are you in Hudson and what he can give you tomorrow?
MIKE SHILDT: I'm confident in Dakota. I'm confident in every single guy in our clubhouse. A lot of national media here, but for the people that have been here all year and followed us, watched this team scratch and claw and play, and for our fan base, you know we're going to come out and play. It's a very resilient team. While we are disappointed, we're not down. We're ready to go and compete tomorrow. And Dakota will give us a really good effort. I'm confident of that.

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