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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 9, 2019

Mike Shildt

Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 5

Cardinals - 13, Braves - 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Shildt.

Q. How hard is it to score 10 runs in this day and age without hitting a home run?
MIKE SHILDT: I didn't think about that. It's hard to score 10 runs in an inning with hitting a home run. But just great at-bats, relentless. Guys came out obviously ready to get going.

Q. Speaking of those at-bats, how different was the game plan or the approach to Folty this time around versus before?
MIKE SHILDT: Not entirely different. We talked about making sure we knew he was going to throw sliders. But fact of the matter is we just needed to get pitches we could do something with. We knew we were going to be intentional.

We had to go the other way. We wanted stay in the middle of the field, not try to do too much. And we clearly demonstrated we were able to do that.

Q. What's the feeling in the dugout as those runs keep piling up in the first inning? And how difficult was it to stay kind of in the moment knowing that you still have eight innings to go?
MIKE SHILDT: First of all, it was never enough runs, man. Just keep eating, boys, keep going, which we did. I love the fact we added on after that, and the next couple of innings as well. As far as that goes, this is a very present group, just kept right there, pitch to pitch.

Keep playing the game, keep getting outs off that board, keep putting up zeros. And I really appreciate the job Jack did.

It was not pitching in this game anyway. But he probably had to change his mindset just a hair going in there, you expect in a Game 5, tooth-and-nail game, and he gets staked to a big lead and -- but it's still Game 5 and it's Jack, and he's never going to let off the gas regardless. He did a great job for us.

Q. I know nobody expects to come out and score 10 runs right off the bat in a playoff game, Game 5. In the other dugout they said it was happening quickly. From your perspective was it happening quickly or slowly in your mind?
MIKE SHILDT: It was just really pretty much happening. There wasn't really any speed to it either way. Just staying with it, staying in the moment, making sure we were taking good at-bats, making sure if we had opportunities to do anything offensively that we were staying in tune with it.

Q. With that first at-bat with Dexter, the first time you guys saw Folty he didn't really walk a lot of guys. Just that at-bat by Dexter, but also, too, did that set the tone for you guys that maybe he wasn't going to be as on command as he was in that first one?
MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, that was an indicator. Of course a guy can change. But Dex getting on and starting that first with a walk, working a walk -- which he did, he worked that. And at that point you go, okay, here we go, we've got some momentum off the bat. And we kept it going.

Q. The command maybe not being there.
MIKE SHILDT: I don't know. He was as good as anybody we faced outside of maybe Darvish towards the end of the year in the last outing. So he was just painting with everything he did, and were able to get a few balls we could handle and put good swings on them.

Q. At what point did you and Mad Dog talk about, okay, how long do you want to use Jack before you give him a break and maybe use him earlier, or can you use him earlier than you thought in the next round?
MIKE SHILDT: We thought about that. Jack had the longer fifth, got out of it with a ground ball. And typical Jack, he wanted that sixth inning, he wanted to go out -- he wasn't real pleased with what that looked like.

And we were on a pretty strict count at that point with him. But he went out, I think he had maybe a 10-pitch inning, if that, for a clean six. It was good for his mentality, the way he was competing.

But you know at some point, look, you can't -- we score 10, that's a really good team over there. So you don't want to sit there and take it lightly. You want to make sure you bring it home. Hard to start managing for the next series before you win this one. But I understand the question and we thought about it. And once he got to the sixth, it was clearly enough.

Q. Just to piggyback on that, first of all, two-parter, were you a little nervous when he had the hit right after he had hit Acuña, and also was there any thought at all toward when you had the big lead and you also had it on the second maybe he pitches an inning it's like a bullpen session and you completely pull him at that point?
MIKE SHILDT: No, no chance. You know, listen, you start getting -- we made a move in the first, but you pull him after one or two and something crazy starts happening in your bullpen, no, it's not the play.

And like I said, we finished this series. He did his job; got us through six. Kept it right there. Brought it home. They hit the homer, make it 13-1, the place was buzzing. And they had some momentum in the fifth and we knocked it down.

So I did not think about -- always thinking, but did not think about after the first pulling him. That would have been pretty brazen. But I like what he did, got us through six, and we were moving forward.

Q. How is Carpenter? Is he injured, or did you just take him out?
MIKE SHILDT: We just took him out. If you think about it, I got a lot of questions before the game about the defense or the offense, and clearly we want to have our best defense on the field. Not that Carp can't play a good defense. That's not the case at all. He can definitely play it. But when you score 10 in the first, if you're in the fifth, you're definitely making that move. So we went ahead and did it.

I want to say I appreciated the Braves and how they competed. And I've got a lot of respect for Snit and his staff and that club over there. We just won a hard-fought series against a really, really good baseball team that's very well managed and coached and they played the game the right way, and I have a lot of respects for the Braves. So we appreciate the ability to compete against them.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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