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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: NATIONALS VS CARDINALS

October 10, 2019

Miles Mikolas

St. Louis, Missouri - Workout Day

Q. What does it mean for the offense when you have a guy like Dexter Fowler and Kolten Wong getting on base there in front of Goldschmidt and Ozuna, like we saw in Game 5?
MILES MIKOLAS: I think it's awesome. You know, you got a really well-constructed lineup, you got guys who get on base, followed by guys who knock them in, followed by guys who knock those guys in, and then other guys who get on base, and then you throw your best athlete in the 9th spot and you just go from there.

Q. You signed up for this, right? This is why you wanted to be a part of this organization. Can you put into words the excitement of getting to pitch start Game 1 of the NLCS?
MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah, going, thinking about who you want to play for, you want to play teams that are wanting to win, that are contenders, that are trying to get to the playoffs, and that is the St. Louis Cardinals. And to be on their list of guys who started Game 1 is humbling, it's an honor, and it's going to be a whole lot of fun.

Q. Can you just, this is a star-studded starter series for both teams, can you just describe the horsepower that both teams have and maybe your awe of that?
MILES MIKOLAS: I think it's going to make for some really exciting October baseball. You've got Cy Young award winners, guys who are probably going to win Cy Young awards, all stars, franchise icons, I mean, the list goes on and on, and I think it's just going to make for some exciting ball and I'm excited to see what happens and hope the fans can get really into it.

Q. What have you learned from the Game 1 start in Atlanta, the back-to-back walks to open the game so uncharacteristic of you, that you think you'll take into tomorrow night's start?
MILES MIKOLAS: Got those, got a little bit over-excitement out of the way, I think. And another takeaway from that game is my team has my back to an incredible degree. I walked the leadoff guy, Yadi throws him out, give up a run there, scuff up the 1st, and we come back and score a run in the 3rd or 4th, and then we battle back all game to win that game.

So just knowing that no matter what I do out there that my team's going to have my back, we're going to scratch and claw, do whatever we can to win that game, that's a good feeling to have.

Q. You mentioned Yadi. How much does throwing to him with his experience and leadership help settle those nerves? And how has the team fed off his energy over the last week and a half?
MILES MIKOLAS: I think it does a great deal to settle the nerves when you know you have someone back there who is probably seen just about any situation you can imagine in a baseball game unfold. He's been there, he's seen it and he's seen it from the catcher's viewpoint, which is probably the best one to have out there. The whole team feeds off that. When you have a guy with as much experience and that carries as much weight when he says stuff, when you have him saying stuff to the team and saying that you guys can do it, it means a whole lot.

Q. So much has been made of their big three, how do you avoid, I guess getting caught up staff-wise against who you're pitching against? And what would you say in defense of your rotation and how they might stack up against those guys?
MILES MIKOLAS: The great thing about sports is that anything can happen on any given day regardless of how many Cy Young awards you have, how many All Star games you have, how many strikeouts their staff has. It's baseball, that stuff is in the past, it's stuff you got to look at, they got a great pitching staff, but it's the playoffs, anything can happen.

Q. When did you find out that you were getting Game 1, and then also did you watch any of Game 5 in Los Angeles last night, kind of the unique situation where you can watch a team live that you're about to face?
MILES MIKOLAS: We were in the hotel lobby bar last night watching that game unfold. It was pretty exciting. You're kind of expecting to go to Los Angeles there in the 7th, 8th inning and then all of a sudden things are tied and all of a sudden they got the bases loaded. So you through a little bit of a roller coaster planning your trip, oh, we're going to go to Los Angeles, maybe I'll have breakfast here, do this, do that. And then all of a sudden it's, hey, we're going home, this is great. So that was kind of neat.

And as far as finding out when I'm getting the start, they told me earlier today, so I could begin to have my routine today. Get my nice dinner, have my breakfast, and go through my normal game day routine.

Q. You mentioned teammates having your back. That's kind of the phrase that all the guys used to describe Shildt. He was pretty, very apologetic about some of the language that was in his comments to the team after the game, but I think you guys see a side of him sometimes that we don't see when he's in here behind the -- how could you describe his fire and what his willingness to have y'all's back means to you this season?
MILES MIKOLAS: I think it means a lot to everybody. And we get to see that fired up side of him when the cameras are off or supposed to be off, and he gets fired up. And when you see your manager getting that excited and that fired up it feeds into what everyone else is doing. It's hard not to get amped up when you got the guy who is kind of leading your team getting super amped up, it's contagious. He does a good job getting fired up and getting us fired up and letting us know that he's got our back, whether it's we're getting frustrated with umpires and he's going out there talking to them or getting involved in chirping at the other team or rooting for the security guards to tackle the guy on the field. He's getting fired up at a lot and that's good because there's a lot to get excited about in October and it's good to see a manager that's as excited or more excited than his team.

Q. Are you going to do mustache or beard for the game tomorrow? And I have a follow-up.
MILES MIKOLAS: Probably just going to keep the beard. The majority of us are doing like the playoff beard thing, so probably just going to roll with that.

Q. And you pitched overseas in postseason. Do you have an anecdote of an experience you had, who you were playing, how did you, etcetera?
MILES MIKOLAS: Overseas we had a big series my first year against the Hanshin Tigers. The Tokyo Giants and the Hanshin Tigers is a bit like Yankees-Red Sox, like big rivalry, it's a big deal. And we were playing them, real close game, and my favorite part of that game was, actually, I hit a double much like the other day in Atlanta. It was pretty neat.

Then when I came back out for the, probably came back out for the 6th or whatever and I took the mound and I think my double resulted in a run scoring, somehow. I don't know if it was me or if there was someone on base. But the whole crowd started chanting my name as I took the mound and in support of my hit, which was pretty neat. So that was a something I'll remember.

Q. First and last name or last name or --
MILES MIKOLAS: Just last name. Just Mikolas.

Q. When you look at the Nationals lineup, especially that top of the order, it's left, right, left, right or the other way around, how do you plan to attack that and kind of, especially those, Rendon and Soto?
MILES MIKOLAS: Pitching 101, change of speeds, locate, keep them off balance, keep them guessing. Just basic pitching 101, I guess. I'm going to throw the whole book at them.

Q. From a staff preparation perspective given that you all faced Washington so recently, does that give you a jump start on what the study might look like or do you have to reset and do the whole thing over to make sure you're not missing anything?
MILES MIKOLAS: It's nice to have them fresh in your mind. And when you go back and looking at video, not going to have to dig too deep to find my last start, which is nice. As far as how hitters tendencies change, I don't know if they had a whole lot of time for their tendencies too change too much in the last three weeks going into the playoffs, so it might make it a little bit easier. Their pitchers will be in the same boat as far as scouting our hitters, so it will be interesting to see how we attack each other.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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