NL WILDCARD GAME: DODGERS VS CARDINALS

October 5, 2021

Mike Shildt

Dodger Stadium

St. Louis Cardinals

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Just looking at this Dodger team overall, what makes them so difficult, so challenging to go up against?

MIKE SHILDT: Well, they are very balanced. I mean, this is a group that's very intentional about how they are built, both sides of the baseball. Their lineup is clearly deep. They are looking right-handers, left-handers, their bench is deep. Their pitching, obviously, Schurz is going tomorrow, but they have got a strong bullpen as well, righties, lefties as well.

Very intentional about how they are put together. The bullpen is looking to get strikeouts. There are some walks out there.

But no, it's a good, wall-balanced ballclub for sure. There's a reason why they are the defending World Series champion and a perennial contender.

Q. How important has Molina been for the Cardinals?

MIKE SHILDT: Yadi, he's a pillar of our club. He's the guy that is the rock and foundation for what we do both sides of the baseball. He's clearly been in this environment before. He trains and works, and this is what he plays for, we play for, and he sets a great tone for that.

He's a guy that can help you win a lot of different ways, I've said before, maybe the smartest baseball guy I've ever seen regardless of role. He's seen the game very well. He's a tough competitor, like I said, very smart player, and enjoys these kind of moments.

Q. What's the overall comfortability and mentality for the clubhouse right now?

MIKE SHILDT: This is a career we talked about earlier with our staff and it's not anything that we are going to do anything special. It's a one-game deal so the preparation is a skosh different. Our staff, our players, our group has been intentional about how we prepare from day one of spring training, and we have normalized what that looks like and we are just excited to show up and go play.

Q. How have the players been this last week where you have had it locked down, and you still managed to stay dial in and play at the level that you have over this last week?

MIKE SHILDT: Kind of reiterates the point, irregardless of circumstances, we're going to play the game the right way, be ready for any and all situations and go compete.

It was nice to be able to give some guys a little time off their feet and give guys a little rest in the bullpen and set things up. But at every point, everybody continued to get after it and be ready for any and all situations, which we'll be ready for tomorrow as well.

Q. You told us a lot through the years going back years that the goal is to get better through the game, through the week, through the month, through the season. How are you as a team better today from the last time you were at this ballpark?

MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, we want to be -- we seek continued improvement as the game goes, as the season goes, it's a growth mindset. Really it was interesting because right when this series ended here, you know, it was a hard-fought series, won the last one with a lot of good defensive plays, which is something that's been a staple of our team.

But also Jack went out second-to-last game, rotation started getting fluxed a little bit. So from a pitching standpoint we've been able to stabilize our starting pitching. We've also made some additions. And in those stabilizations, Lester, Happ, no particular order, Mile Mikolas back. Those three guys were huge with the stalwart and the consistency of Waino who is clearly going tomorrow.

And then the bullpen, you know, we had our back end of our bullpen, Cabrera and Gallegos and Reyes have all been good, pretty much the whole season, and were outstanding without real any margin for error in the first two thirds of the season.

But we had an addition of Luis Garcia and McFarland, and they have done a fantastic job for us. We have got a little bit more depth in that bullpen. Kodi Whitley has come on, pitched really well. He's up and down throughout the season, a little bit of injury, a little bit of roster management. We have lost Helsley, which hurt a little bit, but he's got to pick it up, that spot. In that regard, we are different.

From a position player standpoint, we started getting more healthy. We didn't have a lot of our outfield together pretty much the whole first half of the season. Bader, O'Neill dealing with certain things, Dylan a little bit here and there, but has been there the most part for the season. DeJong was in and out of the lineup, created an opportunity for Sosa. Kiz has got more opportunity, did a nice job behind the plate, backing up Yadi. And, look, we have done a nice job with Eddie and Goldy and Nolan to be the stalwart.

What I'm getting at is we have really been able to make positive additions to our club, and if we get healthy and able to play together, that's one of the big reasons we made the push we made.

Q. The team learned about what is possible, the quality of play, do you think they wanted to push that by each day and say, well, if we can do this, what else -- how big can we be tomorrow?

MIKE SHILDT: I think we knew it was possible all along. I think a lot of us were probably frustrated based on what I said earlier about the inability to have our club together and have a lot of the -- try to plug in the different pieces, and candidly, I feel really good about the level we are able to do that.

I know people at many points of the season -- I mean, our first two months of the season, we were leading our division, and you know, some people say, oh, you know, first four, four and a half months, where were you? Well, we were in a pretty good spot the first two months, and then a deluge of things happened.

And quite candidly, I'm happy we were able to keep it together and how the guys were able to fight, scratch and claw and keep ourselves as relevant as we did. And once we got to the point of consistency and health, don't need to prove anything to ourselves, but nice to have it together, but a matter of playing, and I know we've enjoyed that.

Q. (Question regarding Tommy Edman.)

MIKE SHILDT: He's been huge. He's a microcosm for our club. Start off the season, look up, we are in San Diego, towards the second month of the season, he's toward the league leaders in hits. We are getting a lot of National games. People are asking is Tommy Edman the quietest, one of the best players in the League that people outside the industry don't know about, which I would say yes to.

And then he got into a little bit -- especially on the left side, a little pull conscious, a little better around the baseball. Proved he was human a little bit. Tommy is a very passionate, smart, feels what he does, made adjustments, put him down the lineup a little bit. Started getting his stroke through the middle, using the whole field, still pulling the ball in the air with authority. Just got back to being Tommy.

And he's a guy that we had a lot of confidence in because, candidly, in 2019, we made our push and won our division, and Tommy and Gallegos coming up were a big part of that. It was just a matter of time before he got back to being the kind of player that he's capable of being and started setting the table around August for the big boys, and here we are.

Q. The bulk of your winning streak was on the road, and it fits with an underdog status, a team that cannot afford to lose, if you're going to advance here, you're going to (indiscernible) road team. Does that fit with where you guys were, like desperate and, like whether you were home or road, you had to have that mentality, you can't lose?

MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, we just like to play. We just like to play baseball. We're prepared. We'll play anywhere. We'll play in a parking lot. You tell us to play, we'll play. Play on the road, I didn't think about the fact that a lot of that was on the road, and it is some tougher places to play in.

But that kind of speaks to the ability of this group to stay present, just go play, irregardless of circumstance. And that's a great trait of a team and individuals. Just go play, play regardless of circumstance, home, road, you feel comfortable, things are a little uncomfortable, you're a little banged up, you have challenges, just go play and stay together and get after it regardless of where you play. It's a good trait, so we're excited to play tomorrow night.

Q. Do you sense you're in an underdog role, which is strange for this franchise?

MIKE SHILDT: I think we feel comfortable and confident and we are ready to play everybody. And I don't know if we see it as an underdog role or favorite role. I just see it as an opportunity to go play baseball.

Q. You talked a lot this year about defense, a lot about base running and a lot -- one game like this, not really much margin for error, can you describe the confidence and the stuff and work you had to do in spring training, to pay attention to the fine details?

MIKE SHILDT: It's not as sexy a way of playing the game. It's a way that people can have their own view of what the game is today, old school, new school. I just want to play good, solid, fundamental baseball.

It's common sense to me. You know, you don't know, one of the beautiful things about our game is to your point, you don't know what's going to hinge on the game. And very holistic, again, commonsense approach to it for me is try to be as good in every aspect of the game as possible.

And the great news is very blessed to have a group of players, our leaders, you mentioned Yadi earlier, embody that. We got Goldy a couple years ago. I first initially talked to him on the phone to welcome him, that turned out to be an hour conversation that morphed into base running and bunt plays and I was like, we got our kind of guy here.

We have a group of guys, we have Nolan who is a baseball guy through and through, studies it, cares about it. It's just a bunch of players that are intentional about being good in every aspect of the game and know that even the little things come up and can be a big thing irrespective of situations.

So we work on it, feel like it's their jobs, the guys are professional about it, and it's been a strength of our club to be a consistent, base-running team.

As we go through and have moments where we don't have as much of our everyday roster as we like, we know we count on these things that allows us to compete, and that's what it does allows us to compete.

Q. Just wondering if there's anything that you took away from that and perhaps there's an advantage in that and a learning experience?

MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, we are talking about a guy, our guy is definitely a future Cardinal Hall of Famer and could be a Hall of Famer himself in Wainwright, some injuries have sidetracked him for a couple years. You're talking about with Max, a guy that, you know, is a Hall of Fame pitcher and it's a guy that has a lot of experiences.

We were able to face him in 2019 in the Championship Series and seen him across the way in our complex and go play in Spring Training, and this year we drew him quite a bit in Spring Training when he was with Washington. You know, it's a guy that has been in the League a while, so we have experiences with him, including the one you mentioned most recently.

And it's a guy we are familiar with and have awareness of, and clearly he's got a built and really good competitor and with really good stuff, but we are looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity.

Q. How do you think the game tomorrow will compare to Game 3 last year against the Padres or Game 5 against the Braves?

MIKE SHILDT: I'll take Game 5 against the Braves first inning (laughter). I think both of them are different. Obviously I alluded to the first game, thinking about how the games were going into those games. We were able to -- fortunate to get off to a really great start that game, be wonderful to do that again. Game 3 last year against San Diego, we knew we were going to be in a little more of a bullpen mode earlier on.

This year is a little different. We have got a well-rested Adam Wainwright who I would like to think is in consideration for Cy Young. He's clearly been a huge reason of why we are sitting here today. He's been an anchor for us for a lot of reasons on the field, off the field.

My point being is that in the game tomorrow, it's not like -- we trust Waino. So we are going to trust and see how the game unfolds and evaluate it as it goes and clearly navigate it based on what we see but in those other two games, the games took different -- we went into last year's Game 3 knowing that we were likely to have to go in. We had Jack going who we have confidence in as well, and then we got down and then we had to navigate the bullpen. Obviously want to play from the lead tomorrow and let Waino do his thing.

Q. What is Flaherty's status?

MIKE SHILDT: Well, we are most optimistic about the last outing for Jack. He's had two setbacks this year. One that took place here with his oblique that at that point in time, he's on track, first two months of the season, 9-1. Definitely headed to an All-Star Game and definitely headed for Cy Young consideration. Missed two months and came back sore in the shoulder and didn't want to push it there, setback there, came back and has thrown a couple times in games and felt like his stuff was back last outing the last day at home against Chicago.

We're confident that he feels good and his stuff looks crisp, that's important. As far as how he'll be used, it will be in the bullpen and it will be fluid.

Q. Cabby for tomorrow?

MIKE SHILDT: Cabby's fine. For those that don't know, he came out on the Friday game last series, he's got a somewhat recurring nail issue, nail split on him. So he's had that fixed and he's had that multiple points in the season and expect no limitations at all.