NL WILDCARD GAME: DODGERS VS CARDINALS

October 6, 2021

Tommy Edman

Adam Wainwright

Dodger Stadium

St. Louis Cardinals

Postgame Press Conference

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: I just gave him a huge hug, told him I loved him and gave him another big hug and just told him how special he was as a player and as a teammate and as a person. That's all you can say in a moment like that. He doesn't probably want to hear any of it, but it's all true.

He's a great teammate, a great player, a great pitcher, and a great friend. You hate to see anyone go through that, but he's got an incredible future ahead of him. I can't wait to see what he does next. It's going to be great.

Q. What are your takeaways from this game that required so much grit, so much tenacity that this team has displayed all September?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: I felt like we had a team that was going to win a World Series, honestly. We played a good game tonight. We played against a very good team. They were like they are. I mean, they were relentless, and they were just -- they're a great competitor. They're a great opponent, and they beat us.

We had our chances. We talked about we had our chances to win that game, and their pitching did a great job. Their defense did a great job, and they got the big hit at the end.

Q. Tommy, what was the approach going against max Scherzer?

TOMMY EDMAN: Yeah, I mean, I thought we did a good job against Max today, kind of not really chasing him around the zone and really driving his pitch count up. Got to that bullpen quick, but their bullpen just did a great job of shutting us down once they got in there.

Q. Tommy, how much does that run that's been so much a part of your game all season factor into this game both in terms of putting pressure on Max and also on the bullpen when you have the opportunity to do so?

TOMMY EDMAN: Yeah, whatever advantage we can get, whenever you see a weakness that an opponent has you've got to take advantage of that, especially the games like today.

Q. Did you feel like you were getting sharper there as the game went on?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, I did. I rolled the dice right there. Honestly, I couldn't give in in that situation. I knew I had 3-2 count, bases loaded. But I mean, I didn't throw much different than the pitch I tried to throw after the one that did go left a little bit right there, and I did. I just rolled the -- I got lucky and he did what I was hoping he would do.

But we've got an incredible defense. They have been amazing all year. They've carried us all year. Tommy made the great sliding play in the middle, too. They've just been incredible all year. Trying to get those guys to hit the ball in play on the ground especially as much as I can to let these guys work, because they're special out there?

Q. (On the quality of play on the field.)

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, that's two good baseball teams playing a good baseball game. Whoever won this game was going to have a really great chance to have a deep run in the postseason. That's how we looked at it. We really felt confident coming into this game that we were going to win today. We did. We've been playing great baseball.

The takeaway from this from our team is to understand how far we came, the adjustments we made, and what a great baseball team we can be when we play like we're supposed to. We showed that down the stretch. We showed that we can play like that in any situation, in any atmosphere tonight. Like you said, we didn't win, but we came in here and made them real nervous, didn't we.

We had guys on base all day long. We worked one of the best pitchers of all time, got him out early, and their bullpen did a great job. We kept the pressure on. Kudos to those pitchers over there that made great pitches time after time after time because we really battled them. We had guys on base the whole time, and they just made a bunch of pitches.

Q. Adam, what have you noticed about the quality of Alex being able to bounce back from adversity? What do you like about his mentality of how he's been able to adjust on the fly this year?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: Well, he's had a career filled with adversity. He has just been put through the ringer. The Tommy John, right when he came back from Tommy John he was striking out guys every rehab start, not exaggerating, and we were so excited to get him back, and then he tweaks his lat in the last game and has rehab but thinks he's okay to pitch and tears it all the way his first game back, four innings, nine strikeouts.

The guy was going to just light it up. But each time he's been dealt that hand he's come back even stronger. We're not here tonight without Alex Reyes. He was an All-Star closer the first half of the season. He put us on his back a lot of the time this year. We all completely believe he's going to come back strong.