NL DIVISION SERIES: BREWERS VS BRAVES

October 8, 2021

Craig Counsell

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Brewers - 2, Braves - 1

Q. We talk all the time about great pitchers, you need to get them in the first inning. Snitker was just in saying they thought had Corbin on the ropes, and then that double play changed everything. Amazing how things can swing so early.

CRAIG COUNSELL: It was the play of the game, I think. You saw it gave Corbin life because it was going to be a tough first inning, the first two guys gave him great at-bats, just tough at-bats, as you'd expect.

I thought he made pitches. They're just tough at-bats. And so it was a big play. No question about it. Heads-up play. It was an incredible play by Omar. Tough hop. Catch. Runner coming. Tag. All of it was as good as it gets.

Q. You talk so much about Rowdy's offense this year. It's part of the reason you picked him up. He's been really steady over in first base all season.

CRAIG COUNSELL: He's been really good around the bag. He's picked several throws. A play like that, it is, it's an instinctual play. It's not a play you can practice, it's just an instinctual play that you know the runner might be going and you take a shot at it.

Q. As you mapped out that game going in, is that one of the scenarios you saw, Burnes to Houser to Hader?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah. It did sequence in a way that was really set up well for us, just where Corbin got the last out of his outing was -- was it Riley or was it Freeman?

Q. Albies.

CRAIG COUNSELL: Corbin's last out.

Q. Albies.

CRAIG COUNSELL: That's right, it was Albies. That part of the lineup sets up well for Adrian and he did a really good -- his sinker was going. He was throwing strikes. And much respect for doing something that he doesn't normally do. That is not easy to do. He made it look pretty easy with the way he came in and pitched. And a huge outing.

Q. For Rowdy to miss time down the stretch (indiscernible) and coming back in, able to do that (indiscernible) got some at-bats down the stretch. But to come to a moment like this and do his own thing?

CRAIG COUNSELL: When he got injured in September in Cleveland, it was a tight timetable. We knew it was going to be tight. We were fortunate that he got himself healthy. The training staff did a heck of a job. We were able to get him on the field the last week of the season.

I thought that was critical for this. He ended up getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 13, 15 plate appearances. Got locked in pretty fast. And I thought -- I think it just gave him confidence going into this series.

Q. Craig, Orlando had a lot of big hits for you in the playoffs in previous years. Were you at all nervous to see him come up there with the game on the line?

CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, certainly ironic, for sure, that he was the hitter. And you knew he was going to put the ball in play. I was confident he was going to put the ball in play. Josh made some good pitches to get ahead of him and put him on the defensive a little bit more.

I want to mention Omar Narváez. In addition to the play at the plate, Omar did a fabulous job tonight, calling the game, the block of the slider in the ninth on Hader. Absolutely fabulous game.