NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES VS DODGERS

October 16, 2021

Brian Snitker

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Can you take us through the decision to push Charlie back and start Ian tomorrow?

BRIAN SNITKER: That's all it was about, just giving Charlie another day's rest. That's it.

Q. Can you talk about the lineup, and including the decision for your leadoff hitter, was that inspired by the, Knebel being the starting pitcher?

BRIAN SNITKER: No, it's just, you know, we lost Soler the other day. Dansby started because we were facing a left-hander and I just thought Eddie would be as good a choice as anybody.

Q. What makes Max Fried so good against righties?

BRIAN SNITKER: I think the ability to spin the ball is one of them. He can get his fastball in on guys. He's got a two-seamer, the curve ball and the slider and he's efficient with all of them. I can a kid that's always on the attack and it's a tough at-bat for a right- or left-handed.

Q. You guys went against Joc the last couple times in this series. How nice is it to have him on your side this time and are you eager to see if that former team card comes into play here?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, absolutely. Joc's been big for us in the playoffs so far. He's drove in a lot of runs in the DS and hopefully he can continue to do that same thing in this series.

Q. The addition of Camargo, is that what we were talking about yesterday about the value of having another position player for the bullpen game? Is that --

BRIAN SNITKER: Yup. Absolutely. It just gives you another option because I don't know how we're going to go in 4, so if that's the case and we're hitting early, then we wanted to have the extra offensive bat.

Q. Does the opponent make a difference from, you carried Gore last time. When you have that discussion is he valuable for this series?

BRIAN SNITKER: Because we knew that we probably used starters. We're not sure we're going to do that again. So I think just the length of the series as much as anything is why we're doing that.

Q. With Chris Martin, you specifically said Dylan Lee with breaking ball, lefty breaking ball against the Brewers. Is that kind of why you switched to Chris Martin?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, we kind of felt like, even in the last series that we might have been a right-hander short. Whether or not we use him, I don't know, but it just, you know, as games transpire and you look, and the fact that he had been here before, but it was more about just getting another right-handed arm.

Q. You kind of alluded to some of this, but when you look at the two offenses in this series, it's two of the highest scoring offenses in the majors and two teams that also rank really high in home runs, very close together, and yet there's a lot of dissimilarities in the styles of these offenses. What do you see as the biggest differences just in the general approaches of these teams?

BRIAN SNITKER: Well, I know their guys, the at-bats are grueling when you face this team. I mean, they don't chase. They're all -- you look up and down their lineup, they're experienced hitters. They're guys that don't panic in the counts and I say, the fact that they don't chase. They're tough at-bats throughout the whole game when you face this team.

We're a little bit more freelancing, I think. We're on the attack and we got some really good hitters and we do a lot of damage and that, in probably that respect, we're similar because they do too.

But it is, when you play the Dodgers, they give you a lot of really grinding at-bats throughout the course of the game.

Q. When you guys got Max Fried it was sort of part of that reconstruction of the team, trading some veterans. He was hurt but what do you remember about him back then and how tough has it been for him to kind of get to this point?

BRIAN SNITKER: I don't remember a lot. I mean, the only thing I remember about is he was driving a really nice car because I asked in spring training who it belonged to, and they said Max Fried, the kid we got from San Diego. But until I really put eyes on him, didn't know that much about him. But then after you, you saw Max, I mean, it was kind of easy to nuzzle up to that guy just because of the stuff, the ability, like I say, to spin the ball, consistent delivery, the athleticism in Max, I mean, the things that now that he can do to help himself win a game, a lot of different ways. But I guess looking back I would say that's a heck of a get for us, obviously.

Q. I wasn't going to ask this, but do you remember what kind of car it was?

BRIAN SNITKER: No, I don't remember. It was one of them dark ones.

Q. Was there any part of the series against the Dodgers last year that you took with you into the off-season that just sort of gnawed at you at all?

BRIAN SNITKER: No, not really. The basic part is, God, we just had to win one game, which is, as we see, is really hard to do. I mean, we were in a good spot and had to win one game and they went out and I think they took that same approach, they had to win one game for three days in a row and did. And how that nothing's ever, you don't ever take anything for granted in any series or any day in baseball, I don't think. I mean, you're out and you got to put the pedal to the metal every single day when you play this sport. And even though it's a grinding six months, seven months that we play, I mean, every day is big in this and that's probably the biggest thing. And then the fact that you look back and, you know what, we're capable of doing this. We played the world champions last year and were a game away from putting ourselves into the World Series. So the fact that we, these guys should know that it's do able.

Q. I know starting pitching and bullpens are handled a little bit differently, but can you talk about the difference between the 26-man roster and the 25-man roster and what kind of difference it actually does make?

BRIAN SNITKER: Well, for us, as you saw today, we had the, we still would probably be with 12 pitchers right now, even with 25-man, and that just gave us another option on the bench pretty much. But if we would have had 25 we would have still went probably 12 and 13 right now, even in a seven-game series with the days off.