MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

October 30, 2021

Brian Snitker

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Atlanta - 3, Houston - 2

Q. As I saw Dansby come down the stairs there, that smile that came across your face. Just how big of a moment was that for you, and maybe add what you're feeling after Soler followed with the homer?

BRIAN SNITKER: It's like I've been waiting for Dansby to do a Dansby-esque type thing, which the kid likes the moment, I know that. He has for as long as he's been here.

Q. How big was what Kyle Wright did tonight stepping in there?

BRIAN SNITKER: It was awesome. The situation we put him in was probably something we didn't want to do, honestly, but how he limited damage. His stuff was so good tonight too. He's really, really good.

Kyle is the reason we won the game, how he kept that thing in check and allowed us to stay around in that game. That was huge.

Q. On Wright, just how proud are you of him? Just given the ups and downs that he's been through, that he comes through in a moment like this?

BRIAN SNITKER: He has. He's been through a lot in a young career, and we've created a lot of it, quite honestly, I think. I thought the best thing -- and I think I said this earlier -- the best thing was for him to stay in Triple-A all year in mass innings and pitch and be successful.

The greatest things these guys can have is experience, I don't care where it is, especially as a pitcher. I think we asked a lot of him in his young career, and I love the fact he got to stay down there all year, and he put together a really good year.

For me, tonight, I saw that. It was a more mature pitcher because he'd experienced more. And I went back and looked at some of the at-bats on that thing we got, and his stuff was good. It was live. What he did coming in in that situation, limiting damage, and getting us to where he did in that game was huge.

Q. Straight up, you are up three games to one in the World Series. How confident are you that you can close it out in one of the next three games?

BRIAN SNITKER: I just want to win tomorrow. I don't know how confident I am. I'm glad we are, quite honestly. I'd rather be up three than down three, I guess. But I've been around too long to get ahead of myself.

Q. For Jorge to hit that home run coming off the bench, what have you seen about this group of four outfielders that they're comfortable with knowing that one of them always has to be in that spot and they can still come through?

BRIAN SNITKER: It makes me feel good that, when we're in this National League game, and the one I don't play is a really good bullet off the bench, whether it's probably been Soler or Joc, and they've all done unbelievable damage in this postseason. What they've done has just been -- and it's not an easy thing to do because these guys were kind of everyday players, and coming off the bench is one of the hardest things you do in our game.

But those guys have made a huge impact in our postseason when they haven't played, or started.

Q. It seems like we've been talking all month about some of the improbable ways that your team has found to win games. Tonight your starting pitcher got one out. You got back-to-back home runs from the 8, 9 spots in your order against a pitcher who hadn't given up a run in the whole postseason. How mysterious is baseball, and how much magic do you think is inside your team?

BRIAN SNITKER: Oh, there's a lot, especially this time of year. I've always said, because I kind of feel like why a lot of times Wild Card teams do so good is because they're on edge. I've always said the team that has that little boy in them that comes out are teams that do good in the postseason.

If you'd have heard our dugout in the bottom of the ninth inning, I would have thought I was in an American League dugout, the way guys were cheering for each other. And I really believe that. I think the team that just plays with emotion and enjoys what they're doing and all in the postseason are really dangerous.

Q. There's so much talk about you guys having to cover 18 innings in Games 4 and 5 with your bullpen. You're halfway home on that. How do you feel you weathered it so far, and how proud are you of your guys for what they've done to this point?

BRIAN SNITKER: Very proud of our guys always. I've been very proud of our guys since April, quite honestly. We came out of this, obviously, okay. We won the game because I think Kyle Wright had a huge spot in this. Chris Martin. Then we got it to Matzek and Luke and Will, and that's kind of what I was working for.

I was kind of working to get through the fifth inning so we could give it to our guys, and we did that. Hat's off to our guys that did that, especially Kyle.

I'll be honest with you, I don't know what direction we're going to go tomorrow yet.

Q. Just following up on that question, given how many innings Kyle Wright was able to give you, without knowing your game plan for tomorrow, just how big was that, as you look ahead to tomorrow having arms available?

BRIAN SNITKER: It was huge. Other than Kyle, all the guys we pitched can throw again. They're all available tomorrow. So if we choose to go the bullpen game, we are we're in -- we have bodies to do that, and we've got guys we really like to be able to do that.

What Kyle did extending that game was just -- he probably doesn't even realize what he did for us and how big that was, especially the situation that he came in. Again, I am so proud of how he handled the situation and went to work.

Q. Was Dylan going to be four batters, no matter what in your mind, going in?

BRIAN SNITKER: We had a plan for that, but then we were going to wait and see how it went. It was kind of like if he was hitting with everything and change-up was really good, we might have extended him a little bit more, but that kind of -- depending on the situation, we had talked about that, where he was when we brought Kyle in.

Q. And what did you see as he was pitching out there?

BRIAN SNITKER: His command was off a little bit than what I've seen before, which is understandable. My God, we put him in an unbelievable situation. Even I told him when he got here, he didn't have to sleep on it, he wasn't nervous.

Even so, I don't care. If your first start in the Big Leagues is going to be in a World Series game, are you kidding me? My God.

Q. What did you think of the technique on Eddie's catch, and do you see the organization --

BRIAN SNITKER: I'm not even going to go look at that again.

(Laughter.)

I'm just glad he caught it.

Q. So you won't use it as instructions?

BRIAN SNITKER: No, that's probably not an instructional video we show our Minor Leaguers.

(Laughter.)

Q. First, you talk about the little boy in your team. Do you think that was acquired by the way you got here?

BRIAN SNITKER: You know what, it's acquired with the players we have, and I said that that first year we won our first division. Somebody's like, what are these guys feeling in September playing meaningful games? And I'm thinking, I feel like I'm in an American League dugout.

Somebody asked me that about our players, and I said the last place they're going to be nervous is between the white lines. They enjoy competing and the emotion. They feed on the emotion. They feed on the crowd. They like playing baseball.

Q. Second, your bullpen wasn't regarded as --

BRIAN SNITKER: I can't say enough about our bullpen. My God, I'm going to talk to ownership and send them all to Hawaii for a week when we're done.

Q. I don't think you or your players need to be reminded about the thirst of this city for a championship. These final 27 outs, the moment and the pressure, how do you think they'll handle it?

BRIAN SNITKER: They'll handle it great. I'm happy for our city that they can go through this, experience this. What a great time of year. For the city, the Braves Country, to experience all this, for our players to experience it, it's a win-win situation.