MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

October 31, 2021

Brian Snitker

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Postgame 5 Press Conference

Houston - 9, Atlanta - 5

Q. Snit, when you did the planning and had two bullpen games back to back, you knew it would be challenging. Now evaluating, was it every bit as challenging as you thought?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, every bit. When we won yesterday, it made it easier, I guess, coming into this one, but we knew it was going to be tough. That's just a lot of innings to cover against a club like this that swings a bat so well.

The good news is we'll take a day off and be in good shape.

Q. Dusty moved Gurriel up in the lineup. He was a little harder to pitch to. You had to go after him?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, yesterday we didn't, and he's a tough hitter. You don't win a battle championship by mistake. So he's always going to be a tough ride.

Q. I wonder if you could address the emotions of having the chance to close it out tonight. Obviously, it's disappointing, especially when you get the 4-0 lead in the first inning.

BRIAN SNITKER: I'd rather score that run in the seventh inning when you don't have so much time to cover. It was good. That was exciting right there. We knew we had a long, long way to go in that game and anything could happen. It would have been great if we could have kept adding on. We just weren't able to do that.

Q. How deep did you think Tucker would be able to get tonight, and did you ponder at all taking him out after two?

BRIAN SNITKER: Probably 75 pitches. Even after two, that's just a lot of game to cover with some guys down. We were going to try to stretch him as far as we could, and I think we did.

Q. When Minter hit for himself, that was a sign he was going to go multiple innings like he has several times this postseason?

BRIAN SNITKER: Yeah, and it was just after he went out, even if he got out of that inning, I couldn't run him back out there. Just hoping, like he did the other day -- I mean, my God, he's been so good. He's had such a great postseason.

He had to work really hard. It didn't work. We were going to take that shot right there and see if we could keep the game in check and go from there because we kind of felt like he was our best option in that situation, especially with Brantley coming up, to maybe get it to where we could piece it together with the other guys.

Q. A World Series is a World Series win no matter where, but how much in particular did you want to win that at home? It's been a while since a team has won a World Series at home.

BRIAN SNITKER: It would have been great. You always love to do it here. I'll take it anywhere. I don't care where we're at. If we win the World Series, it doesn't matter where it is. I'd have loved to have done it in front of our fans. Hopefully, we can do it the next couple of days.

Q. With Max Fried going in Game 6, how much are you looking forward to not having to piece it together and have a guy like him?

BRIAN SNITKER: It's good. With him going on -- he's ready to go. We had him in reserve if something happened today. If we got locked up in extra innings or whatever, we were going to run him down there and possibly use him today also.

You know, I always feel good when Max pitches. He always gives you a chance to win. Like I say, our bullpen's in good shape. Max has got full rest, and we should be good to go.