NL WILD CARD SERIES: PHILLIES VS CARDINALS

October 7, 2022

Miles Mikolas

Busch Stadium

St. Louis Cardinals

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Miles, Ollie mentioned yesterday that Game 2 is going to be an elimination game for one of the two teams. And you're a guy that he trusts with that sort of pressure on the line. What does that mean to you to hear him say that?

MILES MIKOLAS: Makes me feel pretty good. That's a do or die game for us or them. It's a clinch game for us. So that's a big game to be a part of, and I'm excited to get the opportunity to start it.

Q. When you look at your rotation as a whole, you mentioned all five starters will be on the wild card roster. What do you think is the biggest strength about the way you can use your rotation in this best of three series?

MILES MIKOLAS: When you've got a lot of good arms there, you can deploy games for one inning or multiple innings and get starts and have some insurance in case things go wrong early in the game. Having a lot of your starters in the bullpen gives you the opportunity to maybe play more matchups as the game goes on or have extra guys in case a game ends up being extra innings or a little bit longer, and it just gives everyone a little bit more cushion mind knowing you have so many good arms on the roster.

Q. Been a lot of road for you in between those two starts. What does it mean to travel and get back to where they can rely on you in a game like that?

MILES MIKOLAS: I love pitching here in St. Louis, and it's nice to have that trust, and hopefully the fans trust me. And I know they're going to show up and be loud, and it's going to be a heck of a game.

Q. Just want to get your thoughts on what you got out of your last postseason experience. It was you finished a game in extra innings. You started two games. You've had a superb start against Washington, but not much run support. Just what you learned from the playoffs in those three appears?

MILES MIKOLAS: I think my biggest learning experience was probably that first game in Atlanta. I think I like walked the first two guys, which I haven't walked a whole lot of guys, and I walked the first two guys of the game. So I think just that initial maybe the first playoff game nerves, I think those are gone. I was able to settle that down, obviously, in that Washington start, and have a good one. But it's a really an important game, but it's still just a baseball game. The strike zone is the same. I've faced the Phillies before. Their hitters are the same. Maybe they're a little more locked in. I'm more locked in because it's the playoffs, so everything is kind of the same. It's just a lot more important of a game I guess.

Q. Does it take something in the warm up to not try to rev that up or not -- do you have to kind of stick to like, okay, steady heartbeat even like it is an August start?

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah. I think that's where the comfort of a pre-game routine comes into play. I'm going to start stretching an hour before. We're going to have our pre-game scouting meeting, going to do some more stretching, go through my calisthenics, my jumping jacks, and this and that and get loose just like I have for every other game. So I think that kind of not necessarily tricks your body, but it keeps you on that same pace that you've been the whole year, and I think if I just keep that routine, that's where those routines come in handy, those big games, keeping everything same and simple and going about my business as usual.

Q. And with the crowds you guys have had over the last really month because of 700 and other stuff going on, has warming up been a little bit like a playoff? Has there been crowds -- have you kind of felt that buzz in the ballpark already as you start going?

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah, especially during the games. Not so much as warming up, but during the games, absolutely. How loud the fans have been getting for Albert and Yadi, Waino, and just kind of hearing that getting used to it might not be as big a shock when I'm out there. I'm not going to have to step off and kind of take it all in. I've been taking in all that noise for the last couple months now, so I think I'll be all right.

Q. Do you think as a team you guys are more prepared to win in the postseason because there are guys on this team who obviously have won it all, but also guys who have gotten in and tasted it? What you just described in learning maybe how to take a better approach at it? There's a good mixture there.

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah, I think the more guys you have with the playoff experience the better. I know we've got Matz and Montgomery and Q are here. They've all got some playoff starts under their belt, which is great, and we've got Albert back who's got tons of playoff experience and same thing with Yadi and Waino. Goldy and Arenado have been there a little now. So the more experience you get, the more prepared you are, and everyone is always in our clubhouse really good at sharing their knowledge and kind of helping other guys that might need it or asking questions. And I think it's going to be one of our strengths going into these games.

Q. For most of his 18 years, Adam has been the Game 1 guy, the Game 2 guy, whatever. Ollie said when he told him, hey, going to need you out of the bullpen and he said maybe that's the seventh inning or ninth inning or third inning, Adam was like whatever you need. He was all down on whatever you need. What does that say about his team player mentality?

MILES MIKOLAS: I think it says a lot. I mean, if there's one thing I know about Adam is that he wants to win, and he'll do anything that the team asks of him for us to get that win. That's the most important thing on his mind and I think everyone in the clubhouse's mind. I mean, if they ask him to pinch-hit, I'm sure he'd love that, too. (Laughs). Anything we need from him, and I think anything we ask of him, as a team, I think he'll have it. He's the kind of guy that steps up big in those situations. And whether he's starting or relieving or, you know, if he gets his way pinch-hitting, I think he'll get the job done any way he has to.

Q. As far as your preparation for tomorrow, has burning sage played a factor in that? I know that was something you did, burning sage.

MILES MIKOLAS: That's something I do sporadically. But something I got ahold in my back pocket until we really, really need that thing. So see how we do today. I think we got a really talented group. They don't need all the -- all the I don't know what the right word for that is, but all the goofy nonsense. I think we got plenty good hitters. They don't need any magic tricks. Just going to go out and take it to them the first game.

Q. Speaking of goofy nonsense?

MILES MIKOLAS: I got a lot of that.

Q. The way the personality, you've been with the Cardinals now for a while. There can be business-like atmosphere. Some guys are all about business. How have you seen the blend of this team's personality kind of take shape especially as Albert returned to it Yadi was there for his last year and then along the way Lars joined in.

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah. I think it's great. I think you need unique guys in the clubhouse to balance it out. You need guys that are always maybe a little overly serious, not smiling so much, to balance out the, you know, the goofy guys like Lars or myself. And I think it has become a really fun group. When Lars can get, you know, Goldy to smile and stuff like that and laugh and goof around, we're always kind of watching that. And it's fun. He brings a lightness to it, and I think it helps us, you know even in some of the tough parts of the season we had, you know, you looked at guys like him to keep things light and make people laugh and keep us in a good mood, and that's something that he does and then he'll go out and hit a couple home runs for us too. So that always help. But it's been a huge part of our success, I think.

Q. The last part I wanted to ask you about is Lars was struggling for that first half. Maybe you didn't see it in his personality. Did you kind of get the sense when he returned what he brought to the clubhouse?

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah. I think with a lot of players, more of your personality is able to come out, the better that you're doing. Sometimes you kind of retract a little bit when you're not doing so well and you're really trying to focus on baseball and not so much other stuff. But he's one of those guys that never gets too down. You never really see him too unhappy. And when he came back up and started hitting really well for us, his personality blossomed a little bit. And it's really, really fun to see.

Q. It's been a few years since you guys have been able to play a postseason game in front of your home fans. Have you talked about that at all, the excitement level in the clubhouse?

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah. We all know it's going to be exciting. The fans are going to be loud. Adam has even told us as long as he's been here the last couple of months with Albert and Yadi saying their goodbyes the crowds been about as good as it's been since we have been here. We're just looking more of that, more of that St. Louis support. We got some of the best fans in baseball, and we're really thankful for them and real proud of them.

Q. This is probably more for the Phillies, but have you experienced any difficulties with PitchCom and do you think it could be a story in the postseason as stadiums get louder and louder that there could be some problems hearing it perhaps?

MILES MIKOLAS: Yeah. We've got some -- they've got like some other attachments, the ones that catchers use. I think they've talked about using those, or like an ear piece or there's like a little tube and they can make a little cut in the hat to make it a little bit louder. So I know there's some things that I'm sure if we've figured it out, every other team has figured out a way to make it louder. But yeah, there's been some guys where you see pitchers putting their glove on their head trying to figure it out, and with nobody on base, you can always go back to cards. We have our sign cards if for some reason we have to do that, that's probably something we should deploy if it becomes an issue. The PitchCom is pretty neat. They're pretty great. We need it a little louder, maybe if you've got the volume way up and you get that silent moment and you're going to get the pitch, and it's going to be so quiet that maybe the batter would hear it. "He hit a -- game-ending homerun, and I heard the PitchCom go fastball inside!" So that would be a neat one. (Laughs).