NL WILD CARD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS BREWERS

October 3, 2023

Corbin Burnes

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame Press Conference

Arizona Diamondbacks 6, Milwaukee Brewers 3

Q. Corbin, you talked yesterday about how you enjoy kind of the cat and mouse game. What did you see from Arizona early on? What was kind of your feel about what their game plan was going to be against you tonight?

CORBIN BURNES: Yeah, first time through we did well. We attacked zone, got ahead, got weak contact when we needed to. Second time through, we just made too many mistakes up in the zone. The ball Carroll hit wasn't a bad change-up, but to hit it like that does well in the changeup in the zone. We have to be better there.

The hit that Marte hit was an elevated cutter, and the next inning, it was an elevated slider to Moreno. It was just lack of executing pitches. And in a postseason game, giving up homers like that, it's a difference maker.

Q. Did anything change in their attack that you saw the second time through?

CORBIN BURNES: No. They were more waiting it out. They weren't super aggressive. A couple of the guys in the lineup were aggressive, but there was a lot of pitches tonight that could have gone both ways as far as on the edge of the zone, at the bottom of the zone that give you an 0-1 versus a 1-0 count. They did a good job of not chasing a ton of pitches. And when I left the ball up, they didn't miss.

Q. We see you analyzing these starts very analytically in the process, can you describe just the disappointment of seeing a lead slip away knowing that in a three-game series, every game is so important?

CORBIN BURNES: Yeah. The offense did a great job of coming out and swinging the bats and scoring runs early. I just did a poor job after that of executing pitches. That's really all it comes down to.

When I was executing pitches the first couple of innings, we got quick outs, and a lot of ground balls, some strikeouts. Then when I stopped executing pitches, they didn't miss.

Credit to our bullpen there in the middle innings for covering a bunch of innings and keeping us in the game. Offensively we were just one big hit away in a couple of those innings from blowing it open and running away with it.

The Diamondbacks, they stuck in there. They took some good ABs, and obviously they had a big hit there at the end.

Q. They've got some pretty good guys throwing the next couple of days. How do you guys size up the challenge that's ahead of you?

CORBIN BURNES: Yeah. You still got to go out there and compete. It doesn't matter who it is on any given day, you can go out there and lace your pitches up and hit a couple of homers and change the game pretty quickly. That's what happened tonight.

Gallen has had a great year. Kelly had a great year, but you still have to go out there and pitch and get outs. Doesn't really matter what you have done up to this point. You have to go out and perform.