NL WILD CARD SERIES: BRAVES VS PADRES

October 2, 2024

Brian Snitker

Petco Park

Atlanta Braves

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Ramón was just saying you guys have basically been playing must-win games for a month now.

BRIAN SNITKER: I kind of feel that way. Yeah, I feel it, too. We've been kind of a, every day seems like it's been a Game 7 for us for a while now. Just nice to have this opportunity.

Q. Ramón's one of your guys that's had a nice year after being one of those fill-ins. What has it been like to see him find that next gear in his career?

BRIAN SNITKER: I'm so impressed with him and proud of him, how he handled it. Like I've said, he's been a big leaguer for a while and signed a nice little deal with Cleveland and didn't perform. So he got let go and went to Triple-A.

And got our attention by how he played, by getting results, and the energy and how he played. Good for him, good for him. And he's been a big part of us being here right now. Big part of it.

Q. Did you talk to Sale again today? Do you have any update on him?

BRIAN SNITKER: He feels better today also. He hasn't thrown yet. But he is progressing and feeling better.

Q. Getting back to that, when you said yesterday he hadn't thrown much, how prepared would he have been to make a start on Monday or Tuesday if he hadn't been throwing recently?

BRIAN SNITKER: Well, he's thrown some in the bullpen, throwing a little bit. And I think he felt good. I think he would have been prepared. That's why he's playing catch because he said, I've got to feel my arm and get it synced up or, so to speak.

But now -- because he was going to go out and do it regardless if he was prepared or not. If he felt good, felt like he could throw, he was going to tackle it.

Q. Assuming you advance, when could he step on it more or face hitters?

BRIAN SNITKER: I think that's going to be a day-to-day thing, honestly, and see if there's guys lined up before him we'll probably try to keep pushing him, give him more time until we absolutely have to again.

Q. Alex mentioned you almost gotta worry about, with the back thing, if he compensates and it's his arm, next year, too. How tough was that in the process because obviously he wants to go but you've got to do what's safe?

BRIAN SNITKER: We do. And I think we trust him. I think he's inevitably going to be the guy that says I'm ready, I'm pitching. And we'll deal with that then.

Q. I know you've touched on how confident you guys are to have Fried out here today in a must-win game -- Laureano was out here calling him a big gamer. What is it about him that's able to give him that?

BRIAN SNITKER: I just think experience. He's been through all this. He's pitched the clinching games of the World Series. He's been in a lot of postseason and has experience at it. And he's done it. He knows what it feels like. I think he cherishes that.

Q. (Indiscernible) Mr. Fried will go deep into the game tonight. If he have to go plan B or C, just the state of your bullpen, where you're at?

BRIAN SNITKER: Our bullpen is in great shape. But what those guys did yesterday was really, really good. Number one, we allowed some of the guys that we used two days in a row the day before and all that, to have a day.

But the biggest thing they did was kept the ball game in check for us to have a chance to win. We just couldn't score. But now we've got the guys that we lean on and leverage. And they're ready to go two days in a row with me.

Q. If you guys do force Game 3 what are your pitching plans?

BRIAN SNITKER: We'll see who is left standing after tonight, pretty much.

Q. We've all assumed it was Reynaldo, but does that mean Reynaldo is available tonight?

BRIAN SNITKER: It's going to have to be an emergency situation for him because he was on the IL. He come off, he pitched, he took a day, he pitched. So I think everybody, honestly, is available.

Do we want to pitch him? No, we hope it doesn't come to that. There may be a situation that we're strapped into doing that. But we don't want to have to do that because I think there's a couple of reasons, probably. You don't just, because he did it the other day, and we do need a starter tomorrow.