NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 5, 2024

Mike Shildt

Dodger Stadium

San Diego Padres

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Dodgers - 7, Padres - 5

Q. Dylan, a 3-0 lead early. How do you think he respond to that, especially the bottom of the order, a lot of traffic?

MIKE SHILDT: That's the thing. We turned the lineup over a bit too much. Got some of their bigger guys up and the bottom is good too.

But big three running in the first. Manny big blow, big at-bats, got some momentum. Actually go out and get a shutout inning. And then the bottom of the order, you mentioned the lead-off walk. That typically can come back to haunt you.

We got Ohtani up, two guys on, three-run lead. Made really good pitches to him first at-bat. Just got it out over in a location we don't like and put a swing on it.

Q. What is the stress factor when Ohtani's up with anybody on base?

MIKE SHILDT: For you? (Laughter). Listen, he's a good player. Clearly he's done some pretty special things this year. I feel good about -- it's just about execution. You've got to be even finer against really good players.

But we have really good players, too. It's just about the execution. You've got to pitch out over. And Morejon absolutely made a beautiful pitch and blew him up. And he got one into center field.

I like Scott's pitches against him, like Adam's pitches against him. We executed. We were able to get him out. We just got something that was out over that he was able to get the meat of the bat on.

Q. Your offense has jumped starting pitching. One run off the bullpen in three playoff games. What do you make of that so far?

MIKE SHILDT: You get into playoff games, you have good bullpens you're facing. That's part of it. Clearly we're capable against any reliever. I thought we had some good at-bats, had some traffic out there. Late had the go-ahead run at the plate late in the last inning.

And our offense has been good all year. You mentioned the starters. We got Yamamoto out of there early. Their bullpen came in, did the job. And we just weren't able to get the big blow.

Q. After the wild pitch by Morejon opened a base, you decided to walk Betts with two strikes. What made you make that decision?

MIKE SHILDT: That whole inning was thought about, the different variables. We went out, Dylan, (indiscernible) thinking Dylan may take it through Betts. But as soon as Tommy gets the bunt down, Rojas gets the base hit, we like Morejon on Ohtani.

Comes in, makes a beautiful pitch. Blows him up. Now we've got Mookie on Morejon. Once he threw the knuckle curve, the split, whatever you want to call it, that got by him. Now we've got second and third, got a base open.

Mookie against lefties is not going to hit ground balls. He's not going to strike out pretty much. And he's going to walk. So now you can sit there and say, let's tap dance around him. No, let's go to Freddie with Morejon who throws 50 percent ground-ball rating against lefties.

I would say Freddie wasn't moving good, but he steals a bag and plays possum on us. So we go to Freddie to get the ball. And we got it. And Solano -- knowing we have Estrada on Hernandez after that.

So the whole inning was not right where we wanted it but played the way we basically wanted it in that sense. And Ohtani flared one in. The ground ball wasn't at anybody from Freddie. Solano makes a great play, gets them force at home. Higgy makes a great play too, which is nice.

We're sitting there, we've got Estrada, who we like a lot. And we like a righty on Hernandez. And to his credit put a swing and brought in two runs. Hopefully that answered your question.

Q. Just go back a step and just go through your thinking on when you took Cease out for Morejon to face Ohtani?

MIKE SHILDT: Similar to what we just talked about. Again, Jeff's question, we don't -- but we trust Morejon on Ohtani. And he made a great pitch. We were just talking about it during the game, before we came in here.

I thought the bullpen was excellent. Morejon was outstanding I thought. Makes a great pitch. Made a pitch to Freddie, got his ground ball. We can't direct where the balls go, but we take the soft contact on our side every time.

Estrada, Hernandez put a swing on it, it went out, boom, get the clean fifth. And Adam did his part, Hoeing big and of course Scott. The bullpen was outstanding. That was the thought process there.

Q. Did you think Cease was a little erratic tonight or he just wasn't at his best?

MIKE SHILDT: Yeah, it was really coming out good. The ball was coming out good. The slider was good. Just a matter of maybe some missed locations. The three innings they scored were bunt, bunt hit, walk. And we just weren't able to erase that lead-off inning they score.

Dylan was maybe amped up, I don't know. A question for him. But it was coming out good. He was looking to attack. They made him pay on balls he couldn't execute. The walks --

Q. As good as play as Solano made on Freddie's grounder, could he have gone to second maybe to start a double play considering how Freddie was moving?

MIKE SHILDT: Like I said, Freddie played possum on us a little bit, got us on the bag. I don't think so. I think when in doubt he made the right play.

It was a tough play. But I don't know, it's an easy double play ball, it's not hit hard. It's going away. We've got a pitcher who has got to come over. I thought he made a good play. He's making a baseball play to try to cut a run down, which he did.

He's smart he knows we've got a guy coming in for the next guy. Made a good baseball play to keep it right there.