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NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES v PHILLIES

October 9, 2009

Jim Tracy

DENVER, COLORADO: Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jim Tracy.

Q. Coming into the series there were any number of things people pointed to: The left-handers you're going to be facing, you guys trying to pitch in that ballpark against that lineup. But can you talk about the way your bullpen has pitched these last two games, especially with a couple of fairly shorter outings and how big of a key that's been and moving forward, what kind of key it could be?
JIM TRACY: Well, I certainly think it's definitely twofold really. Number one, it's the reason why we're here. And what I mean by being here, is in the post-season, they have done a tremendous job.
We obviously, early on, had to piecemeal some things leading up to the trading deadline when Danny went out and got Rafael Betancourt and Joe Beimel to help complement some of the other guys we already had down there.
But there has been a real sense of reliability from that group in that you know there are specific situations that make a lot of sense for guys that you have down there, and I'm certainly not going to be shy about using them if the situation dictates it.
I talked a lot about Aaron Cook, and through the first five innings of the game, maybe with the exception of one ball that I recall that went to the outfield, our infielders were very, very busy, the first five innings of the game and then all of a sudden in the sixth inning the ball started making its way to the outfield. The ball was in the air. The ball was on the line.
A real indicator that Aaron Cook's sinker is now no longer as deep as it was earlier in the game and the fact that that was his third start since the 21st of August. You certainly don't want to feel like you've waited too long to go get him, knowing that as I just mentioned you have reliable pieces down there in that bullpen. And I thought that the job that Jose Contreras did in the sixth inning putting the inning down and we're still ahead, was a big key to the game.
And it loomed even larger in my opinion when we were in the seventh and eighth inning with bases loaded and we came out of that with only one run, between the two innings where we had bases loaded.
This is a type of offense that any club in baseball, if you feel like you've had opportunities to step on them and you don't do so and you leave them hanging around, this is certainly not an offense to do a whole lot of that, because you do run the risk -- you're putting yourself in harms way. And obviously we never felt comfortable in winning the baseball game until Barmes caught the line drive that Victorino hit.
But I don't think, number one, you make it to the post-season and, number two, you get an opportunity to play very deep into it if you don't have people down there that can get you six, seven or eight outs, whatever it might be, as you get toward the back end of the game. We've done a terrific job of that.

Q. Regardless of who wins tomorrow, somebody is going to be on the brink of elimination. Can you talk a little bit how your managerial style shifts or just the way the dynamics of a game or series shift when you're going from best of five to best of three? I imagine the margin for error is slim to begin with but now is razor thin.
JIM TRACY: No, it is. I really don't think even beginning in Game No. 1 you think along the lines of the leash being real long. But as you just mentioned, when you go from a best of five to actually a best of three now, the leash is shorter.
But I think we did a real good job as far as putting things together as far as our pitching staff was concerned in that we can afford ourselves the opportunity to do that. As I just mentioned, with regard to the first question, we have reliability in our bullpen. And we've got people down there that can get outs and they can get big outs.
And it's really been a big key to our club for the better part of four and a half months, it really has been. If our starter gets us deep into a game, in my opinion we only get better, because there may be certain situations because the job that our starting pitcher's doing, he's pitching us beyond certain situations that we otherwise may have to contemplate and do something about.
Yesterday being a great example. A guy that did not succeed very well for us in the early part of the season, as a matter of fact got sent back to AAA, and since his return in Matt Belisle, since his return back to our club, he has really done some special things for us in the bullpen. And he's a completely different pitcher than he was earlier in the season.
He's much more aggressive. He's what I consider to be an attacker. I like guys at the back end of the game that get the message across with what they're doing with the baseball, that they're after guys. They're not picking, they're not running the risk of putting themselves into bad counts. This is a really, really bad baseball team that you're playing against and putting yourself in a position where you're pitching to them with hitters' counts. They're way too good to get yourself involved in that on any kind of a regular basis. You're going to get burned if you do that.

Q. As you know going into the series there was a lot of speculation about J.A. Happ and/or Joe Blanton pitching Games 3 or 4. Could you take us through what you were thinking last night as you saw one after the other of these starting pitchers come into the game and relieve?
JIM TRACY: No, I really wasn't thinking a whole lot about that. I'm basically focused and concentrating on what I have to do with our ball club to put it into the best position to win that game. Because obviously in a five-game series, 0-2 versus 1-1 there's quite a difference there.
So what they were doing with their bullpen, the only thing I was concerning myself with as those different guys came in is there something else that we can do that makes sense for us to give us a little bit better chance.
I wasn't sitting there thinking, well, because this guy came in or that guy came in who is going to pitch Game 3 or 4. I could have cared less at that point.

Q. Tulowitzki have any problems overnight where he got drilled? And when he got drilled, did you or your staff have to remind anybody this isn't the time to retaliate?
JIM TRACY: No, we didn't talk about that. Like you're mentioning, first of all, you don't want to get involved in something like that, where that completely, in my opinion, distorts the thought process, because, as you mentioned, you're involved -- at that time it was a two-run game; it became a one-run game. It completely distorts the focus on what you're trying to do.
That environment was intense enough to get into wondering or thinking was that an intentional thing, are we going to retaliate, are we going to do this, do that. We're trying to win the series.
As I told them before the first game of the series in Philadelphia, what I said to our players was simply this: What got us to this point to have the wonderful opportunity to participate in the post-season, we had to win series, and a lot of them, an awful lot of them.
We couldn't split them. We couldn't lose them or we weren't going anywhere. And with that being said, to keep my message consistent with what I had said to them back four and a half months ago, I challenged them to the fact of, hey, look, if it eases any burden as far as your thought process is concerned or anything like that, can we win three more? And if we can win three more series, we can become the world champions of baseball.
That's the way we're looking at it. We still haven't won this one. So that's what we're focused on.

Q. Is he okay?
JIM TRACY: I don't know exactly how he's doing, but the way he played the remaining part of the game yesterday, I don't anticipate any problems. It hit him higher up on the elbow rather than directly on the bone of the elbow. But I haven't had a chance to talk to Keith yet this afternoon to find out.

Q. There's some talk if the weather gets as nasty tomorrow as they're thinking there's a possibility they could postpone. Given what's at stake and how bad the weather might be, do you have a preference on would you prefer to see it maybe pushed back to where the weather is better for baseball?
JIM TRACY: Obviously Major League Baseball is the group that will be very involved in helping with that decision, and if it's a day where either team -- as you just mentioned, where it's not conducive for either team to be playing baseball, it's going to jeopardize our fans from the standpoint of being treated to the type of baseball that has been played thus far in the first two games of the series in Philadelphia.
If moving it back because there's going to be much better weather or weather similar to what we have today, that would be the most sensible thing to do. I don't know how much my opinion's going to be asked. But I really believe that they will make a decision if we get to that point that makes sense for both clubs, because, you know, Game 3 in a series that's 1-1, it's a fairly pivotal game. You'd hate to see a game be determined one way or the other due to the fact that the conditions were not good. Somebody slips that otherwise wouldn't have if the conditions would have been much drier and much more conducive for baseball.
I think we just wait and get up tomorrow morning and see what it brings. But from what I've heard it doesn't sound very good.

Q. What do you attribute Hammel's resurgence to? The last month, month and a half has been as good as any of your starters, not a lot of decisions but pitched well in most of his outings?
JIM TRACY: I think it goes even further than that. I think you can go back to post All-Star break and as consistent as this guy has been, and I think a lot of it has to do with he's been in the strike zone with all of his pitches, he's pitching and has been pitching in very good pitchers' counts. He's been much more aggressive with his forcing fastball and locating it to both sides of the plate. Still has a sinker, still uses it wisely, but he's become a consistent pitcher.
Like you said, not a lot of decisions, and you're absolutely right. But even though he didn't get the decision, he's still a guy that was pitching against -- it just so happened that when his day came up we're facing somebody's 1 or 2 from another ball club, and he never backed off from any of that. He just kept going and gave us chances to win a lot of those games, several of which we did win.
I would not be able to sit here and talk to you about that with what we saw in the first let's say two and a half months of the season or leading up to the All-Star break. Were there some good ones in there? Yeah, there were, but there was a good one and then there would be two not so good. And then another good one.
He has created a mindset in our clubhouse since the All-Star break that when he goes out there to pitch, we can anticipate that he's going to pitch well and he's going to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win, and that's all we've asked of any of our starters to do.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jim.

End of FastScripts

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