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NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS v BREWERS

October 5, 2011

Ron Roenicke

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Game Four

Diamondbacks Â– 10
Brewers - 6

Q. Was it your sense that Wolf was going to settle in and start pitching capably at some point?
RON ROENICKE: Well, we were certainly hoping that he would. There's been a lot of outings the first inning he scuffled and turned around and really got us into 6th, 7th inning. That's what we were hoping he would do.

Q. Can you explain like last night we talked about Collmenter and how he's pitched so well. Wolf struggled against the team this year. And then the outing today, can you talk about what you see or what might be different in his outings against the D-backs?
RON ROENICKE: I don't think it has anything to do with the D-backs. I think Wolfy, when he gets in trouble, his location isn't there.
And you saw that in the first inning. He came out and his location was all over, getting behind the count. And like I said, sometimes he gets a little off in the first inning and then will straighten it out and end up throwing a real nice ballgame.

Q. Why didn't he throw fastballs today? Was that part of the game plan or was that a reaction to the way he was feeling early in the game?
RON ROENICKE: Why did he or didn't he?

Q. It seemed like he threw a lot of breaking balls today.
RON ROENICKE: I think just looking at what we need to do with some of these guys. I think he thought that the off speed was what he needed to do. I think curveballs were all down in the zone early, he couldn't throw them for strikes.
But I think Wolfy, when he throws well, he needs to establish the curveball, he needs to establish the change-up. And he had trouble doing that. And that's what was getting him behind in the count. But it's a good hitting team, we can't just go at them with fastballs, you have to be able to mix up the pitches and get ahead in the count.

Q. Are you surprised at how badly they got beat up in these two games, especially the home runs are killing you in this series?
RON ROENICKE: Yeah, these two games are certainly not typical of what we've done all year. And I think Yo coming back and pitching Friday should be good for us. But I think sometimes you get in situations and you come out early, you try to make pitches. Like I said, you try to establish some off speed stuff. You get behind in the counts. You've got to come in with some fastballs and then you get hurt on them.

Q. People will talk a lot about the home advantage, but these games, like postseason games, have been decided by the team that pitches better.
RON ROENICKE: They have. Really, our two lefties didn't throw well today. The other guys threw the ball okay. But this is a good team. You open up holes for them and they're going to take advantage. And we didn't pitch well and they hit very well.

Q. You talked the other day about staying loose and that you guys play better, more confident when you're loose. How do you do that after a couple of losses?
RON ROENICKE: Coming back home, we're confident what we do at home. We've got Yo pitching, which everybody is comfortable with. And I really liked the way we swung the bat today. I think we've been swinging the bat well, except yesterday. Three out of four games I really liked the way we swung the bat.
Today we had chances to score a lot more runs. So really, it was just -- it was two lefties today that had trouble.

Q. Seems like you just didn't get the breaks today. Do you feel like that can contribute as well? You say you liked your hitting, but a few things could have gone your way and made a huge difference?
RON ROENICKE: Yeah, breaks are what you need. A lot of times when you're playing well, they're getting a couple of breaks, but they're earning it. They're playing really well. And they're earning some good at-bats, maybe putting the ball right through the hole.
Cowgill today pinch hits. And that was a big at-bat. And he hits a ground ball and it's placed perfectly between third and short and they come home with two runs there. So that was a big at-bat.
On our end, Corey Hart just misses a ball. When it left the bat you thought it's got a chance. But that's -- when I talk about breaks, that's sometimes just because you're playing so well you get them.

Q. Just to clarify an earlier point. You saw enough from Wolf in the second inning to bring him back in the third, is that essentially it?
RON ROENICKE: Well, that's it and also trying to get through the game. When you get behind in that many runs early you've got to pinch-hit in the spots that they come up. If you go to a bullpen guy right away, that at-bat is going to come up and then you've got to decide, okay, we're five runs down or whatever you are, and are we going to send up our pitcher to hit. And I don't know if that's a good way to go about it. So that's what gets tough is in the third inning trying to decide whether to leave Wolf or not in.
He's coming up third in the lineup and we know we need to hit. We need to score runs to catch up. We can't just keep throwing up zeroes up there, we're not going to catch up.

Q. Not talking like Little League pep talk here, but have you had enough adversity this season that you can draw on at this point to push this team in this must-win situation now?
RON ROENICKE: I definitely think so. We've been through losing streaks. We've come back, played real well. We've had a lot of series there at the end where we didn't play so well and bounced right back and have a great series.
This team is resilient. They're going to come out. We're going to play hard and I expect us to have a real good ballgame Friday.

Q. What are you seeing from Rickie Weeks in this series, and you think not getting much out of that five spot is hurting you again?
RON ROENICKE: Well, Rickie, he's seeing the ball well. When he's getting his pitch he's putting a good swing on it and he's just missing them. I keep thinking that he's going to get one of these balls and he's just missing it. But he feels good swinging. And I do like a lot of his swings.
But he's just not squaring them up like he does when he's going well.

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