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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CARDINALS v BREWERS

October 9, 2011

Ron Roenicke

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Game One

Brewers Â– 9
Cardinals - 6

Q. If you hadn't had that big inning there at the 5th were you thinking about pulling Zack out before the start of the 6th?
RON ROENICKE: Well, I don't know if we would have. We thought Zack was still throwing the ball good. Really, it was really just that the hanging curveball is the pitch he got hurt on.
Other than that they really didn't hit the ball that hard off of him. Even the first inning Pujols jam shot over 2nd, ground ball, Holliday jam shot him between first and second to score that run.
So I thought he threw the ball well today.

Q. We talked a lot this year about how Braun and Fielder are game changers. Have you ever seen them turn one around any quicker than that?
RON ROENICKE: That was a nice inning there. It was nice Brauny, in the first inning with the two-run homer. But to score like we did there, yeah, that's outstanding.
Corey starting it off, and Brauny, you know, big double there, drive in two. Followed right behind it with the Prince homer.
And then Rickie, we got a little break there with Rickie getting on base. Yuni, outstanding at-bat. We got nobody out. He's fouling off pitches. I don't know how many pitches he had in that at-bat, but great job, and got a breaking ball up and was able to drive it out of the park.
But that was one of the best at-bats he's had this year.

Q. Going back to Greinke, they did make him pay for the walks today?
RON ROENICKE: The walks hurt him. First inning walk to Jay hurt him. That's why they scored the one run.
The walk to Molina before the homer, that's a bad walk. We've got to be able to get the guys out that -- not necessarily out, but you don't want to put them on on a free pass.
But that ended up hurting him also. And that's unlike Zack. Usually he doesn't walk too many guys. But I still, I like the way he threw the ball. Fastball command was very good. And I thought the breaking balls he kept down in the zone except the one to Freese. That's just a first pitch hanger, and he squared it up and was able to carry out of here.

Q. Your record says that your club just doesn't lose when Zack pitches here, even on the rare occasion his results aren't great. Is that a confidence factor or is it something inexplicable going on?
RON ROENICKE: I can't explain it. I don't know why that happens. Usually it's because he throws a good game and the run totals down so much on their end.
Today wasn't that case, and maybe one other game this year, where he gave up some runs and we still scored enough to win the ballgame.
But you can't explain why that happens. Maybe there's a confidence factor a little bit to help us. We know when Zack goes out we're going to win here. But I really don't think you can explain it.

Q. Even though the Cardinals got a run on the top of the 5th, how important was Fielder's defensive play?
RON ROENICKE: Yeah, outstanding. When you see Prince laying out for a ball, that was nice to see. And Zack's always going to be over there, really good at getting to first base. So that was a big play.

Q. You mentioned Betancourt earlier. He has a reputation of having a lot of athletic ability, but sometimes makes some hiccups on offense and defense. What's been your take on him this year, and how he's performed over the last two games?
RON ROENICKE: Yuni is a little inconsistent sometimes with his AB's, sometimes you get frustrated with him when the first pitch outs. But he can turn it around.
And when he's hot, for two months he swung the bat great for us, two months in a row. And I think that Yuni, when he gets in those little streaks, he's going to give you a nice at-bat.
And it isn't just the chasing of pitches that kind of gets him out of his zone, but when you start fouling off balls, and I thought they made some good pitches on him in the one at-bat. And he's able to hang in there long enough to where he gets a mistake.
I wish he could do it all the time. I wish everybody could do it all the time, but that's not baseball.

Q. During your time here, have you found that the ball carries any better, roof open or roof closed?
RON ROENICKE: No, I don't really know. The ball Freese hit, when it was hit, I didn't think it was going to be a home run, but it got up there. He squared it up and it got up there and kept going.
But I don't know if there's a difference. It seemed like the ball was carrying pretty good today.

Q. That game had so many turning points, but it seemed like the last big one was when Saito got Pujols, double play to first and third, no outs, I think he was the tying run. I guess you've never been happier to exchange a run for two outs.
RON ROENICKE: Yeah. I think we're three runs up there. You certainly don't want him to drive the ball somewhere. And he hits that ball on the ground. They score another run, but we get the two outs. That was a big play for us.
Saito came in and I thought made good quality pitches. He had a tough job in their lineup where he came into, that's always a tough spot to figure out who we bring in to get through those three guys.

Q. Back to that big 5th inning. There wasn't a lot of chance for the fans to breathe between Braun and Fielder's at-bat, but it was as loud as I can remember. Where did it ring in the decibel level for you?
RON ROENICKE: No, you're right, it's still pretty loud in there. I don't even know if I heard the ball come off Prince's bat. I knew it was a good swing and came off nice, but when you can't hear the ball, the sound of it, because of all the people yelling. I wasn't sure what was going to happen there until I saw the ball flight.
Again, these people, they love their team. They've been behind us and you can certainly hear that, especially when we have some offense going, and we've got guys running around. They get pretty loud.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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