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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CARDINALS v BREWERS

October 14, 2011

Rick Kranitz

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game Five

Q. Rick, what did it mean to the whole team to have Wolf deliver the outing he had last night?
RICK KRANITZ: I've been waiting for our starters to click and that was the first sign of it. As a staff and a team, we have done this all year long. We have pitched well all year. Our starters have gone deep in games all year long and we expect them to go deep in games all year long.
We knew that he has a good track record here against St. Louis, and it was just a matter of him getting comfortable. I think that first swing and out that he got when Furcal throughout really settle him in. I noticed something different about him and he was locked in, just look in his eyes and told me everything.
Absolutely, any time you can give your bullpen a little bit of a breather and your starter goes seven innings, it's a huge lift to your ballclub.

Q. Shaun Marcum was one of your most consistent pitchers over the course of the season, what do you see as being different lately?
RICK KRANITZ: I don't know if we are going to get into what I see differently, because the adjustments hopefully will be made.
But you know, the command, the command part of his fastball needs to be better and it needs to be down in the strike zone. He pounds the ball and he pounds the ball down in the strike zone and he's gotten some balls up and it hurt him. The ball that Pujols hit was not a bad pitch, but you're throwing that ball into a great hitter, and he ended up hitting a two-run home run.
So the focus for him would be to work down the strike zone and obviously we have to get ahead. To me, against this ballclub, you have to do that, you have to pound the zone down, and that's what Randy did, he got his off-speed pitches over behind the count, ahead in the count, even in the count and really had them swinging at his pitches. I think with any pitcher, that's what we have to have.

Q. Would there be any possibility that Randy would talk to Shaun, the way he bounced back from that start, because Shaun has been struggling lately, or maybe all of you would get together, would that be something that would be helpful or is it something that Shaun just kind of has to work out more on his own?
RICK KRANITZ: We have all talked. You know, going into this -- yeah, so all the talking is done. We know what is at stake. All year long, these guys have known what's at stake, and they have performed all year long. So I don't see any different from Shaun coming out and pitching just like he did throughout the year.
I mean, he's one guy that could probably have had 17 wins. I mean, he pitched that well, whether -- whatever the case may be. He had some blown leads early in the year. He's pitched about as well as anybody we have, so I'm real comfortable and real confident that he's going to do the job.

Q. Just following up on that a bit, how beneficial has it been to have a guy like a Randy Wolf and some of the younger pitchers, and what's the interplay been between Franke Rodriguez and John Axford, how has that gone?
RICK KRANITZ: Well, let me talk about Randy. I don't think I've ever had a guy that coaches himself as well as he coaches himself. I mean, he knows himself as well as any pitcher I've ever had, and I think as a pitching coach, that's what you strive to get these guys to understand, and that's themselves.
He makes great adjustments, just like he did his last game. He knew exactly what he needed to do and he did it. I think that he's been there, he's pitched a lot of years in the big leagues, and I think that he is the leader of our pitching staff. He is the leader of that rotation, that starting rotation. And for him to go out and do what he did last night, you know, it just showed everybody, hey, look, let's go.
Nothing changes here. We face these guys 22 times or 23 times. We know them and they know us. There's no secrets. It ends up being all about execution anyway, and once you boil down to it, let's start making pitches, and that's what it's all about.
You know, when K-Rod came, what a great acquisition. I think sometimes you really need to get lucky in this game, and we got very lucky to get him. Because it set up our whole bullpen. This guy is a true professional. Everything he has said to us, you know, look, I just want to win, I'll pitch, I'll pitch multiple innings, I'll do whatever you want me to do, I'll tell you when I can't pitch.
As a pitching coach, knowing that, it helps. Because what it does, it sets your bullpen up real nice. Now we have four guys that have closed games for us. When you can take those guys, LaTroy (Hawkins) and Saito and put those guys in the sixth and seventh inning and match up, it makes for a nice game and you can have a five-inning game at times, you can have a six-inning game at times or a four-inning game when the starter doesn't have it.
So he's meant everything to us as far as the success, and I don't think it's a coincidence when he walked in that clubhouse that we took off.

Q. Randy touched on this a little bit yesterday, but after that Arizona start, he didn't want that to be his end of the season. So for situations like Zack today or tomorrow with Shaun, how much of a motivation is it before the start to say, this might be my last outing, I don't want it to be a negative one.
RICK KRANITZ: Well, I mean, I don't think we think like that. I think Randy was talking about -- because he knew he didn't throw particularly well; we all know that, and he just didn't -- he knew that it was Game 4 and it was a big game.
You know, he's a very prideful man, and that would have -- if you're a professional and you don't feel that way, then you shouldn't be in this ballgame. Yeah, it hurt if we would not have won that Game 5. But we did. Hey, these guys, these guys are all professionals. Sometimes you can throw the ball well and not get good results. And just like last night, you know, I thought Wolfy, he only gave up two home runs, but I tell you what, they were pretty good pitches. Just said, don't change a thing. Just like I thought that Zack four days ago made some really nice pitches, and they got some -- they hit some balls off him that really surprised me.
So you know, for me it's keeping him focused and on task and you know, just executing what you need to execute.

Q. When you were away for the team for a little bit and came back, what kind of support did you get from these guys on the team?
RICK KRANITZ: Well, it's been hard. I don't know if anybody knew, my mother passed away during the season on September 9, and it was very hard because we were very, very close. She watched every game.
I heard from every single guy. I can remember telling my mom when we were close there, and it was near the end that Shaun Marcum had texted me and -- you know, it just made her day. So she followed us. The guys were very helpful in me getting through that. But very supportive. You know, it's just like, hey, what can you say, these guys have been unbelievable for me.

Q. Will you encourage Shaun in Game 6 to throw his changeup more than he did last time out, and why do you think did he not throw it as much as he usually does in his starts?
RICK KRANITZ: Well, Shaun is a feel guy. He's a smart -- he's a very, very smart pitcher. There are some games that he didn't use his changeup quite as much, and he has those reasons. You know, we will -- we have talked about certain things. Things that I'm not going to talk about because I'm not going to say, give up a game plan on what we are trying to accomplish, because it's going to be a big game tomorrow. You know, we are going to go over each hitter and talk about what he needs to do to get each guy out; if it's throwing more changeups to that guy, then so be it.
But you know, overall, he's got a nice frame of mind and a good game plan going in, so I'm looking forward to watching him pitch.

Q. Just players obviously who spent time coming up in the Minor Leagues and you spent a lot of time coaching and managing in the Minor Leagues; is how did that prepare you for this stage, and also specifically your time in Peoria.
RICK KRANITZ: My time in Peoria was very special. I just got a call from Pete Vonachen who was the owner of that ballclub down there, and wanted to wish me luck and us luck.
I've been very fortunate because coming up through the Cubs organization, I was in the Minor Leagues for 22 years or 23 years before I got my first Major League job as a pitching coach. And as I look back, and I see the people that I coached along with, meaning Jim Tracy was there and he's a manager; Brad Mills, can go on and on, Dick Pole was there. I think we had four guys in our Minor League system at that time that were Major League pitching coaches at the same time, Jimmy Wright, a lot of guys, so we had great baseball people. I think when you have good baseball people, you talk the game. But nothing can prepare you for what the post-season is all about. You have to experience it, just like the players, you have to experience it.
And you know, that's probably the one thing, you never know how guys are going to react to it. And you know, as far as for me, I know that I have to be the same person. I can't change -- we can't change as who we are, we can't change the kind of pitcher we are and we can't change the kind of people we are. We need to stay focused on the task at hand and just do the things we normally do, because obviously it's good enough, because we are here.

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