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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v NATIONALSOctober 7, 2012Mike MathenyST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game One Washington Nationals – 3 Q. Obviously the seventh inning was a big turning point, bases loaded; can you talk about that inning, as well as what repercussions went into the eighth inning, as well? MIKE MATHENY: They brought in a very good ground ball pitcher, a guy who we knew has a record of getting the ground ball. You know, they made a couple nice plays. Had the infield halfway and a hard‑hit ball by Craig who could steal, we couldn't have had it work out any better. We needed a couple runs in, but they pitched their way out of it. Q. Is this a game of where you look back and say, Gonzalez, the walks, some opportunities missed‑‑ I know you only gave up a hit but didn't seem like he was his normal self, as well. MIKE MATHENY: I would agree with that. But we did have our opportunities and certainly there with the bases loaded with no outs, they don't get much better than that. It just didn't work out. Q. Can you talk also, Lynn versus possibly Moore? MIKE MATHENY: Well, the idea of‑‑ actually, the other decision is to bring in Motte right there, which we do a good part of the time if we have a double switch there because his spot would have come up in the lineup and we would have lost him for the night. That decision comes down to whether I want to take out Holliday, Craig or Molina in that situation, and I had faith that if they did make a move to remove Tracy from the game, that Zep would be able to get out one of their young right‑handed pinch‑hitters and didn't work for us. Q. Talk about Mike and the job he did in September, with a bigger stage, can that be tougher with a guy as little experience as he has? MIKE MATHENY: No. He's been very consistent for us. That was a tough play. The ball jumped up and got him pretty good. But I see him making very good plays, and just kind of watching him and what he's doing. He's ready for this. Q. Just your thoughts on Wainwright and the job he did? MIKE MATHENY: I thought he fought, and had a little bit of trouble early on, making his pitches with his fastball, seemed like he wasn't as fine as when he's having his best games. His breaking ball really bailed him out today and kept them off‑balance and had a lot of swing‑and‑misses and some chases and strikeouts with the breaking ball. He made the pitches when he had to, and kept us right there in the game. Q. Not for a crutch or an excuse or anything, but can you talk, if at all, shadows, always there's that strange playoff 2:07 time, but were shadows a factor? MIKE MATHENY: They may have been talking internally, but they weren't making a big deal about it. We have been pretty consistent about not giving the excuses. You know, the other team has to deal with them just like we do. Once you start going down that road, seems like you're on a trail to fail. The guys just go out there and sometimes they are going to have an advantage on the shadows, the pitchers are. You've just got to make adjustments. Q. I assume you got asked about the matchup? MIKE MATHENY: Yeah. Q. Can you say whether that was the matchup you were anticipating? MIKE MATHENY: I thought they would probably go towards a right‑hander. Once again, to go through that situation, either you leave Boggs in the game, what normally we would do, we would go to Motte; if we have a double switch we can pull off so we can keep Motte in for the ninth, and we didn't have that move, not one that I was comfortable with. So that left us with Zep against one of their young right‑handers, and he went up there and put together a good at‑bat and made it happen. That was the game. Q. You only had three hits; is that the bottom line? MIKE MATHENY: Well, that's not necessarily true. We put together as many walks as we put together. We put guys in scoring position. Once again, you look at that opportunity in the 7th. We had opportunities to win this and put more than the couple runs that we had up there. And we have been very good lately in situations, getting situational hitting done, and today it just didn't work. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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