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NL DIVISION SERIES: PIRATES v CARDINALSOctober 4, 2013Mike MathenyST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game Two Pirates – 7 Q. I know it's the first time you've had a chance to see Cole in person. What did you think of him today and how he pitched? MIKE MATHENY: He had good stuff. I mean, had good life to the ball. He was not making a lot of mistakes and had enough horsepower if he needed to challenge somebody that he could get by with it. But he came out very aggressive. Q. What do you think your team's mindset is having lost this knowing you have to go there to face Liriano who has given you fits this year? MIKE MATHENY: Hope the mindset is they can't wait to get back out there and compete regardless of who they throw out there against us. We've had some match‑ups with some guys that have had success against us in the past, and they're able to get past what the projections are and just play the game. So that's what I'll be encouraging. They're going to do what they want to do and think how they want to think, but it would surprise me if they're doing anything different than just getting ready to go out and put their best effort forward. Q. Yesterday the word the guys used to describe the game a lot was clean. I was wondering from your point of view in today's game, the defense and some of the thoughts about not just the errors, but the plays not made and how that might have tilted the game? MIKE MATHENY: Yeah, we had some trouble with the ball in the air today. Not an excuse, but the ball traveled differently today than probably any other day during the season, and we had some trouble with making that adjustment. So helped us a couple of times, but certainly hurt us a couple times as well. We've taken a lot of pride in playing good, clean, solid defense. We talked about this from the very beginning. When you get teams at this time of the year, you've got to have all components of your game together. You start giving extra runners‑‑ start giving extra outs, it's going to catch up with you. Q. What was your overall assessment of Lynn? And also at the point when you have Miller up warming up, kind of the decision to stick with Lynn instead of maybe going to Shelby earlier? MIKE MATHENY: Well, I thought Lance did a pretty nice job early. The only time he got into trouble is when he didn't control the counts. I thought he established his off‑speed pitches as well as we've seen him do that all season long. But when we got into disadvantaged counts, it was a completely different at‑bat. So that was pretty consistent. Good life again, and I think he managed to limit the damage. We got Shelby up. That was kind of the plan from the beginning. When someone looks like they might need some help, we're going to have them ready to go. And he was ready, and about that time Lance figured a way to get himself out of it. And, once again, we had some mishaps that ended up costing us more runs than what some of our pitchers deserved. Q. The challenges going on the road, PNC Park was an energized place Tuesday. What is the toughest thing about going on the road in playoffs and facing that kind of atmosphere? MIKE MATHENY: Yeah, I guess if we had a group of guys that had never been in an atmosphere like that before, you just wonder. But we've had a lot of conversations, small groups and as a club, guys talking about the energy they get even from the other team and the other team's fans. So that's something that you don't get to experience this all the time, so we encourage our guys to enjoy it. They're going to be rowdy, and they're going to be into it, and they should be, just like our fans have been. So it's a great atmosphere, and that's what they have to look at. It's a great opportunity for us to go out and perform despite what else is going on the outside. Q. The dynamic between Lynn and Wacha and Miller when you're kicking these decisions around for both those games, in your mind is the word gamble applicable or is logic the better word? How would you describe the consideration and the difficulty of reaching those decisions for the two games? MIKE MATHENY: I'm not a gambler by nature. Just take the information in. Just like we've talked with everybody from the beginning. We're really happy with how all of our starters ended the season. We felt very comfortable throwing any of them in in any particular spot. But when this day became available to throw it home the way Lance has been throwing the ball, we were very comfortable with getting him in there the same way with Michael or Joe or any of them, and Shelby just the same. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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