Terry Collins spoke to reporters on Tuesday after the team took batting practice at Citi Field in advance of the Wild Card Game on Wednesday.
On going up against Madison Bumgarner
“Well, he’s outstanding, but this time of year you’re going to face great pitching. We know that. We’re up for it. We faced arguably the best pitcher in baseball last year in our series against the Dodgers, so we handled ourselves pretty good, and we think tomorrow night we’ll do the same.”
“Like all great pitchers, he throws strikes. So the one thing you’ve got to go up with a little bit of a plan, try to get something you can handle, and don’t miss it. Don’t foul it off, put it in play. If you can do that, he’s the kind of a guy — you guys have been around him a lot to know that he’s extremely aggressive. He’s extremely competitive. Doesn’t pitch around anybody. He goes after everybody he ever faces, and therefore you better be ready, because you’re going to get something to hit, and you better do some damage with it.”
On why Noah Syndergaard is the go-to guy for the Wild Card
“We knew the importance of getting in the postseason. It was the first and foremost thing, and so when we set it up, we knew Noah would pitch the last game, if we had to go to an extra game, he was the guy. We didn’t shuffle our lineup around or our rotation around, which, again, as I told you guys the other day, we didn’t want to try to play games. We didn’t want to be cute bringing guys back on short rest. We just kind of lined it up that way.”
“I told some people today, last year Noah Syndergaard pitched, I think, one of the biggest games in certainly all year long, and that’s Game 3. But that’s set up by the outing in Los Angeles. We took a 22-year-old kid and said, look, you’ve got to go get maybe the biggest out of the year in the bottom of the 7th inning or 8th inning against the Los Angeles 7th and against the Dodgers, and he did that. We think he’s certainly got the mental make-up along with the physical stuff to be that guy.”
On the motivation of his team after a long season and overcoming so much adversity
“Well, we’ve got, in my opinion, an outstanding clubhouse full of guys who want to win. They talk about repeating going to the World Series, and I remember the first day of Spring Training when Yoenis Cespedes walked into my office the first day he reported, and I hadn’t been able to talk to him since we had signed him. He walked in and said, are you ready to go back to the World Series? And I said, now that you’re here, yes, we are.”
“So it started there. They want to win. They never got down. Once in a while, the manager has something to say, but it’s pretty much the guys in that clubhouse that deal with each other on a daily basis, your peers that step up and have the right things to say a lot. Never letting guys who have a bad day get down.”
“So we’ve been very fortunate that we’ve got a group of guys that have great leadership ability in our clubhouse, and yet at the same time tremendous competitive make-up, along with talent. So we got to where we needed to get to.”
On if he manages Wild Card game like it’s Game 7 of the World Series
“Well, yeah, obviously there are roster differences we’ll make. But, yeah, I mean, you’re certainly limit it to some guys, but this is, in one game, you’ve got to pull out every move you can possibly make to try to pull it off. We don’t have all the pitching. We certainly don’t need a lot of pitching that you normally have with a 12-man staff. We’re probably going to be at nine. Give you some offense off the bench, pinch-running maneuvers you might want to make during the game.”
“But, yeah, again, these two guys going tomorrow, I would think sitting here today they’re going to get pretty deep into a game. They’re both pretty good. So it’s all about execution when it comes to a game like this. But certainly deep in the game we’ll make whatever move we think is essential to try to score.”
On the difficulty of choosing his final 25-man roster
“Well, we used a lot of players to get to where we are, so there are a lot of pieces of guys who are not going to be part of the roster tomorrow night, which may change when you get in with a multi-game series. But we just thought we had to make some decisions on the guys that we think were best prepared, best ready for one game, and they are hard, they’re very hard. You know, you look at our bullpen situation and you’ve got to protect yourself as far as some length in case the game goes extra innings. So you’re going to need some guys who can give you that length and maybe take off somebody who is a one-inning guy. So they’re always hard.”
“When you have, like we did, 39 guys at the end of the season and you’ve got to cut it down to 25 and there are some pieces of guys who have been out, came back, are they ready to play? Well, we’ve got to make those decisions. So it’s never easy. We started it the other day in Philadelphia and ended it today, so we think we’ve put together the right guys and turn them loose tomorrow night.”
On the impact of second baseman T.J. Rivera
“T.J. has come in and done a tremendous job. We all knew about his bat. We all knew that he hit. Again, you don’t know how he’s going to handle certain situations here. Put him in the lineup, he continues to hit, continues not to be intimidated by where he plays, the situation he’s in. We’ve hit him in the middle of the lineup. I go back and I was looking at the Bumgarner game the other day in San Francisco, he hit fourth. So, you know, hey, look, he’s been slammed into these situations and he’s handled them great. He’s meant a lot to us. He’s had big hits for us, and tomorrow night we’re going to need him to step up. Because in the middle of that lineup, we’ve got some left-handed hitters. He’s the one guy in the middle of that lineup that hopefully can do some damage.”
On the impact of Curtis Granderson down the stretch
“Well, you look up and the guy’s got 30 homers, he’s got 60-some RBIs, you know, even though the 30 homers were more than he hit last year, it’s a similar season than he’s always had. This guy hits home runs. The best thing about Curtis is that he never lets anything bother him. You know what? I ask him to lead off, he leads off. You ask him to hit fourth, he hits fourth. You ask him to hit second, he hits second. There is never a discussion, never an argument.”
“When I put him in centerfield, I knew he didn’t particularly care to play centerfield anymore. He had gotten comfortable in right field. But he understands for the betterment of the team he needs to play centerfield. I think he’s gone out and done very, very well. I think he’s handled it great. He’s played there before. He’s got a feel for it. He’s made some big plays for us. He’s what you’ve got to have if you’re going to win. You’ve got to have guys that, hey, look, all I want to do is help the team. And Curtis Granderson is that guy. He’s the prototypical pro that comes to the ballpark every day and does what he’s supposed to do to help you win.”
On whether Syndergaard can handle the role of being the No. 1 guy
“You’ve been around Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom. You have to have confidence. You have to believe in yourself. Noah Syndergaard believes in Noah Syndergaard, make no mistake about it. And you can call it whatever name you want. Great players have egos. The great players have big egos. They’ve got — when they go out there, they think they’re better than you, and a lot of nights they are because they’re talented.”
“And I think you’ve got to have that to be successful here. And I’m looking right across the field at that other guy. That other guy, you can’t believe he is going to beat you. And when Noah Syndergaard takes the mound, he thinks he’s going to win. Of all the guys, nobody likes to lose, but this guy takes losing hard. He hates it. He hates to think there is somebody better than him. That’s why I think this is going to be a great challenge for him. I think he’s going to grow because of this game tomorrow night. He’s certainly made himself the No. 1 guy right now. And our staff, with all the injuries we’ve had, he’s got to be the guy you give the ball to.”
