Are Kansas City pitchers really this dominating or is your offense really struggling?
Well, again, in postseason you face good pitching. That’s how the other team gets here. With that good pitching comes some rough at-bats at times. And they have pitched us very, very well. So I see both. The other day I thought in Game 1 we had some very, very good at-bats early and then later on in the game in the extra innings we weren’t quite as patient at times.
Yesterday Johnny was, as we know Johnny can be, he was on and he was making pitches and keeping us off balance and changing speeds and doing all the things that he’s very, very good at. …He pitched an outstanding game. So we’ve got to swing better. We know we’re better offensively; we’ve got to certainly get it going.
Is there a chance Juan Lagares could be the center field for Game 3?
There’s a chance.
Is Juan Uribe basically just a pinch-hitter with no shot at starting a game?
Right now we’re glad to have Juan on the bench, and he poses a nice problem for the opposition manager because he is a guy that we’re going to use off the bench at the moment, barring any other physical problems with the other guys. I like him in that role, I really do. That’s where I think he’s the most dangerous.
Do you think the Royals can be impacted by the Citi Field fans?
Our fans are pretty tough. They’re tough. They’re strong and they’re tough. But I think the impact is going to be on us more than anything. I think that’s where our fan base is so good is that it inspires our guys. So I’m looking at that. I’ve been on the other side of the field, not in the World Series, but I’ve been on the other side of the field in New York City in a big series and it’s hard. It’s tough. We’re glad to be back here.
Conforto is slumping in the postseason.
I’ll tell you, look at him, I know he’s got one hit, but he’s got two or three sacrifice flies, he’s hit the ball hard. In Chicago he hit the ball very hard. And he didn’t have anything to show for it. As we sat down and we looked at the lineup, you’ve got to kind of block out the batting average and take into consideration the quality of at-bats, how they are, and they’ve been pretty good, and that’s why we’ve kept him in there. But we’ve got to start getting some production somewhere, so we’re going to take all those things into consideration.
How different is Syndergaard now as opposed to what you saw for the first time?
Well, I went over to Minor League camp when we got him because we heard so much about him, just to see him throw. I saw him throw a bullpen session the first time I saw him and you saw the real good arm. When he first got here, we saw 96. What he’s doing now, I have never seen that. I’ve never seen 98, 99 and 100. I’ve seen good, good power stuff. But I’ve seen a guy grow and learn how to pitch here, where he will go to his secondary stuff in certain counts.
That’s why, I’m telling you, the discussion — when we won in Chicago, we sat on the plane and his name was mentioned to open up the World Series. That’s how well we think he’s pitching. We’ve got great confidence in him tomorrow night.
Has Noah ramped up his performance because it’s the postseason and the adrenaline is pumping? Do you put much stock into it generally?
I put a lot of stock in it because when you’re playing for championships, you raise your game, and we’ve seen that. It’s like I just said, what this guy did when he pitched in Los Angeles, and what he did when he pitched in Chicago, we didn’t see that during the season.
This guys threw six innings at a hundred miles an hour in Los Angeles. Please show me anybody that’s done that, outside of Nolan, maybe. And that’s where this guy for me has risen to the occasion. Then I asked a 22-year-old to come back in Game 5 and pitch an inning out of the bullpen, which he’s never done in his life, and truly confident that he can do it and he did it.
The Royals have taken contact to a whole new level in the postseason. I don’t think Jacob had a swing and a miss on a fastball. Have you been surprised that they’ve been enable to raise that contact level even more here?
Well, you know, we certainly looked through all the numbers. And we see their approach at home plate, yeah, I can understand why they do that. When they get behind the count, they shorten their swings, they just want to put the ball in play. And it plays in their park, because it is a big park.
So I’m very, very impressed by it, how they do it and how they handle it. Certainly when you string four or five singles together and two or three runs with their pitching, that’s enough to win. So it’s certainly a great trait to have. They’re athletic enough to run the bases. I’m very impressed with the job they’ve done over there, what Ned has done, and they’ve bought into it. That’s one of the keys, to get the players to buy into what you want to do offensively, and those guys have of. They’re tough to pitch against.
We’ve got to make better pitches. You can’t keep throwing the ball — there’s seven inches on each side of the plate, you’ve got to get it to the edges or they’re going to get good hits.
Harvey and deGrom were using more of their plan B stuff, especially early in the game, they weren’t using their power pitches as much. Any thoughts of that?
I’ll take that into consideration.
