How huge was that stolen base by Cespedes?
“Well, Yoenis Cespedes came in knowing that we had to be a little aggressive on the bases, something we don’t normally do. We’re not that kind of a team. But we told the guys, look, if you get on and you think you can go, go. And Yoenis got a great job, and it just shows you there is not a phase of this game that he can’t do. And that was a big play for us.”
Teams underestimate that you have a pretty good offensive team…
“Today guys were talking about, wow, this is a great — what a great baseball day. You know, we’ve got a pretty good offensive club, especially in hitter’s parks. We’ve shown that all year long. No matter — in Philly, or Cincinnati, Colorado, places that people hit, we hit. Tonight we got some big hits.”
Seemed like there were some similarities for deGrom to his last start vs Los Angeles…
“On Jacob deGrom, in the third inning, I said if we get five out of this guy tonight, we’ll be lucky. Then all of a sudden in the fifth inning, fourth and fifth inning, he started making pitches. So it was a very similar outing he had in Los Angeles. He didn’t have very good stuff early. His command has been off. I don’t know if it’s fatigue this time of year. Again, he’s pitched more than he ever has in his whole life, so that could be the answer.”
Murphy did it again…
“I’ve watched a lot of baseball over the years. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody put on this kind of a show on this stage like Daniel Murphy has so far. Even the guys in the dugout, they’re baseball guys too and they’re saying the same thing. Question is, ‘who is this guy.'” He’s been unbelievable. Hopefully he just keeps it up for, certainly, a few more games.”
How does it feel being up 3-0 in the series?
“Being up 3-0, we’re very, very fortunate, because the Cubs have played great. They’re playing great, and we’ve got to — we can’t worry about it. We’ve got to come out tomorrow and Steven Matz has got to give us a game. Our bullpen is pretty rested and Steven can get us five or six, you know, we’ve got a lot of answers in the bullpen for any match-ups we need.”
Explain your argument when the ball skipped past Soler and into the ivy?
“I know the rule. We all know what the rule is. My argument was my runner’s halfway to third base, if not three-quarters of the way to third base. I just ask him if — he said, I can’t do it. That’s just the rule, can’t even challenge it. I wanted him to go to the cameras upstairs. But I knew the rule. It’s just, it kind of sucks when it happens to you.”
What do you do as manager to prevent your players from looking forward to the next series?
“They won’t look forward to it. I can tell you that right now. That clubhouse right now that’s all they’re talking about is tomorrow. They know what they’re facing. We’ve got some experienced guys who have been in playoffs before, and they’re not looking forward, tomorrow we’ve got to get ready to play. As we’re waiting for everybody to come off the field, David and everybody was being interviewed on the field, that was the conversation in the clubhouse, we’ve got to get ready to play tomorrow.”
Your players took advantage in this game, making something out of nothing. How much do those little plays get magnified?
“Every little play in the series, especially in the postseason, means a lot. I tell you what, my guys are playing hard. I mean, they’re running the bases. That was a big play by David tagging up late when Schwarber was kind of backing up on the ball. Those are the things you’ve got to do right now to take advantage of any little chance you’ve got to try to score runs.”
“You know, Jake — as a matter of fact, I told Dan, I said, boy, Jake has settled down, he’s pitching tremendous right now. But I just said right at this particular time, we’ve got to bring him back in five days. Maybe the rest — keep the pitch count down a little bit, maybe the rest, if we’ve got to go to Game 7, he’ll be ready for it.”
