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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 3, 2019

Kolten Wong

Atlanta, Georgia - postgame 1

Cardinals - 7, Braves - 6

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Kolten Wong.

Q. Did you test your leg enough today, do you think?
KOLTEN WONG: I think so. Yeah, I went first to home. Felt pretty good. I was out by a lot. But I didn't feel any pain. As long as I don't feel any pain, I'm good to go.

Q. Would you talk about the unusual defensive plays you had to be involved in today, the one with Pauly, and the one where you were going to flip to second for the force and it didn't happen, then to come back after that and be a big factor in the ninth?
KOLTEN WONG: You know, some weird plays, something you don't really -- obviously you expect anything to happen defensively but just put in some tough situations, that first error I made, that was really the only play I had. Donaldson off the bat he was going down the line pretty good.

And I caught the ball in front of second base, I just tried to flip it, couldn't get a good hand on it. But Pauly tried to pick it, kind of hopped up a little more than I thought. Probably one of those, probably try -- I might body it more instead of try to pick it next time.

Q. Just to be back out there, be a part of this win, how fun was that, how good did it all feel?
KOLTEN WONG: It was awesome. I mean, it made all the waiting worth it. It was one of those where I wanted to come back for that Cub series. And luckily I was able to talk to with a lot of the trainers, coaches, and they kind of told me we're not going to use in this series we want you ready, if the wild card was coming up or whatever. Luckily I held out and the hamstring feels really good right now.

Q. Do you feel like it's something that could get better as time goes on, continuously?
KOLTEN WONG: I think so. I think so. I've already taken huge steps in how it feels and being able to extend my strides a little more. So I know it's getting better. I'm taking the precautions. But doing the after-game rehab and whatnot and pregame, just making sure everything's ready to go.

Q. On that long single by Acuï¿½a, how huge is it to have Dexter be able to get the ball back in as quickly as he did to set up the line-drive double play?
KOLTEN WONG: That's huge. That's huge. That's one of the things when you don't run the ball out, you kind of leave yourself in a situation to not really score runs.

In any other situation he's standing on second. For him to be on first was huge for us. It allowed us to keep the guys in a good position. And luckily that line drive was right there and we turned a double play.

Q. After your double, you were ahead 7-3, it looks as if you put the game away. What happened in the last inning? How exciting was that?
KOLTEN WONG: That's playoff baseball. You never expect anything to happen the way you plan. Things are going to come up. And these guys put some really good at-bats on Carlos, some good swings. And we were just lucky we were able to get away with the win.

Q. Can you talk about the ninth inning a little bit and the atmosphere in the dugout, and what it meant to come in here and get the first one on the road?
KOLTEN WONG: That was huge, coming in here getting the first one in this park is always big. These fans show up pretty good. They're always loud.

But in the ninth inning we just tried to get -- our thing was to keep the line moving, keep everybody going. Regardless of what the situation was, we wanted to get put good at-bats together and try to stay up the middle. We had clutch at-bats from Marcell Ozuna and all those guys, which gave us that win.

Q. Do you think Melancon might have been tired after he got to you in the ninth after all he had to be through before that?
KOLTEN WONG: I think so. He's one of the most dominant pitchers that I've faced my whole career. My numbers aren't great against him. I was trying to look for something away.

If he was going to throw a curveball, something that popped up -- and I saw that curveball pop and I just wanted to try and get the bat to the ball and see what I could do and luckily I snuck it down the first baseline, and that's what we needed.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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