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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: NATIONALS VS CARDINALS

October 10, 2019

Dave Martinez

St. Louis, Missouri - Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What's the injury report on Suzuki and Robles as far as their availability for tomorrow or even for any of the series?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, Suzuki had X-rays on his hand, came back negative, we'll see, he says he feels good. I talked to him this morning, he says he feels good. We'll get him some treatment today and I think he should be ready to go tomorrow.

As far as Victor, we're going to run him again in the morning, tomorrow, and then we'll see what his status is for the game.

Q. Does Kurt need to go through concussion protocol? And have you decided what the rotation would look like after Aníbal in Game 1?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, we're going to -- I got about a four plus hour flight. I'm going to sit down and do some work and see where we're at. As of right now Aníbal will start the first game, after that we'll have to announce it here probably tomorrow.

As far as Suzuki, yeah, he's going to go through -- we're going to get him on the plane and when we get to St. Louis he's going to go through the concussion protocol.

Q. What did you see from Juan last night that allowed him to stay in it? Obviously, he struggled in the end of the season, but turned it around in the playoffs, and then hitting that big home run last night. What did you kind of see from him in that moment?
DAVE MARTINEZ: For me the big thing with Juan is staying in the strike zone, not chasing. Yesterday he got a ball that, we talked about getting the ball up on Kershaw, and he got a ball up in the zone, and as you all know, hit it really well. So we just got to get him to relax a little bit and just take his walks and when he gets the ball in the strike zone, start staying in the middle of the field.

Q. What was your thinking on keeping the team in Los Angeles and not coming in here until later today?
DAVE MARTINEZ: It's all about letting them sleep in a bed instead of traveling. Nobody really sleeps on the plane. They say you can, but you really don't get good sleep. So I wanted them to get in a bed and sleep at least six or seven hours, which they did. So they're fresh and recovered.

Q. Had you decided that, win or lose, before last night's game that's what you were going to do?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we were going to spend the night.

Q. During the Division Series you guys were able to get by using a lot of your starting pitchers out of the bullpen. I'm wondering just how, that you plan to approach that strategy with a 7-game series, does that change things, does the fact that these guys have pitched a lot mean you have an alternate strategy or do you think you can still do that going forward?
DAVE MARTINEZ: We'll definitely, like I said, today I'm going to sit and talk to our analytical guys and then decide. But we want these guys -- we got a 7-game series, as we all know, but like I said before, it's, on these games right here you try to go 1-0 like we have done all year long, and try to win that first game. So these guys understand what we're playing for. But with that being said, you got to make sure that we have our starting pitchers ready to go each game.

Q. To follow-up on that, it seems like you obviously put Tanner Rainey in a big spot last night. How much confidence do you have in him? Is he a guy that you think can you go to again if you need him?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, I really like the way he's throwing the ball right now. And it's not just now, it's been over the last month and a half or so I've been watching him. And the biggest thing with him obviously was the walks, but he's got electric stuff and when he throws strikes he's tough to hit.

Q. How important has it been for your club to be able to forget the at-bats that don't go well and be able to figure out how to kind of erase those and get ready for big at-bats later in the game and not get frustrated throughout what happened early in the game yesterday and be able to figure out how to take the next at-bat and make it valuable?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, we talk, we really preach on -- and both sides too, this goes for the pitchers as well, is how to get to the next pitch. So it's not just at-bats, it's pitch by pitch. The boys have been really good about not carrying their at-bats to the next one. So every moment is big and these guys have stayed in it all year and that's kind of actually gotten a lot better, especially during the season. As we all know, I talked a lot about the first game chasing a lot and we got better on just not chasing pitches and getting the ball in the strike zone.

Q. This round you're going to run into a team that runs quite a bit and that's going to be the first time, with Yelich out the Brewers obviously didn't do that anywhere near as much as they might have, even in a single game if he played. Kurt's had a really hard time throwing out base runners this year. From your point of view, why has he had such a hard time throwing out base runners and how much of a concern is St. Louis's ability to run going to be for you during this series?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, it's just not Kurt. We got to pay attention to, we got to be quick, our pitchers got to be a little quicker, we got to understand what they're trying to do on different moments. So Kurt's made some good throws to second base but we got to be aware of what they're going to try to do throughout the game.

Q. And did you, have you been able to take a step back at all since last night and kind of reprocess what occurred and if so, what are your thoughts about what happened and kind of where you are now and where you're going next?
DAVE MARTINEZ: Yeah, I did finally last night got to process everything and like I said all year, the boys are just, they're relentless, they never quit. So we're getting on a plane, we're headed to St. Louis to play for a championship. So I told the boys to just keep it going. We have done this before, they understand how to get back into that groove. And you see it every day with these guys, I mean they're a lot of fun, a lot of fun to watch, a lot of fun in the dugout, so let's just keep it going.

Q. Want to ask about Michael A. Taylor. What kind of lift has he been in place of Victor and has it made it easier for you to sort of ease Victor back in given that he's also been productive and you also mentioned his defense. What has he meant right now?
DAVE MARTINEZ: He's been unbelievable. Since he's come back up, he understands his role, he's been really good at it and, yeah, I've said this all along, we don't miss anything on defense with Michael out there and he's putting together some huge at-bats for us. So it's kind of nice to see him producing and helping us win. And it does. It actually gives us a little bit more time with Victor, not trying to rush him and get him hurt. So it's kind of nice.

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