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NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS v BRAVESOctober 6, 2013Fredi GonzalezLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Q. How difficult is it to decide in your outfield whether to play the best defensive outfield you have or the best offensive outfield you have? FREDI GONZALEZ: We could do both. We could play the best offensive outfield early in the game, and then we have the capability of improving defensively with B.J. or Schafer, depending on which way we want to go. I think that Gattis, you know he's going to get four at‑bats. You don't know if he's going to get the ball hit to him in the first seven innings. So that's the theory that we go with him in the outfield. Q. At what point in September after you got a chance to see Garcia a couple times did you even think this was possible that he would even make this start or start considering him a candidate? FREDI GONZALEZ: Well, he came in, the first time he came in, maybe twice he came in as relief and gave us those long three innings, four innings of relief help. Then we gave him a couple of starts, because I think Maholm missed a couple of starts with his injury. Then you start looking at the rotation and see how young they are and how inexperienced they are, then you look at Freddy Garcia's experience, you look at his Postseason starts and Postseason innings, so you give him an opportunity to do that. I think he knows how to maneuver himself through a Major League lineup. He's shown that this year, and give him a start tomorrow. Q. He's obviously not anywhere near the pitcher he was. He's a different type of pitcher totally. But does all that Postseason experience and the success he had, does that still, do you think play a potentially big role in his start tomorrow? FREDI GONZALEZ: I think so. Also, all the appearances that he had when we got him. I think he's had five or six very good appearances and we'll see tomorrow. But I feel confident that he's going to give us a good start. Q. I know you joked yesterday that you don't want to see Kershaw in either Game 4 or Game 5. But what kind of gauge do you have on the chances of him going tomorrow? FREDI GONZALEZ: I don't know. I don't have any. I don't have any gauge at all. Whatever. We'll find out tomorrow, tomorrow. Q. Is that a little bit worse? FREDI GONZALEZ: No, we've got to worry about today. We've got to really worry about today, and tomorrow will come soon enough. The lineup will be given to us five or six hours before the game, and then we'll figure it out. Q. What's been the key to holding Teheran's success this year? Is it the fastball command? The secondary stuff? What have you seen? FREDI GONZALEZ: The fastball command, that's big. If he gets that fastball down and he get it's strike one, I think the other stuff will play. But that's the number one thing. If he gets that strike one or gets the fastball where he wants it to be, he'll be very effective today. Q. Just about Reed Johnson: Would you feel comfortable playing him defensively at this point, or would you rather not? FREDI GONZALEZ: I think if we have to, we have to. But I don't feel‑‑ his role is not that right now. We played him one of the last few games in the regular season just to get him four at‑bats, get him some at‑bats. But I think that his role is to be a pinch hitter, one of the elite pinch hitters in the Major Leagues. I think that makes our bench pretty strong with him lurking around the whole game. Q. You haven't wavered at all on the Freddy Garcia thing, so I'll ask you if you were, if you don't mind looking ahead, if it were to go to Game 5, I assume Medlen would be starting in Game 5, right? FREDI GONZALEZ: Absolutely. Absolutely. We've gone the other way with all of our pitchers during this season. We've given them breaks. We've used an off day to give them an extra day. I don't think it would be a good decision to bring them back short on a day, our guys. So that's one of the factors in the decision‑making process. Q. So with Minor, I think he would be on regular rest after Game 5. Would he be available out of the bullpen? FREDI GONZALEZ: Absolutely, absolutely. Everybody in Game 5 is available. We could even bring Teheran back for an inning or two or whatever unfolds. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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