Cardinals 4, Brewers 3: Ron Roenicke's Postgame Comments

As seen on FS Wisconsin:

Do you think Yovani Gallardo got rattled in the first?

Yeah, I think he lost his command there, I don't know what the reason was. First batter he left the curveball up to Furcal to give up the base hit, and Jay's ball that fell in was a decent pitch fastball in. Pujols hit a great pitch: Nice curveball, down in the zone, and he drives it to left center. Then after that I thought Yo lost his command. Maybe it was because he was throwing some pretty good pitches and they were hitting them? I don't know. May have started to try to paint too much, but his command did get off there.

What was your view of the ball Jon Jay hit that Mark Kotsay couldn't catch?

Well, we're playing him slightly to pull and he hits it perfect...he didn't hit it that well, he just hits it perfect between the two guys and we couldn't run it down. 

Is that a ball Gomez catches?

Well, Gomez is gonna catch it. Gomez catches everything that's out there: He's a great defensive center fielder. 

Did he feel they played a good game after the first inning?

Yeah, I thought, obviously concerned after the first inning, not knowing what we were going to do offensively but we bounced back nice in the second and third inning, I thought we had real good at bats off Carpenter. And I felt real good. When we got 4-3 I felt good, I thought we were going to score some more runs, Yo got a little better, still had to battle through his innings but I thought he got better, and our bullpen came in and did a nice job but their bullpen did a great job too.

Does he expect anything to change now that the Cardinals have momentum in the series?

No, whether they're down 2-1 I still feel good with our club. This is a good club we're playing. And when you make mistakes like we did in the first inning, they're gonna get their hits, they're gonna score some runs. I expected offensively that we were going to be able to come back, and we weren't able to do it.

On the Cardinal bullpen:

When you see 96-99 (mph), coming out of there with real nice sliders, I think it's real good. 

Is Albert Pujols the exception to his rule against intentional walks?

I think so. I think when it really makes sense we'll do it. I don't want to put him on just to put him on, but you saw we put him on with a guy on third base, next thing you know it's second and third instead of first and third and they get a base hit there and they're scoring two runs instead of just one. So we're gonna pick our spots where we think we need to do it. If it comes up where it makes sense then we're gonna put him on but he's scary when he's hitting everything. When you're making good pitches and he's hitting them...he's done a lot of damage against us.

Is the Cardinal bullpen better than he expected?

Well, we knew their bullpen was good. Early in the season I know they gave up some runs there but like I said, when you have guys coming out and throwing that hard, they don't walk people, they've got good sliders...their arms are exactly how we thought they were. They've got tremendous arms, they're throwing the ball well, they're hitting spots. They've done a great job for quite a while. We got to them a couple of games a month ago, but they've got good arms.

Will the decision to start Mark Kotsay keep him up tonight?

Not at all. No, it was going to be either Nyjer Morgan or Kotsay out there. Gomez is a fabulous center fielder but you also have to look at trying to score runs and trying to figure out your offense and where you slot guys. Not so much that one guy is better than the other but how does he fit into the lineup? When we take Nyjer out of there sometimes it's hard to slot a guy in the second spot. So there are questions it's easy to look at afterwards and say 'Gomez would have caught it' but I didn't think Gomez was an option for today's game. I like him out there anytime I can get him out there but I didn't think he was a good choice today.

Was the line drive where he was doubled off a tough read for Kotsay?

Yeah, it's a tough read. He got off probably a little farther than he probably wanted to. It's also...when you're playing every day, your instincts are sharper than when you don't play everyday. And Kots, we hadn't started him in a while, and I don't think your instincts are always as good and he maybe got off a little farther than he wanted to. But it's a tough read and he wants to score if the ball drops, Jay made a nice play on it and it's a tough one to get doubled up on.

Did Hart have a chance to catch the David Freese double in the first?

I didn't see how he broke. When it was hit I thought he had a good chance to catch it. I didn't see what kind of jump he got on it. By the time the ball's hit and you look out at an outfielder it's hard to tell whether a guy gets a good jump or not. I know it was hit well, I know when Corey gets a good jump he's got some pretty good range out there. I don't even know: Did it go off his glove or did he just miss it? It went off his glove? Like I said, I didn't see the jump, I just thought it was going to be caught when it left the bat. But he hit it good.