On Neil Walker's Homerun:
Great at-bat. And it's amazing how on at-bat can set up everything else you do. Umm, you know, when you see all those fould balls and, you know, Zack was throwing all different pitches and he was fouling everything and, umm, you know sometimes mentally--as well as physically--it kind of beats on a pitcher to throw that many pitchers and then the guy hits a home run, and it's hard to recover from.
After the Pirates started hitting the ball so hard, does the thought cross anyone's mind that the Pirate's knew what was coming?
Uhh, that thought does cross our minds, yeah.
"We hear you're pretty good at spotting those types of things."
I am. It's a problem with a right handed pitcher and when they are in the stretch with our dugout being on the first base side, I can't see. Um, that's why on the road I like it because I get that open view of the right handers. The left handers, it's great. But yeah, so we'll probably have to go look at the video and see if there's anything there. Umm, I don't know I-I-I-you know-I don't think his pitches were located where he wanted, you know, to throw the ball. Still sometimes when everything is hit like that, you kind of wonder.
What about Marco Estrada's makeup has made his transition from starter to reliever so seamless?
Uhh, well, I think he's had a little experience here, uhmm, so it's not like it's new to him to, to relieve but, uhh, with last year being up here doing both and I think he's very confident and, for one, his location on his pitches. So when he comes into a game I don't think there's a, uhh, you know, sometimes you go 1-0 with a reliever and you're going "oh no", you know, "he may go 2-0" but I don't think even if he goes 2-0 I think he's really confident that he can throw--even if he wants to throw a curveball--that he can throw for a strike. If he wants to throw a fastball, it's always going to be there. So I think the command issue allows him to be able to be that guy who comes into a game and has no problem in going through a lineup. Uhh, I think you look to his starts, too, his starts--that first inning, his command is usually pretty good.
Is it too early to look at what the rest of the division is doing?
Well, it's, it, I think it's too early to look at what the rest of the guys are doing, but I don't think it's ever to, umm, you know, too early to put together a nice little, nice little stretch, great homestand. And, and, knowing that, you know, you're on the right track, you're on the way to, umm, get to the place where you want to be and, umm. Yeah, to look exactly where you are probably a little early, but it, you know, believe me, we're lucky, so...
Any certain gameplans between Greinke and Lucroy?
Well I think, yeah, they sit down and, and Zack has an idea of what he wants to do all the time. He has a great game plan on what he wants to do with all the hitters and he has a gameplan on how he wants to pitch. And he may tell Za--err--whoever is catching him--say it's Luc today--he may tell Luc that "Hey, first few innings let's, let's throw a lot of fastballs. Let's come at these guys, get ahead and, uhh, and then later in the game we'll bust out offspeed" or he may come out and say "You know something" uhh, just like his slow curveball today I though was very good, "Hey, let's, uhh, let's mix more of those in early in the game and get 'em thinking about it and then later I can throw some fastballs by him." So, Zack knows what he's doing. And it's, I don't think that gameplan changes that much until he starts getting hit around a little bit and then all of a sudden you'll see him change.