As seen on FS Wisconsin:
What happened to Axford tonight?
I don't know. You never really know. His last two were good, and the first three pitches he threw to McCutchen were really good and even the fourth pitch, the curveball, but then he started getting up high I don't know. I expect him to come back, hopefully tomorrow night and get that downhill angle going again. But when he starts missing up here that's when he gets a little weird.
On Axford throwing 35 pitches:
He had 35? Yeah.
Is he available tomorrow?
I don't know. We'll see how he is when he throws.
Is he overthrowing?
I don't know if it's overthrowing. There's something there that either he doesn't finish the pitch...there's something allowing the ball to finish that high. Because he's trying to throw it downhill. He's trying to throw low strikes, and missing by a mile, yeah.
On Mike Fiers:
Fiers, real nice outing. The off speed pitches good today, the curve ball was good, keeping them off balance. The last guy Barajas, he tried to throw a cutter and left it over the middle of the plate. But I thought he threw a real nice ball game for us.
On Fiers' bunt single:
His hit was huge. That allowed us to have the opportunity to score. That was big.
What else? Kam, nice, coming in and getting Gaby Sanchez out. Frankie was good, so...
He is throwing the ball well. His sinker's really down well, curveball he missed with the first one to Gaby and struck him out with the second one, it was a nice breaking ball. But he's been consistent. Henderson was good for his batter. So we did a nice job.
Is it hard to go pull Axford out of a save situation?
Yes. It's still hard.
Even though you didn't know he had 35 pitches?
I didn't know he had that many. I knew he was up there.
On the middle of the order tonight:
Yeah, really good. Brauny, if they're not going to throw him strikes take your walks or drive the ball like he does. His last at bat, that swing he took to hit the line drive to short, that's Brauny at his best. But Ramy, they walked Brauny once to get to Ramy and Ramy's dangerous. If you've got people on base and the game's on the line he's a dangerous hitter. And he came through with a big hit. I didn't think when he first hit it McCutchen had a chance, but he didn't miss it by much. And then Corey, Corey's just (Haudricourt interrupted here for the fifth time in a single press conference.)
On Andrew McCutchen (I think):
Well, I think that's why he's always hit for average and driven in so many runs. When you're able to drive a ball to both gaps, that's what almost all the good hitters do. All the RBI guys, that's what they do. And you don't know where to defense them, you can't play them that deep and he and Brauny are both strong enough to hit the ball out of the ballpark there. This is a big park: That ball Rickie hit, my gosh, way out. That's not even close. But to left center this is a big yard. But they've got the right guy out there, chasing balls around in center. He does a good job.
I couldn't hear this question:
It's a personality, it's something in your makeup that allows you, when the game is on the line to do really well. There's not many guys like that. He's a good hitter anyway, but I played with a lot of really good hitters and they weren't as good with the game on the line as they were earlier in the game. Ramy, he's one of those guys that wants to be up there with the game on the line. Prince was certainly that way, Brauny's that way, and it's something inside that tells you when it's on the line I want to be the guy.
It's like in basketball: You hear that guy who wants that last shot. There's not a lot of them but there are certain guys, Michael Jordan was one of them, there are certain guys who always wanted that ball, or want that big at bat or want that pitch on the mound, and it comes with confidence too, but there's something in their makeup that causes them to want to do that.