PostCards: Mike Matheny talks after World Series Game 1
St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny spoke to the media following the Cardinals 8-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in World Series Game 1.
Oct 22, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) speaks to the media on the day before game one of the World Series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Image Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Q. What was explained to you by the umpires in the first inning?
MIKE MATHENY: What was explained was they wanted to get the call right. And they got together as a group, and five of them believed that the call was different than the one that was made.
Q. What’s the latest update you can give us on Carlos Beltran?
MIKE MATHENY: Carlos was taken out of the game with an injury to his ribs. Went in to have X‑rays done and CT scan here locally, and everything came back negative. He’s going to be day‑to‑day.
Q. What was your argument to the umpires after you got that explanation?
MIKE MATHENY: Basically the explanation is that’s not a play I’ve ever seen before. And I’m pretty sure there were six umpires on the field that had never seen that play before either. It’s a pretty tough time to debut that overruled call in the World Series. Now, I get that trying to get the right call, I get that. Tough one to swallow.
Q. On a night like this, where it just didn’t seem to be the Cardinals’ night, what do you say to your team? How do you go about moving on from here?
MIKE MATHENY: We had a wake‑up call. That is not the kind of team that we’ve been all season. And they’re frustrated. I’m sure embarrassed to a point. We get an opportunity to show the kind of baseball we played all season long and it didn’t look anything like what we saw tonight. You’re going to have games like that periodically. But if you begin to accept that, then this could not really go anywhere.
So right now everybody is kind of gathering themselves and putting things together on what they need to do to get back, not anything more, but certainly not anything less than what they’ve done all season.
Q. Obviously Wainwright didn’t have much help from his defense. But what did you see from him in the five innings?
MIKE MATHENY: I thought he got better as he went. I thought he threw better than what his line showed. We absolutely gave too many bases, gave too many opportunities. And extra outs in situations like this against teams like this, they’re going to kill you. And that’s what happened tonight.
And Adam made some good pitches, had a couple of balls hit hard, but a lot of them just found the right spots, but again he did get better as he went, and I know he can’t wait to get back out there.
Q. Can you talk about Jon Lester tonight?
MIKE MATHENY: He did everything he had to do. He kept us off balance and made pitches all night. And so that’s kind of what we expected and we just expected for us to, one, obviously put some runs on the board, but also keep them off. We had a tough time doing the latter.
Q. You were able to get some in of your younger relievers. Was it important to get their feet wet in a World Series game?
MIKE MATHENY: Yes, I think it’s important for them to be out there. It’s been a long wait, too; we’ve had quite a few days off, too. It was good to get them out to feel a World Series mound and feel the energy. So next time we get them out there, it’s hopefully in a different situation and they’ll feel a little more comfortable.
Q. Have you seen video yet of the play?
MIKE MATHENY: No, I haven’t.
Q. Did you consider pulling Wainwright maybe after the second, not because he was pitching poorly, just because you could save him for three starts in the series?
MIKE MATHENY: Well, we got him out pretty early, still. We’re not ruling out anything moving forward.
Q. A couple of uncharacteristic errors by Kozma, for his defense. What do you say to him?
MIKE MATHENY: Once again, just like we told everybody else, not singling any one particular guy out. They understand and they know the caliber of players that they are and how they’ve played all season. We’ve really had a nice tight defense, especially on our infield. Guys making plays and doing it on a consistent basis. And there’s no reason to accept anything less, and there’s no reason to expect anything less. I know it’s going to continue to happen. You have these guys, you just have to let them go. We’ve had them before. It’s just a matter of having a short memory and realizing that that’s not who we are, and fixing it as soon as possible.
Q. In your opinion, who should have caught the ball that fell between Wainwright and Molina?
MIKE MATHENY: Well, Wainwright is the first one that’s going to say that that’s his ball. That’s kind of in‑between land where we typically tell our position players we want them to try to get that. It’s a very tough play on the catcher. But Adam Wainwright wanted that ball, and as soon as he came off the field he was talking about how he should have caught it.
Q. You knew coming into the Red Sox, they grind out at‑bats, pitch count, they did it tonight. How do you combat that going forward?
MIKE MATHENY: I didn’t see anything that surprised us. We knew what we were going to get, and they came out and did it. And once again, it just comes down to execution. It’s a different game if some plays are made that are typically made. That’s a whole different story.
But it’s a good club. We know that. But I’m just not going to let our guys forget we’re a good club, too. We make plays, we also put together tough at‑bats. We grind at‑bats. We work pitch counts. But right now this is one game that got away from us, and it was in a fashion that we’re not used to, or will we get used to it.