John Schneider speaks on AL-best Blue Jays beat Baltimore Orioles 6-1
Hey John, uh Chris really set the tone, five innings, was there anything physical going out there or what what led to the shorter pitch count for him? No, I mean I think just kind of where we are um in the season, you know, it’s a fully rested bullpen and I think if you know he’s a little bit more efficient, you know, great. Uh keep going, score, all that kind of stuff. And um some guys need to pitch and we got a few guys that need to pitch. Again, not trying to force guys in, but they’ll be on regular rest, all that kind of stuff. So, um, just made sense to flip him out there. Uh, what allowed Chris to get a bit more strikeouts than usual and really kind of keep the Orioles down there? Yeah, it was, uh, Chris has a hack for making big pitches, you know? I think I think the inning he struck out the side, he was behind every hitter. Um, he I think he was a little bit stubborn early with throwing fast balls, cutters. um use his breaking stuff, use the curveball, use the sweeper, and uh he threw a couple good splits, too. You know, I think when he when he’s mixing, he’s just very hard to to time up, you know. So, I think kind of getting back to using his full uh full arsenal just led for, you know, it leads to a little bit more margin for error, too. Um but he made big pitches in big spots like he seems to always do. John, a couple big hits tonight from Isaiah Connor Falefa, Miles Straw. I mean, is that kind of the story of your guys this season? like different guys every night kind of stepping up. Yeah, I mean it’s it’s it’s fun, you know. It’s fun to watch and these guys are they’re ready. You know, it’s um it’s been really cool to have a group of guys just pulling from one another and know that when it it’s their time. Um you know, they’re ready for it, you know. Um it’s an awesome game from Miles is Izzy, I think, re-energized a little bit coming back here and uh he’s he’s just a baseball player that does the dirty things, too, and just helps you win. So, um, yeah, it was it was key. It’s big hit from Ernie, uh, to give us a 3-1 lead, too. So, yeah, it it’s it’s been the story of our season to where it could be anyone any any night. John, can you talk a little bit about your relievers really shutting the door for a pretty good Orioles lineup? Mhm. Um, they’re picking each other up, you know, uh, Ryan walks two lefties, not ideal, and and Fish comes in and and picks him up. Uh Louie was outstanding tonight. Little was out was outstanding tonight, you know, and it allowed us to stay away from a couple guys, too. So, um when you’re running through guys like that, you you know, they got to they got to do their part, you know, and if someone doesn’t, you got to pick them up. So, I said it before the game today, I think we’re pretty good at, you know, we’re down one- nothing and pretty good at keeping the game right where it should be and then you can kind of give yourself a chance to get going. So, they were they were really good tonight. They were um you know, you try to put them in the right spots and sometimes guys have to make big pitches. It’s a big double play from Louis too on the comebacker too. You know, it’s not an easy play. So, uh they all did their part. It it seems more and more like that uh bit of a rough stretch there in August is in the rearview mirror, but how did you see them navigating that uh that tough stretch and what’s allowed them to just get back to who they are? Yeah, the bullpen you’re talking about, right? Yeah. I I think, you know, it’s hard to be a reliever. You know, there there’s ups and downs, right? And what I loved about the way they went about it, it was them and and the and the coaching staff, Pete, Sam, Graham, um Luke Hoey, they’re they’re diving into ways to get better and tweaking the way that they prepare a little bit, you know? So, kind of just being open to what we’re not doing well and how can we get better at it and not losing confidence at the same time. So, I give a lot of credit to the guys. Um, you have to you have to try to keep putting them in good spots, show confidence in them. Like I said, I’m always going to have confidence in them when they come in. Um, but they’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes that I think has helped them turn the corner on kind of those working to find the improvements. Uh, what have you seen from Brendan to kind of pull the ball back up in and around the zone more over the last couple week or so? Yeah, I think again first full year in the big leagues and asked to come into some pretty high leverage spots. He’s been awesome. You know, I think um going back to uh I think we were in Cincinnati and or even the outing here, I forget who we were playing against the couple comebackers that he didn’t handle. Understanding that his stuff is good when it’s in the zone and understanding that you don’t have to try to strike everybody out with every single pitch. Um he’s tweaked his usage a little bit. you’ve probably seen a few more cutters um to righties and and to lefties to try to get in the zone and that leads to more chase with his breaking ball. His breaking ball is a pretty elite pitch. So, um I think understanding that he’s he’s safe in the zone um a lot of times and doesn’t have to be too fine. Louisie seems like a guy who pitches best when he’s got like a little bit of an edge and some passion. It seemed like he was pretty fired up coming off the mound both times tonight. What a run of kind of good performances do for him? A lot, man. I he’s you know he’s still relatively young, you know, in the league and he’s got electric stuff. You know, I think today he used all of his pitches really well. There’s a change up for a strikeout, slider for a strikeout as opposed to just kind of being bullish with the fast ball and curveball. So again, man, this dude grew up in Minnesota, played for his hometown team. It’s it’s a it’s a life disrupting move, you know, to come get traded to a new place. So, I think uh being a little bit more comfortable obviously helps and making some adjustments along the way, but I think if he can get on a roll, man, I mean, the stuff is undeniable and um if he uses it right, you feel good about him really against anybody. John Louie, uh Brandon Little, uh but other guys too, Fish, they’ve done a lot of times where they’ve gone, you know, inning plus or the two ups. uh for you is there is there an element of ensuring the guys are used to that to have them ready for those kind of spots down the road when the games get bigger? I’m just how does how does getting them those reps now maybe prepare them for for later? Yeah, you want guys to be flexible and ready for anything, right? Um we’re kind of at that point in the year where everyone’s pretty much available every single night and it’s a fine line between, you know, the ups, the number of pitches, things like that. you want to be mindful of it. But if um you know, if your pitch count is where it is and it’s still a good matchup, you know, it’s getting used to doing that, you know, I was I was ex excited for little to sit there for a while, go back and fall behind 200 to Gunner and then get a get the out, you know, and just being in the zone. Um Fish, same thing, you know, go back out for one hitter, trying to get Louis in there so we could have Brendan at the top if you know the three batter thing. Um you just want him to be in the zone. So, but I I think going through that um is good for them and we’re going to we’re going to ask them to do that. You know, it’s it’s kind of all hands on deck right now. I know we talk about home runs with Vlad a lot, but that line drive kind of opposite field. Is that like a classic Vlad hit? Yeah, 115 off the bat. It’s whenever ball gets by the outfielder, you know, basic it’s basically a single. Um shows you how hard he hit the ball. You know, that’s that’s when he’s at his best. you know, it’s hit the ball hard, wherever you clip it, contact point, it’s a homer, it’s going to be something good, you know. So, um, yeah, that’s kind of that’s kind of vintage Vlad right there where staying through the middle of the field. Um, you see some reactions from defenses that you don’t really see with other guys when he’s hitting the ball really square. The big is it the big toe and when did that when did that start? Um, you have to ask him. I’m not sure um if it’s something that he’s been dealing with for a little bit or if it’s new. Obviously not his sharpest start, but to still go five innings and not allow an earn run, just how impressive is it that he was able to get through that? Yeah, and really the only inning that wasn’t sharp was inning where he walked a couple guys right there, you know, and that’s okay. The third walk was more of a situational walk right there. We’re, you know, trying to be smart with Vlatty right there and get to the next guy as you can see in the in the ninth one or the eighth when we’re they’re up by four as to why and we walked him later in the game, but um yeah, I you know, I thought he threw the ball good. I you know and I think the nail was probably bugging him for a couple innings so he kind of fought through it for a little bit and if there was anything that wasn’t sharp is probably related more to that than anything. What do you feel like made Basset and their bullpen so tough tonight? Yeah, you know, he did a good job mixing up pitches. Now I I do think that we got ahead in the count a lot. You know, there were a lot of two and three ball counts. We were ahead and um we just couldn’t get anything kind of going off him. Um we haven’t swung the bat here the best for the week. I think teams do go through those stretches. We’ve been fortunate to to win some lowscoring games against a team like this. You know, you’re going to have to um throw more hits on the board. Obviously, we’re going to have to catch the ball. Um so, tough night for us. Not our best night by any means. Um you know, it happens in baseball. It’s kind of part of a long season and we’ll bounce back tomorrow. Mio double, it’s a low and away pitch. He goes 100 mph exit velocity the other way. Just how impressive is an at bat like that from a guy his age? Yeah, he’s talented. We’re not even scratching the surface yet with the kid. um he’s learning how to hit and catch in the big leagues. This is really difficult to do. So, um you know, he’s had some moments already, some big moments, and you know, that’s not really a big moment, but it’s a big swing and he’s going to have a lot more of those going forward. The cowser, you know, when the ball gets past him in center, is that just a case of he’s trying to make a play at third probably with with a runner probably rounding second or what what maybe happened in that situation? No, he’s doing a good job of getting to the ball, cutting it off, and trying to get it in. Um I think we’ve seen over the years here examples of that runner on first and balls in the gap. I’ve waved a couple guys my home myself and it’s worked where if an outfielder kind of lazily gets to the ball um and doesn’t get it in crisply um we can wheel the guy at third base. So with kind of what they’re doing right there, it’s an aggressive team. Um uh Hower is doing a great job of having urgency on the play. He just made a mistake the way an infielder does sometimes and that’s
John Schneider speaks on AL-best Blue Jays beat Baltimore Orioles 6-1
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