Oct. 7 Bruce Bochy postgame interview

October 8th, 2016

Q. When that ball went past Zobrist, I somehow thought that maybe Posey would come around. Did he lose track of what was going on or lose track of how many outs there were or was he just not?
BRUCE BOCHY: Which ball? I'm sorry.

Q. That one that went past Zobrist. That double.
BRUCE BOCHY: No, he was going hard into second base. He was making sure he got to second there. So, no, he wasn't aware of what was going on because he was focused on getting to second base.

Q. How good were Cueto and Lester?
BRUCE BOCHY: Both of them were outstanding. I don't know if you're going to see -- well, we saw it Wednesday night, we saw another game where it's hard to pitch better than those two guys. Johnny threw a beautiful game and the guy got enough of it to leave the ballpark, but what a job he did. It's just a beautiful game he pitched. We had a couple chances early, but Lester was tough. He's had a tremendous year. And I thought it would be a low scoring game, we just couldn't quite get it done. I thought Buster's ball had a chance. It looked like the wind knocked it down.

That check swing, that call goes their way too, it's a different ballgame. From our view it didn't look like he went. So, that's a tough break for us.

Q. How difficult was it with the caught stealing and then that back pick? That was kind of an interesting play right there.
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, yeah, there's nothing on there, Conor just, he drifted a little too far, and Ross made a perfect throw to get him. It was close, but he put it right on the money. Hernandez just didn't get a jump there. We had nothing on, but he felt like he could make it and Ross made a nice throw there. And when you're in the game like this, you have to try things and we know Lester doesn't throw over there much, but still you have to get a good jump because he's pretty quick to home plate.

Q. Just the overall feeling, the plays Tomlinson made, and would you kind of expect these kind of games going forward in this series?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, no, I do, it was a great ballgame. It was. We played well. Made some good defensive plays. We got some guys out there early in the game and we just couldn't get a hit to finish it off. But it was a great ballgame. One pitch and as I said, Johnny, I mean what a job he did for us. He did all he could to help win this ballgame, but you got to score and the ninth inning they were fighting and I thought Buster's ball had a chance there and that's a tough one. But I expect these games to be like this and guys played great. They really did.

Q. How much did the anticipation of the low scoring game factor into what you did early with bunting right away and testing Lester, getting on and running against Ross? You guys went right at their weaknesses right away it seemed like.
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, that's our game. We're not a team to sit back and wait for the long ball. They did a nice job of throwing him out and a pick off. But you're in a game like this, you got to play your game and try to find ways to score. And you scratch and claw anyway you can. But they executed well tonight. And we still, though, I thought we had some good at-bats there early. As I said, we had a couple chances there, we just couldn't get the key hit.

Q. If the situation had been different in the top of the 8th say you had a couple of runners on or one runner on, were you going to hit for Cueto?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I had a guy, yeah. We had a chance to score there. But he felt great, he was throwing the ball very well. And what was impressive after a home run he settled down and made great pitches. Just one pitch got away from him. But, no, we had Strickland up ready to go if we could get somebody on. With two outs, nobody on, the way he was throwing, the way he felt, that's why he hit.

Q. Six games in a row now that have been decided by one run between these two teams. What is it about these teams that brings out these nail biter games?
BRUCE BOCHY: They're two good teams. Two good teams with good pitching that play well, play well on defense, and that's normally I think what you see when you have two teams with good pitching going at it, low scoring games, one run ball games. And I expect it to be the same from this point on.

Tomorrow we're going to face another good one, the day after, and you scratch and claw for runs and hopefully we find a way to win these games.