Motte talks about 'message' to Ryan Braun

MILWAUKEE -- Cardinals reliever Jason Motte said he was following the calls from his catcher and that it wouldn't have been wise to purposely hit Ryan Braun with the situation the Cardinals were in.

He, like his manager Tony La Russa, insisted that the pitch that plunked Ryan Braun on Tuesday night was not intentional. Saying otherwise would certainly invite punishment and a fine from Major League Baseball.

Regardless, he did offer a look at what the Cardinals, already 3 1/2 games back in the division, did risk by putting Braun on just to prove a point or defend their own.

"It looked bad, but it is what it is," Motte said. "I didn't do it on purpose. It wasn't intentional. Did it look bad? Yeah. We're at their place. I could hear them booing when I walked off the field. I knew what they were booing for.

"It wasn't intentional. In a game that we just came back and tied it in the top half of that inning, to go out there and put a guy like Braun on who has got speed with the guys they have coming up in that lineup -- in those situations, the leadoff guy scores 90 percent of the time. It's one of those things -- that's the last thing I wanted to do."

Motte said that he was following Molina's pitch calls in the at-bat. He started with a cutter that floated away from Braun, and then he struck with the two fastballs well inside of the plate.

"Yadi called fastball in. And I had to try and get the ball in," Motte recalled this morning for reporters. "Then 2-0, he called another fastball in, and I was like, ‘OK. I'll just try to get it in there.' Obviously I got too much in there. I really wasn't thinking about that (the plunking of Albert Pujols in the previous inning). I know what happened the inning before. I wasn't out there trying to hit him. I wasn't out there trying. It probably didn't look good. The truth of the matter is I was trying to get in there, especially 2-0 I didn't want to leave something belt high, up out over. I obviously went in too much."


(stltoday.com)