Joe Maddon On Cardinals: 'Best In Division, But We Can Play With These Guys'
(CBS) Cubs manager Joe Maddon is under no illusion. In his first year in Chicago, it hasn't taken him long to discover the NL Central's elite: the rival St. Louis Cardinals.
"They are the best in the division," Maddon said Tuesday in an interview on the Spiegel and Goff Show, one day after the Cubs squandered a five-run lead and lost 10-9 to the Cardinals, who improved to 19-6.
And Maddon knows exactly what it's going to take for his young Cubs (13-11) to compete with one of baseball's best franchises. Mentally, it will take resiliency. Physically, it will take better pitching.
"But I'm here to tell you man, we can play with these guys," Maddon said. "We're going to play with these guys. And I'm not talking three years from now. Again, we have to bring it all together as a group, but the ingredients are here. Now, we have to believe, you have to believe that you can beat groups -- and then you beat groups. So this is something we have to take. The Cardinals are definitely just not going to give it up. I'm not trying to talk tough now. I'm just telling you as an evaluator what I'm seeing, and I'm new, so I'm kind of coming at this with fresh eyes. I like our group versus their group a lot. We have to pitch with more consistency to beat these guys, because they're going to pitch. That's really where their strength lies. They have some nice players on the field, but you saw the victories they had against Pittsburgh (when the Cardinals swept a three-game series despite scoring just seven total runs).
"As our pitching really warms up and gets better -- because we do have really nice arms and some great talent -- as our pitchers really start grasping what they want to do, we can play with these guys, I'm telling you."
The Cubs and Cardinals continue Tuesday night with the second of their four-games series in St. Louis.
Before that, take a listen to Maddon's full interview, in which he also discusses Kris Bryant's patience, the importance of building a team internally and much more.