After abruptly ending his interview last night when asked, Fredi Gonzalez acknowledged reporters this morning who again asked him why he chose to pitch to Hunter Pence with 2 outs in 13th inning instead of utility player Michael Martinez on deck.
Scott Linebrink entered the inning and walked backup catcher Brian Schneider sandwiched between outs by Domonic Brown and Jimmy Rollins. Chase Utley then singled to move Schneider to third base with 2 outs, bringing Pence to plate.
When asked again why he chose to pitch to the guy hitting .314 instead of the guy hitting .196, Fredi said,
"I thought about not [pitching to Pence]. But all of a sudden Scotty immediately got two strikes on him. You've got the 1-2 or 2-2 count, whatever it was. And Scotty made a great pitch. He jammed him in on his hands, broke his bat. It just fell into no man's land. Can you guarantee me Martinez wasnt going to get a hit, or draw a base on balls? Couldn't take the risk of a base hit putting us down two instead of one."