NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS v BRAVES

October 1, 2003

Dusty Baker

DUSTY BAKER: Well it certainly would have helped. With nobody out and didn't get any more runs. At first I thought Sammy's ball was going out of the ballpark, but after the fact we've just got to get better with those bases loaded, especially with nobody out. They had somebody warming up in the bullpen real early so in a lot of ways it could have been decided in that first inning had we put the ball in play we could have had a whole bunch of runs early.

DUSTY BAKER: It hit on the yellow line, but that's in play.

DUSTY BAKER: I had to make a decision. I thought it was a better match up facing DeRosa who hadn't been playing as much and Furcal who has 194 hits. He's a dangerous man in that situation. I thought it was better to pitch to DeRosa. We had one ball and two strikes and we were one strike away from getting out of that inning. You have to give DeRosa fought fouled off some tough pitches.

DUSTY BAKER: Well, the runner was going to score on that ball. He was trying to get himself in the scoring position at second base and another hit and we have the lead. So they executed the relay throw perfectly and got him at second base.

DUSTY BAKER: They were the top of the lead in batting average and homeruns. Tonight they relied on the base hit. We kept them in the ballpark, but the key thing when a series like this starts is the team that gets the most 2 RBI hits wins and the two they got from Giles and from DeRosa, so tonight their second base man really hurt us. And, you know, that's usually the difference in the series.

DUSTY BAKER: We would prefer to go home 2 and 0, but usually when you come into the ballpark, usually that's what you hope for is 1-1 so you can go back home, and I feel very good about prior going for us on Friday.

DUSTY BAKER: He threw the ball very well today especially in his first playoff game. He's had a taste of it. He will be equal or better the next time out. He threw the ball excellent. It was just time to go get him at that time, especially when they were hitting the ball hard of them. He was threw anyway, but the ball hit him in the leg, so he got an injury timeout.

DUSTY BAKER: No, I didn't think he was going to come out in the 8th. I saw him warming up. I knew then that he was coming in, but a playoff game like this, you have to do some things you wouldn't ordinarily do. You had to give Smoltz and Bobby Cox alit of credit.