NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 12, 2005

Mark Mulder

MARK MULDER: I felt pretty good yesterday, not great, but today is probably the first day where I have absolutely no discomfort, no tightness, no nothing. Besides just the general soreness in the spot that I got hit but that has nothing to do with anything when I throw a baseball.

MARK MULDER: Not really. I guess I had not even thought of that. That's the furthest thing from my mind. Whether or not this happened or not, I'd still be throwing this day, so it would have been the same routine, same everything, I still would have thrown on the side the same day. So really to me, there was no difference.

MARK MULDER: I think it's just playing good at the right time. I mean, I know when I was in Oakland, things always kind of happened for us to not win a series. With this team we just got up 2-0 and just finished it. No messing around, we came out and scored a bunch of runs early in the first game and got us a lead. Maybe it's just different teams and experience.

MARK MULDER: Well, obviously it's awesome. I'm as excited as I can be here and so is everyone else. No one of us took it for granted, nobody from last year took for granted that they would be here again. We all play hard and this is what we play for. We got after it, you know, those first three games, we really played good baseball and it was fun to watch.

MARK MULDER: They are a tough team, obviously, with Biggio and Taveras 1, 2 in the lineup, I know they are not always the same, but Taveras just getting on base, the swinging, the bunts, the bunting and stealing when he's on. You have to pay attention, you keep those two guys off base, that could be a big key and a big part of the series.

MARK MULDER: I think it's more complete. I know we have a better bullpen here. Like I said, we have five good starters and somebody, you know, isn't probably going to start, I think it's Marquis, but that's part of it I guess. We have five guys that we have confidence in and no matter whether I would have had to have been pushed back or whoever would have taken my spot or whatever it is, it's a complete and full pitching staff. It's been a big part of our success this year.

MARK MULDER: No.

MARK MULDER: No. That would be like pitching scared. I'm not going to do that. If another one comes back at me, another one comes back at me. You know, I kind of feel I field my position pretty well. Like I said, I've never really been hit -- I've never been hit like that before. It was just dead on, just a full blow. I can field my position. If I start worrying about being ready for a line drive too soon that means I'm not finishing my pitches and I've got to be able to do that first.

MARK MULDER: I wouldn't say this. There's no tightness, there's no soreness or anything like that, so I don't think -- I wouldn't anticipate that at all.