NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 13, 2005

Tony La Russa

TONY LaRUSSA: Can you speak up? (Laughter.) Well, as you I walked to the training room, the doctor described it as a train wreck. It's serious, bumped his back, hit his head and he has some sore spots all over the body. I don't think he broke anything (knocking on wood) but he's bruised quite a bit all over and we'll see how he feels.

TONY LaRUSSA: Well, he pitched a game that he's capable of. We actually had three or four five chances with some of our best RBI guys and he made pitches. So take your hat off to him. It was the game we expected, 2-1, a couple of big runs there at the end and he pitched very well. We battled, had a lot of at-bats against him, we had our chances but have to give him credit. He never took the ball over the middle of the plate and we had a chance to hurt him.

TONY LaRUSSA: I think Mark had good arm strength, and he got up a couple of times and got hurt but he did what he usually does. He made a lot of good pitches when they had a chance to score. That was really a tough, tough break on the first one. They were running and Yadier was going to come out, a cutter inside, it's a tough run to give up. Overall, he did a really good job, two runs in the seventh inning and one of them is a scratch run, that's really good pitching. The explanation was that he didn't see it and he was looking at the two side umpires, and if they had seen it different they would have walked towards him. And Mark was really insistent, if you know Mark, as insistent as he was, I had a really good feeling he probably got hit, but an umpire can't call what he didn't see and the other two umpires on the corners didn't see it either.

TONY LaRUSSA: No, they had their guy on the mound that is as good quality as there is. Edmonds, he's a guy twice with RBI chances, Edmonds, Sanders, we had David up there, gets as many hits as anybody. We had some chances. Grudzy had a chance, but no, he was still throwing the ball well. That was the matchup there and they won the matchup.

TONY LaRUSSA: Well, he got a lead off double and he made some outstanding pitches to Ensberg and Lane. I thought his sinker was outstanding. You look at the runs he gave up, there were two breaking balls that were hanging in the middle of the plate so, he's capable of fixing that. He had real good life, made a couple breaking ball mistakes and that's two extra runs.

TONY LaRUSSA: They are trying to win, aren't they? So all's fair as long as it's legal and it's legal to close the roof. We have played some games in that ballpark and they have had the roof closed, last time we were in there, they closed the roof for all three games because they were in the middle of the hunt and we won the series. I think it just adds to a lot of excitement, just like here, it's loud here. It's part of playoff baseball and it adds to the fun and the excitement. As long as it's within the rules, we all try to do as much as we can to win.

TONY LaRUSSA: Larry is liable to get three hits on Saturday because he's so talented. He is banged up some and he's got some ouches, I think most people know he didn't take BP but I watched his at-bats and he had some good swings. He fouled some balls that were right on, and Oswalt had special stuff. Anything less special than that, he's got a chance to get them. I just hope nothing gets worse.

TONY LaRUSSA: No, I just don't know. All I said was that the doctor said it was like a train wreck where you have a bunch of bruises, so he'll get treated tonight, tomorrow and see how he feels Saturday. I mean, I don't know. I would say probably 50/50. That's just a ballpark guess.

TONY LaRUSSA: 2-1 game I think it's a better shot for Julian, if he puts it in the right place or gets a sinker, you get him out. But Marquis is in that bullpen to add a weapon and he had a solid ninth inning which I think is good for him, and what's good for him is good for us.