NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 16, 2005

Brandon Backe

BRANDON BACKE: Today is a lot similar to what happened last year in Game 5 for me. Going through the first three innings, not giving up a hit, I was thinking dejavu all over again. That day I actually pitched 12 innings and it might have been 213, it was over 200 pitches and ended up giving up a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 12th and that was pretty heartbreaking. It was one of my best games I've ever been a part of until last year, and this one today also ranks up to one of the top ones, although I didn't go as long as I wanted to. But I felt really good out there and it was great to have it.

BRANDON BACKE: Well, at the time, you know, I'm so wound up and involved in what I'm doing out there on the mound, I have to be honest, when I saw Phil coming out and pointing to the bullpen, I was a little upset. But that's what competitors do. If I wasn't upset, I think there would be something wrong with me. I just felt like I was doing pretty good today and was battling and apparently it was just the right time for me to come out. The bullpen has been our backbone on the team, so if I'm going to give it up to anybody, I'd rather give it up to our bullpen than anybody else.

BRANDON BACKE: I didn't feel like I was struggling at all today. I felt like I had pretty good movement on my fastball, location was there for the most part. My slider was working really good today.

BRANDON BACKE: The strike zone was fine for me today as far as I'm concerned. Trust me, I've been through a lot of difficult situations out there on the mound with the umpire or an umpire being inconsistent. You know, that's just part of the ballgame. There's really nothing else that you can do about it. He has his strike zone, he calls his strikes and he calls his balls and me as a pitcher out there, if I'm not getting a call that I want, there's really nothing that I can do about it. So I think I really don't -- I haven't looked at the pitches that were called strikes against them. But on my side when I'm out there looking down at the plate, I thought he was pretty fair for me today, and that's the only thing that I can really say. I'm not out there looking at those pitches that those Cardinals pitchers were throwing. So I have no idea where they were, and if they didn't argue it, then they didn't want to win. So it's good that they argued it; it's fine.

BRANDON BACKE: No. I mean, I was pretty excited last night. After dinner, I went down to Galveston and had some dinner and tried to get some sleep last night. I got a few hours of sleep in, just being excited for this game, just this opportunity to have it again and possibly leave today two games up and one more to go. That's all that was on my mind, just go out there and do what I can do, don't try and do too much, and just be good today. That's all I was trying to tell myself.

BRANDON BACKE: My parents have been behind me the whole way. Even when I was a little kid, I've always got the equipment that I needed to have to play this game and just all the support. I was down in Galveston on Friday night and went to actually the home coming fastball game and just had a blast, brought back memories, kind of relaxed me for a game today. They showed a lot of support there. I can't ask for enough support. Everybody is giving me everything and it's great. The fans here are unbelievable and I think that's one reason why we play so well here.