NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 19, 2005

Phil Garner

PHIL GARNER: It's good for us, we need to win one and they need to win two. The way the outcome came out Monday night, it would have been exciting to do things in our own ballpark, of course. All of you who were there know how wild and crazy it was, but it's unfortunate, that's the way it is. That's why we play a seven-game series.

PHIL GARNER: It's good. Chris Burke is still winning the card game. Doug Mansolino is winning his card game. I think the domino games and Vizcaino dominates the domino games, so it's business as usual in the clubhouse.

PHIL GARNER: Well, his stuff is good, No. 1. And he's able to locate. I think any of these situations when you have the heightened energy levels, you can throw the ball a little bit better, you're just a little bit sharper and Roy has been able to channel that energy to his advantage. When you can throw the ball like he does and locate the way he does, you're going to have pretty good results.

PHIL GARNER: We certainly feel comfortable where we are with the way our ballclub is in good shape. Our players are in good shape, our pitching staff is in good shape. But you have to win one more ballgame in somebody else's stadium. Our pitching is lined up very well. You couldn't ask for it to be any better. So, yes, this is their ballpark. They proved that they could win a big ballgame in our ballpark when the fans were against them, and we could do the same thing, here. So it's going to be -- I'm sure it's going to be wild out there tonight. But I think that our ballclub has been preparing themselves for this kind of a ballgame almost all season, because all of the games have been important to us since mid-May on. It's almost like we've been playing the last game we're ever going to play since mid-May for this tonight.

PHIL GARNER: Well, yes, I definitely have comfort with Clemens. By no stretch of the imagination do we take for granted the Cardinals or tonight's game and say, well, it's okay because we've got Rocket tomorrow. My preference obviously would have been to win Monday night and have those guys rested up for the adventure. I think Roy is in good shape. He's feeling fine, he's ready to go tonight. This game is the most important we're ever going to play. You get tired of hearing me say that, but it is. Our next win is going to be the toughest one we ever get. So we've got to stay focused on tonight's game, no matter what we have in store for tomorrow, tonight is where we need to have all of our attention.

PHIL GARNER: Absolutely not. We crossed a major hurdle last year and I'm expecting us to do that again this year.

PHIL GARNER: Make it any more difficult for Roy? No, I think the nature of our game is such that if you make pitches, you're going to do well. What we need to do is we've seen Carpenter now fairly often recently. We should hopefully do something against him a little bit better than we've been doing. Same thing goes for him. If he locates, it's still going to be another tight ballgame.

PHIL GARNER: No, it never has been a topic of discussion. Now, remember, last year, we brought Rocket back on four days, and you're asking a guy who is giving you his heart and soul all summer long. It's one thing when you ask a 28-year-old to do it. It's another thing when you ask a guy that's 42 at the time, I think. We have not had any discussions about last year, but I feel if it goes to tomorrow, I'm great with Rocket on the mound and that's certainly the way we had it set up.

PHIL GARNER: I don't know that. What I do know is that we had one of the best hitters in the game in Pujols, and we had a tough at-bat from Eckstein, which he gives you tough at-bats and he gets a two-out base hits. We didn't get strikes that we needed to get on Edmonds, and we made a mistake on Pujols. That's what he does. He hits mistakes and he hit that one pretty doggone hard. I think if Brad had made his pitches, we would have had a different outcome, plain and simple.

PHIL GARNER: No.

PHIL GARNER: We'll lead off with Biggio, that's the same of course. Second hitter will be Willy; Willy will be in centerfield. Third hitter will be Lance Berkman playing first base. Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane, Chris Burke, Brad Ausmus and Adam Everett.

PHIL GARNER: Felt good. (Smiles).

PHIL GARNER: Yes, I did. I talked to him yesterday. We got on the elevator and I him how he felt and he said -- I commented, he probably felt pretty rotten and he said no, he actually felt pretty good yesterday. I know he had to feel pretty bad the other night, but you guys all know what kind of stand-up guy he is. Hey, he made a tough pitch. You can do those things sometimes and they will hit them into double-plays. Sometimes they will pop them up. Sometimes they will swing and miss them. Pujols didn't exactly swing and miss that. It's a tough pitch, but his life nor his career is going to be defined on that pitch. If he has the same opportunity tonight, he'll be right back out there and he'll get the job done.

PHIL GARNER: I thought that was pretty good. I didn't hear about that until later. There's no sense in sitting around and crying about giving up the pitch. I think a little levity always helps. If you can't take the heat, you don't need to be in the kitchen and Brad Lidge can certainly take the heat. I thought it was pretty much fun. The fact of the matter is he gave up a pretty monstrous home run. Best thing we can do is laugh about it, go on with it to the next day and have a little bit of fun with it. I think that's what the whole team did. As I described the clubhouse a few minutes ago, that's what's going on. Everybody's comfortable. We're looking forward to it.