NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES v CARDINALS

October 8, 2005

Bruce Bochy

BRUCE BOCHY: The difference in the two clubs?

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I mean, we got down every game. We just dug ourselves too deep a hole to climb out of. But I can't say enough about the effort, they tried to get out of it. Every game we came back. Same thing tonight. We got the momentum switch there, swung over to our side. We had the right guys up. They just played great. You know, they made pitches when they had to there at the end, Izzy. But we battled. We're disappointed to get swept. It's always very disappointing. But we didn't play very well there in St. Louis. Thought we beat ourselves there a couple games early. But today, you know, they just got the big lead, and we couldn't climb out of it.

BRUCE BOCHY: More than anything, his location. He wasn't real sharp with it. The second inning, you know, we had two outs, man on first. That's when they scored all their runs. He just made a mistake there for the home run. You know, they just swung the bats well. Sanders killed us. He had a big series, drove in a lot of runs against us. Like I said, though, we were trying to come back. We just fell a little bit short every game. For that, I mean, I'm proud. We are disappointed we couldn't make it more of a series and win some games.

BRUCE BOCHY: I am proud. You know, we've been riddled with the ups and downs, with the injuries. We had to deal with a lot. A lot was said about our division. If you look at how banged up the club was during the course of the season, we used everybody. They got challenged a couple times with Arizona, with the Giants there at the end, but they responded every time. Same thing in this series. I mean, we got down, and they never quit. For that, I'm very proud. You always use the word or the phrase "team effort." That certainly was the case this year, because we used everybody with the numerous injuries that we had.

BRUCE BOCHY: No question, I'd like to have them back. Those are three outstanding players, just quality guys. Now, you know, it's going to be up to Kevin (Towers), to see if things can get worked out. That's the business part of it. I certainly hope it does get worked out because they're great people. They did so much for this ballclub. Hopefully things get worked out there.

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I thought we did. I thought we played better. We swung the bats. We made some hard outs. They played well. The better ballclub won. They won a hundred games. They played outstanding on defense. They pitched well. They executed. That's a good ballclub. They're going to be tough to beat because they play both sides of the ball so well. I compliment the St. Louis Cardinals because they played great ball. They did everything right. They deserved to win.

BRUCE BOCHY: You know, I really didn't get into that. I mean, you know, like I said earlier, I hope that gets worked out with Trevor. I can't say enough about what he's done for the San Diego Padres, the community, myself. He's been my closer since I've been managing. I was more caught in trying to win the ballgame. We needed to put a zero up on the board. I felt good about that inning, I really did. We had the right guys coming up. Sweeney leading off. You know, I just wanted Trevor to go out there and shut 'em down for another inning and give us a chance, which he did. We did what we were hoping. We got the tying run at the plate with our guys up there. They just made pitches.

BRUCE BOCHY: We had (Brian) Lawrence real close there. There were two outs. You got a guy out there that can make pitches when he has to. I've had Woody before this year. At that point I just felt confident Woody would make some pitches there. He had Walker 0-2. That's probably what hurt him. He made a couple good pitches, then hit him with a cutter. That's what set everything up. With two outs, I felt Woody still had the stuff to make pitches on Reggie. He just got a fast ball up and at that point I had to get him.

BRUCE BOCHY: All right.