NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 13, 2004

Phil Garner

PHIL GARNER: Well, he kept us in the ballgame and he did a good job. I was pleased with what he did. We were right there until the game got away from us in the sixth inning. We were right there.

PHIL GARNER: That's why this is a beautiful game. You can hit the ball well, and we did tonight. We hit a few balls good, but in the big inning, they hit one ball good. Qualls did a pretty good job of keeping the ball in the infield, but we couldn't get that final out. It was just hard to get the final out. It was a tough inning for us, but that's the way this game goes sometimes. You can break a lot of bats and you still have to score the runs, and they did it tonight.

PHIL GARNER: You never know until the next day how the bullpen is. I usually wait until they get on the field and get a chance to throw a little bit. I don't think we're strained. Our guys have not been overused coming in. Tonight I don't think we pushed anybody beyond what their normal limits would be to be able to come back. I think we're okay in that regard.

PHIL GARNER: Well, they hit some well-placed balls in the infield. We had a difficult time. They moved the runners along with that. I was pleased with the way Qualls threw the ball. You break three or four bats, the balls are trickling out just where we quite couldn't get the outs that we needed. So tip your hat to them, they put them in play.

PHIL GARNER: Well, he pitched -- you know, he kept them in the ballgame. When you have as potent an offense as they have, that's what you ask your starting pitchers to do, keep you in the ballgame, not let it get away from you. We didn't string a whole lot of things together tonight. We hit the ball pretty decent but we didn't tack on like we've become accustomed to doing. I think you have to give him all the credit for that. The home runs didn't unsettle him. He stayed close to the ballgame.

PHIL GARNER: Oh, he probably would say he probably wasn't. I felt like we'd asked enough of him. I thought he did a pretty good job. As a matter of fact, I thought he did a very good job.

PHIL GARNER: I've had those balls kick fair and go down the line for a double when I tried it one time. You never know what's going to happen with that ball. I wouldn't second-guess Baggy on that.

PHIL GARNER: Well, as evidenced by us getting back in the ballgame and mounting a couple of innings, where we might, with a base hit, put runs on the board, I don't think it did anything to our confidence there. You tip your hat to them for putting runs on the board. We felt like we were going to get back in the ballgame, and we did. We were back in the ballgame, one at-bat away from getting the tying run on the plate, the meat of the order. We were still in the ballgame.

PHIL GARNER: We're confident. But what we want to do is score one more run than they do, if it takes three, if it takes twelve. That's what we want to do.