NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 16, 2004

Roy Oswalt

ROY OSWALT: Special, for sure. This is something that you want to do growing up, for sure, is having a team depend on you to go out there and produce when you get out there. So it's special. I grew up wanting to pitch in the playoffs, wanting to pitch in the World Series. So hopefully Roger (Clemens) gets out there and does a good job today for us, getting into a groove early, and maybe we can score some runs earlier in the game and kind of get him in a groove. It's special. Getting to play with Rocket this year, Andy Pettitte, all the guys that came in, it's special.

ROY OSWALT: I wouldn't say I was over it. I still get injected before games. Just something that's kind of lingering. If I had some time off, more than three or four days, it would probably heal, if I had 15, 20 days off. But we're not going to get that right now. It's something I've got to get injected. Next day it's pretty sore. But I've been dealing with it all year. It's gotten a little worse in the playoffs - not in the playoffs, but later in the season. It's something, I mean, you can deal with. It would be different if it was your arm. But it's something you can deal with when you get out there.

ROY OSWALT: I was hoping I would be. I went to a junior college in Mississippi and didn't really get looked at by a four-year college coming out of high school. Went to a small high school. I think I had 30 students in my class. Coming from that, everything's big, every town you go to is bigger than what you grew up in. But to me, I was fortunate to get to grow up in a small town. Wouldn't trade it for nothing, for sure. But being here, it's just funny because from where I come from, it's so much bigger, everything's so much bigger. I try to treat everything the same, try to not get overwhelmed by stuff and just go into it open-minded and learn as you go.

ROY OSWALT: I think the biggest thing is they have power hitters 1 through 7, 1 through 8. And no matter if you get down to the bottom of the lineup, they could still hurt you with the long ball. They've been doing it all year. I think they're top of the league as far as home runs go, and in the park they play in, it's a pretty good pitcher's park and they're still hitting the ball out of the park. The power in the lineup is good all the way through the bottom. I think you can use that to your advantage in some ways, and it's a disadvantage some ways. A big inning could break out with a guy hitting a ball out of the park with two or three guys on. That's how you can get hurt. You can use it to your advantage with some guys, don't cut down their swing with two strikes, and you can get a punchout. You can go both ways. Good team all the way around, solid, got good defense. That's what won games. Everyone says pitching wins games; defense is a big, key, too. You can't have good pitching unless you have good defense.

ROY OSWALT: I had a curveball then. I think it was from a small town, the biggest key. I had, I think, two other guys I faced in other high schools that I believe could have played anywhere else, too. But we just didn't get looked at because I actually had a coach, that coached at a 5-A school, said at an All-Star Game that I couldn't compete at their level. Just because I was from an A ball team. The way I look at it is I was just born in the wrong place. If I was born in his town, why couldn't I play the same level? It's good. It made me drive harder. Going into college, it made me work harder. Sometimes I think guys get looked over because of the competition they're facing, but it doesn't mean they can't compete at a high level.

ROY OSWALT: Yes, he is (smiling).

ROY OSWALT: Not really. This time of year you go a lot on adrenaline. With a power-hitting team like them, I don't change my approach on any club as far as not going after guys. That's the way I was brought up, go right at them, make them hit the ball. A lot of times I give up more hits than some other guys that pitch, I mean, in the same level. But the way I look at it, if you walk them, that's the same thing as a hit. They're getting on first base. I'm not going to walk anybody, I'm going to go right at them and try to pound the strikke zone and keep the ball low If you make them hit it, the thing is, if you make them hit it, you have a chance to get them out. If you walk them, you don't have a chance to get them out.

ROY OSWALT: Any time you have a Hall of Fame status guy on the pitching staff, it's going to help the whole pitching staff. No matter if he came in and won 10 ballgames. Just being around that type of status guy is going to make you try to try harder, I guess you would say. Any time you go out there and you see what he's doing, at the age he is doing it at, it makes everybody play harder. At the beginning of the year, I think the spunk that he brings to the game, it makes everyone play harder, even the older guys on the team. They see him going out there and acting like it's his first game in the Big Leagues. It makes them play harder. All around, any time you have a guy with his status on the team, it's going to make you better.