NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 10, 2004

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I guess so. Streaks are streaks, they've got to come to an end some time. We pitched good, get a few base hits, play good defense, we knew we had a chance to win a ballgame. In that one inning we gave them five runs but our bullpen held strong and we were able to break that streak.

BOBBY COX: It's been a really good bullpen all year long. It's a little overused right this moment. We lost our pitcher yesterday in the first inning, and I had to pinch-hit for Russ in the third. It was the fourth, whatever it was, anyway... The bullpen has been used quite a bit. But they're up for it, and I was proud of them today. It was really good. Some guys have only gone one inning all year, Gryboski said he could go two. Some of the others couldn't go two. So we'll see how it works out tomorrow.

BOBBY COX: We were going to bring in Smoltz even if we were down two runs or whatever in the eighth inning. Hope that we could score a few runs.

BOBBY COX: Well, it's a great feeling for my counterpart, Phil Garner, and myself to have a guy like John Smoltz. He's got Lidge. Yeah, it's a comforting feeling, once you get to that point in the game, that basically here it goes, you know. More times than not you win the ballgame. So it's a great feeling.

BOBBY COX: Well, that was tremendous. He really got all of it, too. It was a huge lift. We felt we could win the game at that point. Once you get tied again. And we were pitching good at the time, so we felt that we could hold them, and we eventually -- J.D. Drew has been struggling, no doubt about that. He rose today. That's baseball.

BOBBY COX: Well, we chose him number one because he's the hottest pitcher. He had a sensational year. He's a horse, like Clemens, he's a big horse and you can ride him. There's a little bit of rain in that area, I guess, a tropical storm. Hopefully we play tomorrow. But Jaret's rested, ready to go.

BOBBY COX: Well, LaRoche has never had any postseason experience and he was the big hitter today. I think we tend to put too much on that maybe. But I like that, I like to have guys that have been there before, there's no doubt about that. But we stuck together as a team the entire year, and it's a good team. We broke camp with a good team, we've got all of them back right now except Horacio Ramirez. They'll be together next year. But everybody stuck together really well.