NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

October 1, 2003

Felipe Alou

FELIPE ALOU: Well, that depend on what the score is.

FELIPE ALOU: With the bases empty, nobody on, yeah, I'd pitch to him - at least make it look like I'm pitching (laughter).

FELIPE ALOU: At the beginning I was, you know, the first month or so. But I got used to it. I find out the players, teammates were used to it. The fans boo. They boo in the other parks, too. A lot of people I believe pay their money to go see Bonds swing the bat. The most they wind up walking him. But I'm used to it and now I expect it.

FELIPE ALOU: The unity that I see with this group, it's surprising. We touched on a lot of unity in spring training, and I wonder if I had to do that, because these people been really together. I don't know if that come from winning. This club has been winning for years. But then again, we brought some new guys, many, new coaches, myself. But the level of unity in this group, it's been terrific. Whether it is in the clubhouse, the field, the practice, the dug out, the airplane, the bus, something very incredible. I thank God for it.

FELIPE ALOU: I'm glad to hear somebody's going to face Barry (laughter). Because to walk him, you know, you don't really need Dontrelle. You could bring the left fielder, he'll do that job.

FELIPE ALOU: I think so. I mean, if you brought Dontrelle, I imagine he'll be brought in to do pitch. I want to say this: Anytime we saw a lefty in the bullpen during the regular season, we were hoping they brought the guy in, because they usually brought the guy in to pitch to Barry. Because when they were going to walk him, they just left whoever was pitching and they went out and walked the guy.

FELIPE ALOU: Yeah. Very average baseball game. I was telling somebody today that I bunted Alfonzo yesterday, my No. 5 guy, had nothing to do with the playoff. It was that you could tell that was going to be a one-run game, or at worst a two-run game that it turned out to be like that, the way those guy was throwing the ball. But I would have done that in April.

FELIPE ALOU: I saw it at times, yes. Not all the time. That's the question. This guy is getting to be -- I seen Barry hitting BP. Today he was asking Pujols, the BP guys, to throw some fast ball that far in and some fast ball that far out. I don't know if he going to try to go ahead and reach some of those pitch. He did it yesterday a little bit also. But, yeah, there were times when we knew Willie was going to be walked, bad pitching - but not all the time. With Barry, nobody on, it almost have to be like the bases loaded when they going to have to pitch to him.

FELIPE ALOU: Yeah. Sometime I look up at the stats on the board, and you see guys with a hundred RBIs, 600 at-bats, saw a guy in Milwaukee with a lot, Sexson, so many RBIs, home runs, but also over 600 at-bats. Then I look up, a guy that got 300 something at-bats, 90 RBIs and 45 homers. It's almost like he can't miss. Every time he get pitched to, he either hit a home run or get an RBI or get a base hit. It's not easy to do that, as opposed to when you get 700 at-bats. I know I was a little guy, I guess. I was always hoping to get the most possible at-bats because I knew I would get the most hits, most RBIs, score the most runs and everything. But when you know your at-bats are so limited, it's almost like you're obligated to produce at whatever hour they decide to give you a pitch to hit. So that is a very amazing situation.

FELIPE ALOU: No, our starter today is a guy who is showing us that he can pitch deep, very deep. Unless we have -- you know, you never want to do that, you never want to have to pinch hit for your starter because, I mean, you lose in the game. Ponson is the kind of guy that as long as he's throwing the ball well, and we have a lead or are tied, he's going to be in the game. The bullpen right now is important. We have a tremendous bullpen. But if we can get three consecutive complete games, that's what we looking for.

FELIPE ALOU: You say so many managers or all the managers? Yeah, I believe that. First the other day, I saw a manager tell his pitcher, "Pitch to him." We saw it. A guy pitched four consecutive wide fastballs. But he was ordered to pitch to him. Yeah, I believe if an umpire -- and sometimes Barry is himself, he's shocked all of a sudden to see a pitch, strike in the corner usually. But yeah, I imagine the umpire has at those times because they know they may not see a strike. Now, they might be surprised every once in a while to see a strike.

FELIPE ALOU: Being outside, knowing this field, it all depends. If it stay overcast like this, and the wind and cold, is probably going to be a low score, but not as low as yesterday. Our guy today is going to put the ball in play more than our guy yesterday, no question about it. I know Schmidt didn't strike out many hitter yesterday, but he popped a lot of guys in the air. Ponson is the opposite. The ball's going to be in play on the ground a lot. The guys elevate the fastball more. Nevertheless, it's like the guy yesterday, he got his breaking ball working. And talking about Penny, he's going to be tough again, just like the guy yesterday. But I expect to see the ball in play a lot more, maybe will result in more runs today.