NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

October 1, 2003

Felipe Alou

FELIPE ALOU: Yeah, I thought they was going to bring him since they said he was going to be used to pitch to him. I thought that was the time they were going to use him. But they walked. They got out pretty good. Pavano came in after that. He slammed the door on us, Pavano did.

FELIPE ALOU: Is that a question?

FELIPE ALOU: You never know what could happen. But we had a lead at that time, 5-4. There was a situation there where I think I really was up. All three pitches that got them out of the jam were inside fast ball, middle in. All three guys got jammed, really, Alfonzo and Benny, by two different pitchers. They make great pitches there. Yeah, if we took a better lead or more comfortable lead, no question about it. But they came out of that situation with only one run scored as opposed to maybe a disastrous rally. And they went back to the dug out loaded with energy, I say.

FELIPE ALOU: Yeah, it helps. We know that it's going to be a tough series. We've been talking about it. We were hoping to get out of here 2-0. We pitch our No. 2 guy, except our No. 2 guy was a little rusty. And really, if he was rusty today, you imagine him two days later. That's one of the reasons why we pitch him today. And Rueter is a guy, we believe he can pitch with more days off and still throw strikes. But, yes, experience should help us going with a tie, going to the place they tell me is going to be 50,000 people who really were afraid they were going to lose their team. They going to be all out for their club. So it helps to have a team that's been around like our club has been around.

FELIPE ALOU: Oh, it was great energy, as good energy as we had all year. And then Sidney got behind almost every guy. He had to come in. I believe they got three or four hits, groundball,seeing-eye type of thing, including the one by Conine right over the pitcher's mound we couldn't make a play, was impossible play to make. After that it was another groundball that went through. Usually you don't see all those groundball get through. Every time they put the bat on the ball, not any was through. Also the wind today, for whatever reason, the wind fooled us more than once. There was some ball that change path, change direction, at least three of them that I saw.

FELIPE ALOU: Well, in a game like this, you have to be really up to par completely. Especially against a club that swings the bats, you know, they swing the bat aggressively. They have the base runner. Right away in the first inning, the two guys that didn't get on yesterday, they got on... both guys. He got out of that very well with one run scored. Then he went out when game was, what, three innings. Real good inning. We gave him a lead, then they came back. Some of the pitches they hit were tough pitches. But nevertheless, he was still behind on the count when those pitches were hit. I saw a good fastball. I look up and I saw them at 93, 92, some good swings and misses and sliders and things like that. But they're a tough ballclub to pitch to, especially when those two guys get on base, is very tough club.

FELIPE ALOU: Well, what happened with this club, they hit almost .300 against lefties last year, I don't know .250 something against righty. We want to go back to back with righty because of the way things went yesterday. And it didn't work out. But Rueter is going to keep the ball way over there. The ballpark is bigger over there, starting in left centerfield. Whatever damage they going to do is going to have to be mostly to the opposite field. So Rueter is an ideal guy, for me anyway, to pitch in that ballpark. Keep the ball away mostly. 90% of his pitches will go to the outer part of the plate as opposed to having some breaking balls, having some high pitches they could put over the left field fence.

FELIPE ALOU: To me it's not deflating. To me it's part of this game. It's the kind of stuff that I see it happen a lot in this game. The possibility exists because my guy wasn't really throwing that great. And it happens.

FELIPE ALOU: I don't know. This is his first playoff, I imagine. Might have been a little bit of overdoses of adrenaline or whatever. Because he looked pretty good. He threw the ball with great life. And then the ball that was hit out by Encarnacion didn't have much behind it. I don't want to take anything away from Encarnacion, because there wasn't many balls hit over the fence today, except one guy. And then there was some breaking balls that were hit that they had the bite that we see from Nathan. I don't know, we pitched him we thought enough to keep him sharp. Might have been a little bit of both. Maybe a little bit of trying to do too much first outing in the playoff, and maybe a little bit of being rusty a little bit.

FELIPE ALOU: Pierre is a guy who hits the ball all over the field, mostly to right center. We have some maps on those guys. I can tell you that from where we were, you know, that ball was foul for a long, long time, and then at the very end, the ball came back and landed fair. That's what I said earlier, the wind today didn't work if favor of the Giants. There was a ball hit by Harris that we thought Cruz had a shot at it, and he just took it away.

FELIPE ALOU: Not really. I believe what happened there, the kid panic, he try to make a pitch in and elevate the ball. It wound up being down and un-hittable. He ripped it past the first baseman. Just a matter of a young guy trying to make a perfect pitch, and it didn't happen for him. I didn't believe they wanted to give him such a good, hittable pitch.

FELIPE ALOU: It would be great to keep him off base. But is going to be a very difficult task to do. He's a guy that got over 200 hits. He hits to all field. It took a guy like Schmidt last night to keep him off base. So he's going to get on. He's not going to walk too many times, but he's going to get his hits. We going to have to control his running. We really did today. They were running third base and everything. But we have really -- the base runner is not what beat us today. They got a bunch of hits. They got a bunch of hittable pitches that they hit 'em, and there were some pitches that weren't very good pitches and they still hit 'em. Not only Pierre, but all of them.