NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GIANTS v CARDINALS

October 10, 2002

Tony La Russa

TONY LaRUSSA: I don't think so. Just because, you know, we saw him in Pittsburgh, we saw him twice this year. He's a huge talent and he's been pitching better and better. We really expected him to throw well. Let me ask you, which is better, excellent or outstanding?

TONY LaRUSSA: Okay. He was excellent. Somebody is going to ask me about Woody and I thought Woody was outstanding, but Schmidt was excellent. We talked about it before the game. We knew we were in for a guy that has an exceptional arm; that has been making a lot of quality starts.

TONY LaRUSSA: Yeah, I think he was fine. It's incredible to me. I've been around a while, how a guy could pitch that well, having the routine that he's had, and it's the third time he's done it. Just a couple bullpens to come out there -- first home run, I thought Aurilia got on a really good pitch and then he hits a curveball for two runs. Woody was just outstanding. I can't figure out how he can be so good when he's pitching solidly. He's a huge competitor.

TONY LaRUSSA: Oh, absolutely. We were all yelling, including myself, "Send him, send him." The way Schmidt is pitching, you have a chance to make a dent and tie the game. You had a great runner, he had to make a perfect throw. Vina is a good RBI guy. They just made the pitch, they made the play. But absolutely, that was the play, from our side.

TONY LaRUSSA: He was excellent. Control was excellent. Stuff was excellent. And a couple of times that he got behind the count, the pitch that he made, 2-0 or 3-1, 2-1, was not backing off his good stuff and throwing the ball down the middle. He made -- he really, really pitched well.

TONY LaRUSSA: Well, in one sense, it's a perfect setup for us. I mean, it's been a really hard year. This is a hard start. But I know that -- I know how ready we'll be when we go to San Francisco.

TONY LaRUSSA: See, I don't see it the same way. I think -- I'm trying to think of anybody that had the birds and the bat that didn't look like they were struggling at the plate today, except for Perez. Schmidt was just working us over. In fact, one of the clutch at-bats, Tino walked, which is always a really good sign when he's showing some patience, because he gets a little aggressive. And we talked about it before in the Arizona series, next to Vina, he hit the ball harder than anybody. So, I think he's got a lot of production coming because he's doing a lot of things right.