NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 16, 2001

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: Absolutely. For a lot of different reasons. At times he was able to overpower some of their hitters with his fastball. Got them to swing at a lot of sliders in the dirt. Used his split finger economically but effectively in the ball game today. I mean, through seven innings he had only thrown 85 pitches. That's probably about the best he's done this year as far as monitoring his pitch count. Unfortunately they made him throw 40 in the last two innings. He was locked in. He was focused. He had a real good game plan against their offense and he just went out and executed it.

BOB BRENLY: I'd like to say he's our secret weapon but he's not much of a secret anymore because opposing teams know all about Craig Counsell. You can apply any number of terms to him, overachiever, you know, one of those guys that makes the most out of his talent. But he has been outside of the two big guys in our rotation and Gonzo, he's probably been our most valuable player this season with his versatility. We used him in the leadoff spot, we use him in the two-spot, play him at second, third, short, first base one game. He's one of the soundest, fundamental ball players I have ever had the pleasure to be around and I'm ecstatic he's on our team.

BOB BRENLY: I'm not sure if I can put my finger on that. He was just locked in today. At times, Randy will try to overpower the ball and that's when his mechanics fall apart a little bit. Today he was just in a real nice rhythm, he wasn't trying to muscle his pitches. He was allowing himself to get into a good position to release the ball. He was hitting his spots consistently. That will keep the pitch count down.

BOB BRENLY: Any runs you can score off of Greg Maddux are big, I don't care what time of the ball game it is. Especially with Randy on the mound. We've had problems this year scoring when Randy pitches. To spot him a run in the first inning like that and allow him to go out and pitch with the lead I think allowed him to relax, it allowed our offense to relax a little bit. Even though we didn't make a lot of noise against Maddux during the rest of the ball game, Randy really made that one run stand up today.

BOB BRENLY: I think it was just he hit his spots better today. He kept pitches out of the middle of the plate. When he did come in, it was off the plate inside. You know, basically that was it. He just put the ball where he wanted on a very dangerous hitter.

BOB BRENLY: Well, we thought about it. Against Maddux in the past we've had a lot better success trying to play hit-and-run. He's such a great fielder out there on the mound, just because you get a bunt down is no guarantee you're going to advance a runner. We tried to play a little hit-and-run in the ball game today three or four times. Unfortunately we hit balls, couple of cases, right back to Maddux. Couple other cases we fouled pitches off. I just prefer to be more aggressive against Maddux than to play for one single run.

BOB BRENLY: Well, we had BK warming up in the bullpen in the eighth inning with one out in the eighth inning, got BK up in the event things got out of control. Those back-to-back base hits in the ninth, we thought about it. But nobody on the bench wanted to go out and tell Randy he was coming out of the game (laughter). That kind of ended that.

BOB BRENLY: As long as he's pitching effectively. I mean, that was kind of the game plan all season long when we tried to limit his pitches as best we could, was with the idea that at this time of the season we could extend him a little bit. You know, like I said, had it not been for 40 pitches in the last two innings, this would have been one of his better complete game outings as far as pitch count goes. But 125 is still well within the realm of what he can handle. He is a very unique pitcher and can do things out there on the mound that a lot of guys cannot do. One of those things is pitch effectively with high pitch counts. He proved that today.

BOB BRENLY: I was hoping for it. I'm hoping for it again tomorrow. We hope for it every day. We all know what Randy is capable of doing on a given day. This was one of those given days. He went out there and pitched like the Big Unit that we've all come to know and love.

BOB BRENLY: It was never on his back as far as we were concerned. I mean, we talked about this a little bit yesterday and I've talked about it throughout this post-season that you look at his ERA and some of those games that he lost and the way those games were lost, you know, certainly he pitched well enough to win a lot of those ball games. Hopefully, this will turn the focus to something other than what happened in the past.

BOB BRENLY: Well, he just seemed to be very focused. You know, there are certain games when he seems to get a little more keyed up, a little more emotional going into the ball game. Today he just seemed very relaxed and very focused. Going over the hitters, he had a few questions about some of the guys in their line-up. But he was focused. That's the best way I can put it. Didn't seem to be any distractions whatsoever. He knew what he had to do and he went out and did it.