NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 18, 2001

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: We're still going to play it by ear. If we choose to go with Maddux and Glavine on three days, both of them are -- were well under 100 pitches. Tommy was right at it I guess. Mad Dog, if you don't count the intentional walks, is under 90. So both of them are set.

BOBBY COX: Our players are talking it up real good about winning, so we just have to hope that they make some mistakes and they have to hope that our -- they got to beat our pitchers, too. They got to hope the same thing. There's some mistakes made; that's all.

BOBBY COX: I thought he was great. I thought Morris was great. I thought both of them were outstanding. Maybe Morris made the one mistake and Schilling made a couple that got caught. There was two lineouts at short and second, the same inning with no outs. Those balls go in, you know, the game's a big-time difference. The ball's got to bounce your way against those guys. When you do hit them, they got to fall in for you because you don't have the opportunity to hit very many square, right on the heart of the bat.

BOBBY COX: I remember him more as a low-ball pitcher, kept the ball down, way down in the strike zone and hit the outside corner. Now, he's more well-rounded I think, because he'll change your eye level. He'll go way up out of the strike zone intentionally. That's one thing we're going to have to do, is lay off the high fastball with two strikes because it's run up there intentionally. Don Sutton pitched that way for years, even at an older age he'd run the ball up, throw 85 miles an hour when Schilling's throwing 96. Don could still throw it by them.

BOBBY COX: I haven't seen Javy this morning, but on the plane he was good. After the game in the press conference, I thought he said some good things. He said, "I'm fine." So I know he's not 100 percent. It's bothering him some. But he's caught a great game. His target was low. He moved good. So he'll be back in there.

BOBBY COX: Yeah.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, he said, "I don't want to live in the past." He said, "This was a big one, yeah."

BOBBY COX: Outstanding. He's really a great defensive shortstop. I think he's made three errors, and I think one of them was legit. The other two, bad hops. He is as sure-handed as a shortstop as I've ever had. And he's hitting the ball. He's really started hitting the ball good. I don't feel like I have to pinch-hit for him much.

BOBBY COX: When you play to have fun, like he's always smiling. He can laugh at himself after striking out or popping up and things like that. He's brought a lot of energy to the team, I think. He was a spark when we brought him up, and he won a game right away with the opposite field home run. His brother's been with him the entire series, Houston and this series. They have a lot of fun together. We're all at Mortons the other night, half of our team and the Giles, both groups of them. It was just fun being around them. He has fun playing the game, so his composure is great.

BOBBY COX: I really don't know. I've got this thing in my mind that we could go with three starters because our bullpen is so strong. It's got depth in it. We've always felt that if our starters could give us six, we're certainly going to cover the seventh, eighth and ninth. Whoever starts doesn't have to throw a lot of pitches. They can go ahead and go hard for five or six innings. That's what we're looking for.

BOBBY COX: They feel confident. They really -- the talk in the clubhouse and on the bench is nothing but confidence. I think Bernard Gilkey, he hasn't played a lot, but he has a knack for keeping the guys up on the bench and in the clubhouse, even when we're down. He's got a lot of good little sayings that can get the guys going.

BOBBY COX: Well, if we pitch a good game, we've got a heck of a chance of winning. He doesn't make many mistakes for a power pitcher. He does not get many balls down the middle. So... A lot of teams haven't figured out how to beat him.

BOBBY COX: I would prefer scoring first, if we could. Doesn't mean we're going to bunt in the first inning. But you know you're not going to get a lot of runs, no. I think they know they're not going to get a lot of runs either.

BOBBY COX: We hit the ball really good in Houston, even the 1-0 game, we lined in the three double plays and hit into another one on the ground that was scalded. We could have had five or six runs in that ball game. Our guys feel like, you know, they can hit right now. We hit some balls good against Randy. You know you're not going to get many against him, but we had some long balls that were just short of going out. Late in the game we hit a couple line drives, too. We got some guys that are really tough outs right now.

BOBBY COX: Well, we sure like playing at home before our own fans. It was great last night in Arizona. I thought atmosphere was great there for their home team, and it will be just as good here.