NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v ASTROS

October 10, 2001

B.J. Surhoff

B.J. SURHOFF: I don't. I've only been here a year and two months so if there is one, I don't know about it. Obviously they've played some series in the last few years and the Braves have come out on top. But a lot of guys are not back from the Braves. There's only half of the guys that have been here throughout the run. There's been a large turnover. But we just -- you know, the playoff games are going to be tight. We were able to get a situation where we got a man on third, no outs, and we got a run across the board. And you always want to get ahead and make the other team have to chase. Glavine made good pitches and the other guys made good pitches, too.

B.J. SURHOFF: Well, I knew Brad hit it real good. There's one spot on that wall that has padding. It's the Bud Light sign. I knew it was right above -- going to be right in that area. I was looking to play it off there. If it's anywhere else, you have no idea where the ball's going to go off this wall. It went above, and there's a little ledge between the yellow line on the top of that sign, and it hit right in that ledge area. Exactly where, I don't know. But, fortunately, nobody reached over in a situation like we had one year in New York. The ball came right back to me, went past me, I chased it down. It was hit so hard, I had a chance to keep him to a single.

B.J. SURHOFF: Well, you know when Glavine pitches you're going to get a lot of ground balls. Same with Maddux and Burkett. The first three guys in our pitching staff are ground ball pitchers. You know you're going to get a lot of plays. They keep the ball down, change speeds, keep the ball off the center of the plate, barrel of the bat. That's their game. As an infielder and outfielder, you know you're going to be getting plays. You're in it, and it's easier to make plays. Fortunately, guys did make plays. Marcus made one excellent play on Craig Biggio. That was a real, real nice play he made. When you know you're gonna get plays, you're on your toes. Guys were reading the ball off the bat well. We didn't have a whole lot of plays in the outfield. That's not uncommon. When Tommy pitches, it's usually a fairly calm day for me.

B.J. SURHOFF: Right. Obviously I was on second base. Any ball right of you, you're taught to go back. But the hard part with Andruw is they play him to pull so much. I kind of -- it was hit so hard, and I turned. I just expected it to be right at Lugo. But he made a diving play. Once he dove and got it, I froze, kind of went back to the base. The ball was in the dirt, I thought it squirted away, I thought I had a good chance to go to third. Had it gone through, it just depends on how hard the outfielders charged it and what kind of break I would have gotten.

B.J. SURHOFF: I got hit in the hand. It's a little sore right now. I think I'll be fine for Friday. We'll treat it on the plane.

B.J. SURHOFF: On the left hand. Just this part of the hand here (indicating the side of the palm). I think I'll treat it tonight on the plane, probably when I get back, work on it tomorrow, get in early Friday and try and work on it some more. Obviously it hurt a little bit. It's gonna be a little sore, but I think I'm going to be all right.