NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v ASTROS

October 11, 2001

Larry Dierker

LARRY DIERKER: Well, I think we feel confident playing on the road, obviously. We're unhappy to be 0-2. I think we would have been satisfied 1-1. But we'll just see what we can do with our backs against the wall. We can't afford to lose another game, that's for sure. We've got a good pitcher with Shane going out there to try to keep us in it and we have a good pitcher with Oswalt if Shane makes it. We have a good pitcher with Miller if we get two here. Although, I would say the odds are squarely against us, I don't think we feel like we're out of it yet. I certainly don't.

LARRY DIERKER: I think it helps. I'm not sure how much it helps, but just to get a couple wins and win a series here, those games were close and hard-fought. We had enough to get two of them. Two out of three isn't good enough this time. But this time if we can get the first two we can go home. You find yourself doing some crazy things in superstitions and everything else, people standing in different places and saying, "Move over. I was standing here when we scored." Things like that. I got a call last night about 7 o'clock from Bruce Molzan of Ruggles, he said when the Rockets were up against elimination in the first round against Phoenix, I called Rudy and he came over and I cooked for him. They won. Then every time he cooked thereafter, he came over and I cooked for him, they won, they ended up NBA champs. He said, "I want to cook for you."

LARRY DIERKER: A little bit of everything. We weren't even planning to go out. With that kind of scenario, I said, "Heck, I've been as superstitious as the next guy." We went right on over there and like I said, had a little bit of everything.

LARRY DIERKER: The one on Westheimer. So I hope we can do what the Rockets did and I hope we can be in this room after the last game was won, like Rudy T was. I know it wasn't easy for them, but they made it. The way we've started out here is certainly not going to be easy for us.

LARRY DIERKER: Bruce picked it up.

LARRY DIERKER: I think that sometimes you begin to feel that way. The worst thing you can do is start feeling sorry for yourself or start blaming the other team for playing well. You just have to face up to it and play better yourself. I think it is interesting with the play that Giles made on Biggio, which is -- was just an outstanding play late in the game. The game before, they played defense for him. I mean, you know, here's a guy making the greatest fielding play of the game and it's a guy they've taken out before to put Lockhart in to play defense.

LARRY DIERKER: This is the exact same thing that we did during the regular season. Almost everything is. We have the same kind of workout, same kind of routine. In my evaluation of players for line-ups, basically I played Vizcaino when I felt like he gave us a strong advantage offensively. If I thought it was a toss-up, I'd play Lugo. If Lugo had done well against the pitcher, I'd play Lugo. Certainly there's more Lugo in our future than there is Vizcaino if we look two years down the road. So I think we need to play him and let him know he's our guy. He's a good player. But Vizcaino's had a tremendous amount of success against Burkett, so he'll play tomorrow night.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, he talked to me but not very long because he walked into my office just as I walked out of the shower. Sometimes it's-- you don't feel like it's the appropriate moment when the other person's standing there naked. But he did talk to me briefly about not giving up and trying to, you know, this is where we need leadership, to try to build the guys up. It's not over yet, that sort of thing. Just for maybe a minute. Then he left. I think we might have dinner again tonight, so I might get the rest of the story after the workout (smiling).

LARRY DIERKER: Well, first of all, we're not going to have a meeting. We've done that in the past, and I think in some ways that calls attention to the situation. Maybe adds more pressure. But I think the best way that I've found over the years is to start planting the seed with three or four guys and let that spread. And what I would say, if I were one of the players, is, "Okay, here's the situation... If we lose another game to the Braves, we're on vacation. And if we keep winning, we have a chance to go to the World Series. So either way, it's a good life. We're making some money. We all want to win." I don't think anybody's going to get lazy or make any mistakes through lack of effort at this point so I don't think they need to be inspired. More of just a calm down, play your best, whatever happens, it will be all right.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, Shane is probably the most underrated pitcher in the National League, at least in my opinion. Every year that he hasn't had some kind of surgery or long disabling injury, he's been able to win 15 games, give or take a few. He had 14 this year, but he started late in April and he had to miss a couple starts with a bad back. So he's right on that pace. The league ERA is a little higher now. He almost never does anything to beat himself. He doesn't walk many batters. He's a good fielder. He can get his bunts down. He's just a solid player. I think that maybe the reason he doesn't get as much notice is he is not a real hard thrower and he doesn't strike out that many hitters. He used to with his split, but his split has not been quite as good in recent years. But his control is just outstanding. So he can do to a team the same type of thing that Glavine did to us yesterday, and that is just to kind of peck around the edges of the strike zone and make hitters impatient and get them to swing at pitches they don't want to hit and have them hit pitches he wants them to hit and make outs. When you pitch that way, you have to depend on your defense. It's obvious if you send a guy out there that strikes out 10 or 15 guys every game, there aren't that many plays left to make for the fielders. When you go out there and strike out three or four batters, you need your defense. I think we've got pretty good fielding.

LARRY DIERKER: I don't know if I'd use the word weird, but I think that it's unusual that a team of the quality of our team and probably each one of those playoffs, except for '97, I think '98, '99 and this year we've had really excellent teams, good pitching and good hitting, good fielding. And we've done that consistently throughout the year. I think it's a little abnormal that we wouldn't win more games than we have. But when I watch the games one by one, it hasn't been a surprise how we've been beaten. We've been beaten with good pitching. That's the same way we generally win when we win, is with good pitching. So there is an explanation. It's not that weird, but I think it's -- it's not likely that you're going to run into a guy that's right on his game day after day after day. It seems like that's what has happened to us. I still think, you know, that that can turn. I mean, we had a couple of losing streaks this year and we got those turned around and played well afterwards. So we have to be able to do that one more time.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, the only thing I can say at this time is he hasn't thrown yet today and he was sore yesterday. So until he goes in and gets his treatment, which he does every day. He's an older guy that has had some surgery, he requires a little maintenance that other guys don't have to do. I frequently see him with a ice bag or heat pack on his shoulder. So this is something that's been a factor all year. He hasn't missed many games because of it, but sometimes we haven't been able to pitch him two or three days in a row because of it. He's very honest about it, which I appreciate. Some guys will go out there and try to be the hero and throw their arm out and not succeed anyway. Generally speaking, you're not going to be successful if your arm's hurting bad enough to call your attention to it, because it makes it hard to concentrate on making pitches. I think after he plays catch today, then we'll probably have a better idea as to whether he's available tomorrow. And probably it won't be until he gets his treatment and plays catch tomorrow until we really know.

LARRY DIERKER: It's hard for me. I'm pretty easy-going guy most of the time but I don't like to lose any more than anyone else does. This year I think we all feel a sense of urgency because you don't know how many chances you're going to get. Four out of five years is pretty good. But some of our players are getting a little older and I'm getting a little further along in my managing career. So we don't know if we're going to get this chance again. Just one or two days and you feel like you've almost blown it. That game was a game that was there to be won. We had the lead in the eighth inning. It was a typical game, Jackson pitches the eighth, Wagner pitches the ninth and we win. That's basically been the way we won 93 games. This particular time, it didn't work. I think one of the things that probably frustrates me more, and I would imagine is probably true of any manager, is when you have people that you know don't cover the team very often, and they see the team only two or three times a month in person, and then want to come in and say, "Well, why didn't you do this instead of that?" A lot of times I feel like if they'd been watching all these games right along, they would know. I wouldn't have to tell them. But I also know it's my job to tell them and I didn't do a very good job that day.

LARRY DIERKER: No, not really.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, I think if you had the type of team that did a lot of running and hitting and running and bunting that you might try to do even more of that if you haven't been scoring. If you have a team like ours where we only have two or three guys that do that sort of thing, you just have to do it with those two or three guys and hope the other guys can get their extra base hits and walks. Our offense is really similar to what the Braves have, particularly when they had Javy in it when basically they got a couple guys at the top of the line-up they might hit and run with. Everybody else is a home run threat. When you have a guy that can hit the ball out of the park and then you put on the hit and run sign, the pitch may come in around the ankles or outside or shoulder height. There's no way you know where the pitch is going to be and the hitter is concentrating on making contact. In which case he might not take his full power swing because he doesn't want to miss the ball and have the runner thrown out. So essentially what you do, if you have a power hitter, is you take his power away. I'm not inclined to do that. I don't think Bobby is. I don't think anybody around the league likes to hit and run very much with guys that can hit home runs. So you just have to dance with the ones who brought you here. You have to play the game the way you played it. You have to believe that since you won a lot of games playing that way that you can continue winning games that way. As far as tinkering with the line-up or starting to employ strategies that you haven't used that much during the course of the year, I think you send a message without speaking that you're in a panic mode. I don't feel that way. I don't feel like I'm in a panic mode, and I don't want to do anything to give that impression to anyone, and especially to our players.