NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 13, 2001

Tony La Russa

TONY LaRUSSA: Tied for first. The home run was really big, but we were in some jeopardy there and I thought Bud was getting a little vulnerable. That's classic daylight play, and they pulled it off beautifully.

TONY LaRUSSA: I think he showed us why he got the assignment. It's a difficult circumstance. I don't know if it's any more difficult than resuming play Monday after the interruption or having a no-hitter and having to get three outs in the 9th. This guy just has the ability to concentrate. He has another thing he does really well, to win a lot of those games. He did it in the no-hitter, I think Duncan and I felt around the 4th sometime he was really starting to lose it a little bit, get real vulnerable. He got through it. He knows he needs three outs in the 5th and he got that extra and made the pitches and got through it. That's really classic winning stuff.

TONY LaRUSSA: I always feel you get what you earn. And I think with our fans, they should have learned when our heart gets broken, the next day we've come out and been a tough ball club. We've never had a carryover where we're out there depressed, discouraged. We're ready to play. We did a real good job of coming out there and competing. We've got some big, big production from Vina, he had a great day. Jim Edmonds, Bud Smith -- I'll tell you, there are some games you have a special memory of. My special memory today would be Dustin Hermanson. He was a real trooper when we talked about setting up and going to the bullpen. And by the fourth game he hadn't made an appearance and he comes up with the importance of getting back in the game and he makes nine outs. We're so happy and thankful, we're going to take his two labs with us on the plane back to Arizona.

TONY LaRUSSA: You know, our style is aggressive. We try to be aggressive. You've seen they've pitched out two or three times. They've got their reports, they know we're pushing. His base hit, the fact he tried to make something happen, it sends a message. We don't spend a lot of time trying to send messages to the other side. We mostly try to take care of our own business. And we tried to send a message to our club: The guy at the top of the lineup was ready to play. Come on.

TONY LaRUSSA: When?

TONY LaRUSSA: I think Hummel has a story tomorrow. If we don't win tomorrow, I won't be here next season. I thought you meant a closer tomorrow night, and hopefully against Atlanta. He has had experience both ways. I think he has got a very durable arm. You can see why. To me, you know, most of what I think of Felipe Alou, and most of you can see why Felipe Alou did it. Those qualities are good to a starter. He is in great shape. He can throw a lot of pitches. You feel he can take the ball 30-some times a year. I think he's just a hell of an asset.

TONY LaRUSSA: It was more of a hope than a plan. Our plan was to play one inning, two innings, three innings. You didn't know for sure what to expect with Bud. That's what I admire about him. I know what I was thinking and I checked with Duncan, around the 4th, it looked to me like he was starting to labor, so the plan was -- he's pitching effectively, when he starts to lose it, let's go to somebody else.

TONY LaRUSSA: That's a good point. I mean, that's one of those nice things that you try to do some times. Like Nolan Ryan, you pitch Charlie Huff behind him, that kind of stuff. I think it helps and it probably -- you know, maybe a couple, three hitters looking at the difference, but I think the most important thing Dustin did -- I think I only saw two pitches that really got away from him. I think he was really together making good pitches and he had some terrific outs.

TONY LaRUSSA: It was the opposite. I was worried we weren't going to wake him up in time. I don't know if he was sleeping or not. If you're going to have a rain delay, it's nice to have it on a weekend. We were watching college football. We had a lot of things to do.

TONY LaRUSSA: With the attitude that we had about planning, it wasn't too much longer before you would have seen someone out there, probably Hackman.

TONY LaRUSSA: One of the easiest decisions that whether it's Bob Brenly or myself has is not having to worry about that stress. These guys know exactly what's at stake. Everybody wants to play in Atlanta on Tuesday. I just --

this has really been a neat club to be with because of this. It has not been an easy year and we keep bouncing back and playing like champs. So hopefully Sunday night we can officially be Champs of something.

TONY LaRUSSA: I thought he did have some good swings. I played him in that game against Schilling last time. A lot of guys struck out and he had one decent at-bat to put a runner in scoring position. I think he'll have a chance to play.