NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 14, 2001

Curt Schilling

CURT SCHILLING: That's a gear I've always felt that I've had. Johnny Podres, very early in my career, him and Jim Fregosi both, allowed me to pitch later in some ball games maybe when some other guys wouldn't have. You learn a lot making mistakes late in ball games. You work that four days in between in preparation, physically and mentally, and in the off season to have that extra gear when you need it, tonight I needed it, and Damian and I were on the same page, and we got ahead in the counts, and you try to feed on hitters' aggressiveness as much as anything in that situation, and we made the pitches we had to make.

CURT SCHILLING: I felt good both nights. I tried to take the game plan I used the other night and roll it over and make some adjustments where I thought maybe I needed to make them. Tonight was about defense. We made some huge plays early in the ball game. Counsell saved a run that might have ended up making that game a 1-0 Cardinal win, had we not made the play in the first. I was probably a lot more nervous tonight than I was Game 1. I'm not real sure why. I've never pitched a clinching game. That probably had something to do with it. I felt good. I probably didn't throw as many curve balls as I did the other night, but I felt velocitywise, fastballwise, locationwise, I had as good if not better stuff tonight.

CURT SCHILLING: We're not in the World Series yet. That's how you measure the postseason. Actually I would be remiss if I didn't first say tip of the cap to the Cardinals. They played a phenomenal series. I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for that city and the fans in that city and that organization and Tony LaRussa and a lot of guys on that team. Nobody deserved to go home tonight after this one tonight. Everybody that paid to watch and watch on t.v., we gave them everything they could want in a postseason series. It was fitting it went to the bottom of the 9th in the 5th game.

CURT SCHILLING: Very fitting, both he and Tony have been on the edge with everybody except us, his teammates, all year long. The media has vilified Matt and Tony on and off all year long, but the one thing this club has beyond I think any club I've ever played with is character and that character is unbeatable. We've had a lot of time this year with our backs against the wall where no one expected us to do it, and it ended up being somebody no one expected to do it doing it for us. We've relied on -- every guy on our roster and I truly believe this, and I think if you look into it, it bears the truth, has one a game for us, and we wouldn't be here without every single guy that has played for us this year. There is a core group of guys you count on, but you don't go all the way without 25 to 35 guys, and we've counted on Matty to do it all year long, and when he wasn't hitting, the media was getting on him. As a pitcher, I knew he was still winning games for us defensively, which is just as big as anything in my mind, but it's not a glamorous stat and it doesn't get written about, and is always overlooked but they kept their heads up and they're both winners.

CURT SCHILLING: I don't worry about stuff like that. My thought was we were going to win 1-0 at that point unless we scored a few more. In a game like this, much different than the regular season, you don't have to have the future in mind as far as facing these guys again. You pull out all the stops and you really simplify the game in the sense. I didn't look at it as I needed to shut them out for nine. I looked at it as I needed to put up a zero at the top of the next inning, and to do that I need to get the first guy out, once I get the first guy, I need to get the 2nd guy. You simplify in a sense what you're thinking because you can get overwhelmed mentally in games like this. If you don't allow yourself to do that, you tend to be ahead of the pace against some guys.

CURT SCHILLING: It's much funner afterwards than it is to be a part of. It's a hair pulling, nail biting, teeth grinding experience. And when you win, it's exuberance. When you lose it's devastating. We both knew coming in tonight one season was over, and you saw 20-some guys play like everything was on the line, nobody left anything on the field. Again, they played a phenomenal series. Tip of the hat to them. And I think whoever comes out of this, comes out of this National League, is going to represent the National League very well.

CURT SCHILLING: I was cussing I think, and screaming and jumping up and down like everybody else.