NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v CARDINALS

October 10, 2000

Darryl Kile

DARRYL KILE: My job as pitcher on this team is to be ready to go when the manager says it is my turn. In the first series, he felt I should go Game 2. In this series, he feels I should go Game 1. I am going to do whatever I can to be ready to go and make as many quality pitches as I can when it is my turn.

DARRYL KILE: No. We, as a team, have a job to do. We have got to go out there and make pitches, get hits, and make defensive plays. That is our job that we've got to do every game and every series that we are still playing. Hopefully, we will come out in this series and play as well as we did in the last series. A starting pitcher has got to go out there and go deep in the game and give our bullpen a break, because they did a lot of work in that first series, did a great job. It is going to come down who gets the pitches, who gets the hits, and who makes the plays. That is who will win the series.

DARRYL KILE: I can't answer that, honestly. But if you look at it the way I try look at things, like that as a manager, the manager that manages our ballclub, he decides who pitches who. And when he decided that it was better for me to go Game 1 this time versus Game 1 last time. I don't know. My job is to be ready to go when he says it is your turn. Every fifth day or every fifth game, if he said it was my turn, I would try to be ready to go and give it everything I had. I think our whole pitching staff is the same way.

DARRYL KILE: Again, I don't want to sound repetitious or anything, but my job as a pitcher on this team is to be ready to go when the manager says it is your turn. If he decides that he wants me to come back a day early, I have got to be ready to go. This time of year there is no such thing as aches an pains. Like I said earlier, I just have got to be ready to go when he says it is your turn. That is kind of as simple as I try to make things when I look at them like that.

DARRYL KILE: What determines whether I go out or not, whether I go out there is him more than anything. Right now you guys are concentrating on something that is not even here yet. My job is to be ready to go tomorrow and give the St. Louis Cardinals my best shot, my best effort, and be ready to go. That is -- right now, that is all I am focusing on.

DARRYL KILE: I am not sure, really. I just know that every series or every game that you play is different. Sometimes you have to win 1-0. You may run into a pitcher who is not making a lot of quality pitches, and sometimes you have to win 1-0. Then there are games where the pitcher on your side wasn't throwing the ball particularly well and the offense has got to pick him up, and maybe we will win 7-6. At this time of the year, it doesn't matter how it gets done but as long as a win or a victory comes out of it.

DARRYL KILE: Yes and no. The playoffs are a stress. It is a lot of work to be ready to go. What is fun about the postseason is the winning, and that is what has been fun for us this year. We have won some tight ballgames and a few big series. That is what makes it fun. What makes it great to come to the ballpark every day is our clubhouse. The guys in our clubhouse, the attitude that they present every day, the work ethic that they have and the focus they have. That is what makes it great to come to the clubhouse. What is fun about baseball is winning.

DARRYL KILE: I can't say anything that he is doing is surprising. The talent that he has, he can pretty much do whatever he puts his mind to. But what I did underestimate about Jimmy was his thinking. He is a very smart player. He puts a lot of thought process into everything he does, as far as where to position himself, his at-bats he tries to take, who is pitching, on his defensive focus and offensive. I just didn't realize that along with the tremendous talent that he has, he has such knowledge about what he is trying to do, and he has great game preparation. That is what separated him this year from a lot of other players.

DARRYL KILE: Not really. My job is to be ready to go to play whatever team that we have to play, put my best foot forward, and give them everything I have as far as competing. We have to win ballgames no matter who we're playing. They do too.

DARRYL KILE: For me, it really wasn't unsettling. I had an opportunity. I made a decision to go play in Colorado, and I loved it there. Unfortunately, I didn't perform real well. The Cardinals made an effort to bring me in here to St. Louis. We have turned some things around, and I performed a little better, and hopefully I will continue to do so.

DARRYL KILE: Look at it this way: Whoever is pitching that day is the guy that has got to get a win. That guy, in my mind, is the No.1 guy. Whether it be Ankiel or Andy or Pat or Garrett or Britt, if he happens to get a start, or whoever gets a start the day, he is pitching, he is the No.1 guy. That changes with whoever is pitching that day. If you look at it in the respect that we do to win every ballgame, that is the way it should be looked at.

DARRYL KILE: At that stretch in our season scheduling, we had tough stretch. We had a back-to-back series, a bunch of games against real good ballclubs back-to-back. And at that time, the Reds were playing real good ball and making a little run on us. The most important thing to come out of that series was that we took three games from a real good ballclub, and it helped us maintain our lead in the division. That was the biggest part about that season. Other than that, it doesn't really mean a whole lot.