NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v CARDINALS

October 13, 2000

Andy Benes

ANDY BENES: I was just hitting. I got kicked out of my hitting group with McGwire and Clark and Tatis.

ANDY BENES: That's a question for the manager.

ANDY BENES: Well, I don't know. I'm sure guys are very comfortable throwing to Mike. I was one of the guys that didn't throw to Mike very often. He taught me a lot early in the year, then when Carlos came over, he was catching me. I think it's always an adjustment if you're used to working with a guy, so I think it's good that you don't always work with the same guy, just in case something like that happens. Losing Mike was a big blow to us, but it's not a reason not to go out and pitch well. He's just such a -- he's a great student, and he knows what he's doing back there. He's really helped us shut down the running game. So that was a loss. I think we're fortunate that he made the deal for Carlos; Eli's played well when he's had a chance to play. So we're fortunate that we have guys who can step in and play.

ANDY BENES: Well, they're a good veteran group of hitters. They're smart. They pay attention to what's going on in the game. They watch the pitcher. They have a lot of experience on their side. They've won a lot of games, they won 99 games this year, I guess. They won a lot of games last year. They're just a good, solid group of hitters. There's not anybody that you can go about, you really have to adjust and you have to use both sides of the plate, change speeds. You have to pitch to them. So any guy in that line-up is dangerous. It's just a matter of keeping the ball down, make them uncomfortable when they're at the plate, and let our defense work. We have a good defense. We have a lot of respect for them. They can do a lot of things. They have great pitching, and we expect to -- we expect to play a little bit better at home, but we've been a good road team. So we have our work cut out for us. We've been the underdog since day one in the playoffs, so -- and we were the underdog in this series even though we're playing at home. So it's a good team over there. We have a lot of respect for them, but at the same time we expect to beat them. So...

ANDY BENES: I have some -- my knee cartilage is frayed, I need to have it scoped. But it's just a matter of I get my knee drained before I pitch, and I wear a brace and go out and get them. I feel fine. It's not great, I'd like to be completely healthy, but that's what I have. If I wasn't excited about this team and being able to put my piece into hopefully something really nice here at the end of the year, I would have had the surgery two months ago, I would have had it taken care of. But I had the opportunity to pitch. It's not a concern of mine. So I had three starts at the end of the year, and each time I felt stronger, so I've had a couple weeks to prepare for this so I feel ready.

ANDY BENES: It was kind of dejavu last night flying here in the middle of the night. We got here three hours earlier, though. Last year we got here about eight in the morning from Phoenix. I was disappointed I didn't get to play, but that wasn't my decision, and I sat down in the bullpen and I think what I took out of most of that was the excitement of the people here and of just the playoffs. I really relish the opportunity to pitch tomorrow, especially here, just because St. Louis is, I think, the best baseball place you could play, to be able to pitch in this stadium and the playoffs, it's right up there. I don't think you could find a much better place. So it's exciting for me to have the opportunity here against a good team. We need to win. So...

ANDY BENES: Uh-huh. Yeah, Dr. Polette (phonetic spelling) and I are getting to be pretty good buddies. But it's not a big deal. It's something I have to do right now to go out and pitch, and it's a part of my routine, get your knee drained, get your arm stretched and go out and go to work.

ANDY BENES: My right knee.