NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v CARDINALS

October 2, 2000

Darryl Kile

DARRYL KILE: Yes. I guess. It does not matter. I will face the Braves some time. I will try to prepare, be ready to go, whether tomorrow another day, I don't know.

DARRYL KILE: There are nerves every time you pitch. You are excited, anxious to get things rolling. Hopefully you did good work, the preparation, and you are ready to go.

DARRYL KILE: At this stage of the season, the postseason, I don't think it matters, wins and losses. I gave up one too many runs. The guy pitched a good ball game, we lost. Hopefully the next time I pitch, I will give up less than he gives up.

DARRYL KILE: I think everyone, think anyone that is in the postseason has done the work throughout the year to get there in the first place. They made the plays, made pitches, gotten hits, I think that's the illusion of the looseness. Everyone flows, on every team, they did the work, now it is time to play. Hopefully, when the game starts in the postseason, you make the pitches, make the plays and get the hits.

DARRYL KILE: You know, I can't really answer that. I don't know. Every time you take the ball on your day, whatever day it is, you try to prepare the way you think or do what you think you need to do to be successful, to give the team the best chances to win. You try to do these things. Every game, every year, every situation is different, you try to do what you think is necessary to give your team the best chance to win.

DARRYL KILE: I think it is huge, really. I think it is big, to be up in front of the fans in St. Louis, everyone talks about how the fans here are great, unless you played here and live here and see it on National TV, you do not truly understand it. Opening up in the Playoffs, the country will get to see how awesome the fans are, truly understand why a lot of players think that way.

DARRYL KILE: Where? It is just a number. Mike Matheny, obviously he will be with us in the dugout. When he was not here the first game, a lot of guys wrote his name on there, were thankful for the effort he gave us this year. It is a small tribute.

DARRYL KILE: I think, whoever won the year before is the one to beat. It happens to be the same team for a few times. Whatever team you are playing is the team you have to beat. I am sure the Giants are not thinking about the Braves. Who are they playing; the Mets? I am sure the Braves are not thinking about the Giants or Mets but thinking about playing us. You have to think like that or you get burned.

DARRYL KILE: I think Mike; what he did, you cannot measure, the way he went about his business, the character, or person he is. It is just -- strictly from a pitching standpoint, he bailed me out of a number of jams by throwing a guy out, blocking a guy when there is a guy on third base. Just the baseball part, throwing out runners, stuff like that. As far as the non-baseball part, you cannot measure, because he is such a great guy, just seeing how professional, how he goes about his business, is something that rubbed off on me, I think it has on the whole team; that is why 24 guys went to visit him in the hospital the other night.

DARRYL KILE: As a pitcher, there is no difference to who you are throwing to. Every catcher has their strengths and weaknesses, they have their philosophy and how you will get a hitter out. As a pitcher, you set what you think you need to do, you and the catcher get together, come up with a game plan, what pitches you need to make, how you want to go about against a certain lineup. The thing there with Carlos: How do you want to pitch with this guy, this guy, if you want to get in trouble, what do you want to do to get out of it early.

DARRYL KILE: It was big to help us

get into the Playoffs. All the stuff that happened during the season, does not really matter, you cannot change it, cannot do anything about it, good or bad. Right now, we played some games against the Braves, we had to win them to maintain the lead in the division. We won them. Hopefully we will play solid baseball again here. We will see what happens.

DARRYL KILE: If you look at it this way, a win in April won't help you win one now. The playing, the length of time, the work you do throughout the season will help you. A win here -- April or May won't help you win a ball game in the Playoffs. What helps you win a ball game in Playoffs is good pitches, defensive plays and getting good swings as a hitter. Hopefully we will do all those things; we will see what happens.

DARRYL KILE: What do you mean?

DARRYL KILE: As far as the team winning or me in general?

DARRYL KILE: I am not sure how to do that. At this stage of the game, as far as the year, the time and postseason, whatever, you need to have all three things going in order to win big games, win a Series, Division Titles, you have to have offense, defense and have pitching. During the course of a long season, parts of those will be good, parts will be bad. The other, parts going well, I have to try pick up the parts that are not doing things well. Hopefully in the postseason, you have all three of those things on top of the game, you throw all your best for your club out there. When you have all three aspects of baseball, playing at your highest level, those are the ball clubs that win in the postseason.

DARRYL KILE: I don't think there is a team we can play in postseason that you cannot run out two or three, maybe even four starting pitchers' names, awesome starters, you've just got to go out there and try to win the game. Sometimes you have to win 1-0 or 7-6. Whatever it takes to win that day is what you as a team have to do in order to advance it.

DARRYL KILE: As far as the personality of this team, it is -- I think they, everyone on this team has a real good idea of separating game time and non-game time. When it is not game time or not work time, would probably be a better way to say that. Guys are relaxed, loose, they are staying focused on what they have to do; whichever way they do it. Some guys do crossword puzzles, listen to music. When it's time to play the game, everyone is on the same page, that is what this team does well.

DARRYL KILE: I think whenever you have an opportunity to win a first game, you should take it. Hopefully, we will come out tomorrow with, like I said, all three things I was talking about, being on top of the game. I hope the defense is right on time, I hope the pitchers are making good pitches and hope offense is taking good at-bats. Hopefully we will come away with a win. If they don't happen, you go to Game 2 and try to do the same thing. If there is a ball club that all three of -- you have all three things, play at a high level, have executed everything, did everything we could, and you lose, well you just tip your cap and move on and try to win the next game.