NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v CARDINALS

October 3, 2000

Jim Edmonds

JIM EDMONDS: I don't really know. Just got over the ball pretty quick. Trying to stop him from getting a double. Just slipped, feet came out from underneath me, I landed straight on my butt. It wasn't a very good feeling. Kind of sent a shock up my spine. It scared me for a second, because it was pretty painful; but, it is one of those things, if you have been hurt before, you know after a couple of minutes it tends to go away. If you could get through the first couple of minutes, you can probably stay in the game and keep playing.

JIM EDMONDS: It is sore. It is, you know, a bruise, the muscles around the area are sore. With a night of rest, with tomorrow off, I should be all right.

JIM EDMONDS: It is a big win any time you get a chance to beat Greg Maddux. Everyone is writing us off as just a bump in their road. I think we will go out there and do the best we can to kind of put a big speed bump in the road. We want to play well, to get off to a 1-0 start is a big advantage for us. Like I said, hopefully we can just play well and we can have a chance to be in every game and come out with some wins.

JIM EDMONDS: It was a little wet this morning. I don't know if it was wet in the afternoon, at all. It just, you know, we have had ups and downs in that field all year, sometimes it gives way. I just think I planted it wrong and was kind of off balance, catching the ball at the same time did not allow me to get my hands down. When you fall, you try to put your hands down. I had both hands in my glove, that is the way it worked.

JIM EDMONDS: Well, you know, I think any time you play against a team like that, you have to try to score more than one inning. Six runs was not going to be enough. If he shuts us for seven, eight more innings, they have a chance to be in the ball game. You have to take advantage of every opportunity and we did, we got another couple of runs or another run -- what was the final score, seven? We got another run. If we get another chance like that in another game, we have to try to score more runs, give the bullpen a little bit of a better situation. Rick had a little bit of a problem. I think he will bounce back, we will bounce back. I will take him out on the mound any time. It was an unfortunate situation he got himself in.

JIM EDMONDS: It is kind of a running joke. I figure I've been wearing it every day when it is a regular game. Now it's a Playoff game. We are playing in a good city. These guys on the team have shown support for everybody and for us, so I've been wearing it for the last week and a half, why not wear it today.

JIM EDMONDS: I don't really know what to say. To go from an underachieving team to a team that has everything going for it and does everything right. It is pretty fun. I got my best friend in the world here from Anaheim, Mike James, he got a win. This team has been so great that I think that is why we are in the position we are at, because we do not have the problems as in Anaheim, as far as the jealousy, bickering. This team is a team. They play hard, and we've had a lot of breaks this year and made a lot of things go our way, that is why we are where we are at.

JIM EDMONDS: Just one more example of how our team is. A young kid comes up for a month, expects to just get some innings in. And here he is, fired into the middle of Game 1. I think he held his composure and did a great job; any time you get a chance to come in a game like that, you have to understand you are in a big situation, but it is just another game. You go out, breathe, play the way you are supposed to play, things happen. He made his pitches, did a good job. Timlin did a good job, like Veres to close it out, it was a good win for us.

JIM EDMONDS: I don't really know. We had a game plan to try to put the bat on the ball, try to make things happen. Things happened for us. We did not go up there trying to swing for the fences, tried to peck away, get a run here and there, we got big hits quick. They made a mistake in the outfield that we capitalized on. It is nice to go out there and get six runs off a team that good, and be able to, kind of take the momentum away from them, and go out, play the game and have Rick have a big cushion. Unfortunately, he did not pitch the way he should. I think that he will learn a little bit from that, and our team will learn something from it too.

JIM EDMONDS: It seems like a Playoff game here every couple of days with the pressure we put on ourselves to win each series, the pressure the fans put on us to perform. We have a coaching staff that goes out there and demands a certain way of playing, a certain level of baseball. We focus in on winning every two out of three games, as much as possible. Tony talks about that, kind of gets us ready to play in the postseason, even though we do not realize it. We try to win a series each time we go out there, we did a good job of that this year. I think the other thing we have on this team, nobody really kind of makes too much out of anything; it is another game, if you play it the way it is supposed to be played, you will come out on top, that is the focus. Why change now?

JIM EDMONDS: I was upstairs trying to change my uniform after ripping my pants open. I think that sometimes we get in that situation where Tony wants to stay out of a double play, I don't know what signs were being given. I said, at least you got a chance to hit off of Maddux one time in your life, that is pretty funny, but special for him, after the road he had. I did not realize he got the win. After all he went through, the way they released him in California, I think he got a raw deal, I think it has been very special to see him pitch this year. For people who do not follow his background, he came off a year and a half of rehab and he was about to be put back on the roster and they released him that day. It hit a lot of players in Anaheim, he is a nice person. It is nice to see him have a win in the opening round of the Playoffs. It is a pretty big deal for me and a lot of guys who know him, because we know what he has been through, it is a pretty special day.

JIM EDMONDS: Hopefully I can take time off in the next day and a half. I don't think there will be too much to keep me out of the lineup.