NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v GIANTS

October 6, 2000

Jay Payton

JAY PAYTON: Yeah, I think it would be nice to do that, because, if it does go to Game 5, we have to travel Sunday after the game and then play a game on Monday. I think the players would definitely be for maybe a 2-3 type thing.

JAY PAYTON: For us to go out there -- they have been tough in our home park. We want to go out there and get a split. It would have been nice to get a -- to come away with a split. We're happy and to do it the way we did. We definitely want to try to ride that momentum into the series here. We'd love to take two games here and take the series -- hopefully we can come in on the winning end of that.

JAY PAYTON: I kind of thought they might bring him in after Darryl got the double, but Rodriguez has done well all year. And he has not been swinging the bat that good, and I guess they thought they wanted to pitch to me; left me a slider up and I was able to get the run in.

JAY PAYTON: All of the quality pitchers have done a good job all year for us. We need to go out and be aggressive and throw strikes, but as far as what we've done in the past -- I've faced a lot of these guys for the first time, and it's nice to go back . I know what the guys have; I know what they throw. They are not going to pull any tricks out of the bag. He's a quality pitcher, just have to go in and have good at-bats against him.

JAY PAYTON: It's been nice. I mean, I was to the point where I didn't think I was ever going to be able to play baseball again. So for me to be out here playing and having the opportunity to play in the playoffs and help our team get a chance to go the Worlds Series, I'm on cloud nine right now. I don't worry about each at-bat. I'm trying help the team win. I'm not worried about hitting second or seventh, I'll hit ninth. Doesn't matter to me. I'm just happy to help our team go out and have a chance to win.

JAY PAYTON: A huge difference. If we come out are there 0-2, I don't think there's anybody that would think we could sweep these guys three games, except maybe us. You look at the situation Atlanta is in right now, they are going to have a tough time taking three in a row from St. Louis. And that win was huge. The guys were all upbeat. We feel like we've got a little momentum and we feel like taking that into this series here.

JAY PAYTON: He's been phenomenal. We're a team that lacks a true lead-off hitter and when he's out there, he gives us that. He's a natural lead-off hitter. His bunt with two strikes yesterday, nobody expected that. He plays without fear, with reckless abandon, really. He's play great. It's baseball. He treats it like that. He doesn't put any extra pressure on himself and he loves the game. Goes out there and plays hard and has done a great job and will continue to do so.

JAY PAYTON: That's our goal is to win these two games here. But, I love it out there playing out there. I think it is great. Doesn't really matter to me. The fans, they are awesome, cheering and everything. We want to wrap it up here, but hopefully we don't have to go back out there, but if we do.

JAY PAYTON: No, not at all. Right now, we really want to concentrate on winning this series. Doesn't matter who you play in the next round or the round after that. For us, we want to win here and try to get to that next level. We're not really concerned with who we play.

JAY PAYTON: You'd like to think now that we're home with a 1-1 split, you'd like to think it does. They play great at home and being down 4-0 and coming back, it's obvious the crowd definitely helped get them back into the game, and hopefully we can take advantage of that here.

JAY PAYTON: That's one of those wait-and-see type questions, like a lot of questions. If we go and win these next two games, everybody will point back to that game and say they took the momentum from game one; and if not, it's not that big of a deal. Hopefully at the end we can say, yeah, that was a turning point for us.

JAY PAYTON: You want to have -- I mean, during the course of the season you want to have total concentration. Every pitch, every at-bat. But when you play 162 games, it's a little tough, little mind lapses here and there. But here, everything counts. You get three losses in five games; your season is over. Definitely more importance on these games, but the bottom line is to come up with the win at the end of the game.

JAY PAYTON: It was big. You know, for me to come up there after having a couple chances to drive in some runs and not getting the job done, it was huge. I wanted to go up and be aggressive and see what happened. I know the guys on the bench were all pulling for me. It's nice to have that confidence from my teammates.