NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v CARDINALS

October 7, 2000

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: We had a terrific year, winning the division. We are disappointed we didn't win this series. We just -- we did not make any of the games real close, we did not particularly hit well or pitch very well the entire series, and that is unlike what we have done in the past. Overall, I am really proud of the ball club. I am not just saying that, we had a tough year and played really, really good.

season -- how much of a difference would that have made?

BOBBY COX: You never know. No one knows. We may have played exactly the same way. We cannot reflect back on that. We would have loved to have opened up at home. I told the reporters that a lot. We didn't; but, if we played exactly the same way we did, the outcome would not have been any different.

BOBBY COX: You think, when you go to your bullpen, if you did not see the game or looked at one box score, they probably would have gotten beat. They used so many pitchers. We did not really rough up anything. Stephenson was questionable with his arm, I don't know what happened. We did not hit one ball really hard all day long. We had two choppers up the middle. Chipper hit one soft line drive the entire ball game. They have a good bullpen. Normally, you are exactly right, when the starter leaves early, you think, the teams have been beaten; not the case.

BOBBY COX: I have not honestly thought about that. I never do. It is a great honor if you get it. There are so many guys probably more deserving than I am right now. But I just think our ball club performed very well in season and we just, somehow or another got off to the bad start the -- crazy things happened. We never recovered.

BOBBY COX: I would say, it had a lot to do with our -- I don't know. Each game is different. It certainly was a turning point in that ball game. We never lost confidence, we had a lot of confidence, we felt, we really felt good today going into the ball game, that we could pull it off. If you stop and think, during the course of a season, you win three, lose four, win five, you lose one, win six, that is the way it goes all season long. We felt that we could pull this off; we just didn't do enough hitting. In this ball game, anyway. We just didn't rough up their pitchers at all.

BOBBY COX: We did not do it with a few of their hitters. Edmonds is a great ball player. A lot of people have not shut him down. We have, at times, during the course of season a little bit. He is dangerous on every pitch. He got the one ball out in left field, hit the one in right off Millwood. We did not own the outside corner like we normally do, and make some pitches out of the strike zone like we normally do. We did not really get into those counts.