MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES v BRAVES

October 25, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Well, neither one of them are power hitters, I suppose. But Jose Hernandez is going to DH tomorrow, and probably Keith Lockhart against the righties. Both of them, you know, Hernandez hit, I think, 18 home runs for the Cubs and a couple for us. He does have power. Lock, every once in a while, will juice one out.

BOBBY COX: Well, you know, any team that has good pitching like we have, we can always reel off three in a row. We've always been able to do something like that. It's no different now. But we've got on hitting the ball a little bit better, too. They have great pitching. Most who have these games should be close-scoring ball games. The first one was, and we kind of let that one get away from us.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, he looks a lot better, and we expect somewhere around seven, hopefully, you know, a good seven would be fine.

BOBBY COX: They couldn't be better. We've had one; they've had two. Kevin's start last night was not indicative of the year he's had or the way he's pitched. He had a lot of hitters two strikes last night, couldn't put them away. He got the ball in the wrong spot. That's what hurt him mostly last night. Hernandez was great, I thought. He struck out a lot of guys. David Cone showed the experience, and, you know, the veteran that he is, being able to pitch like he did. His fastball was not overpowering last night I didn't think, but the ball sunk so well, the ball had great movement on it.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. You expect them to be good. Absolutely. You know that you have to throw a good ball game and they know they have to throw a good ball game in order to win, and our bats have been a little bit cold right now but I think you have to tip your hat honestly to those two pitchers. I don't care who they were facing those two nights, I think they were going to pitch a good ball game.

BOBBY COX: I don't think the name of the team has anything to do with this -- beating the Houston Astros, we don't care what their name is, you have to win that series. I don't think there's anything to that at all. The Mets were tough, and, you know, the name doesn't mean anything, really. It's just, you know, you're trying to win the World Series. It happens to be the Yankees. But it would be the same if you were playing somebody else, you know.

BOBBY COX: Well, for about 17 innings we only had two hits, so, we offensively, we weren't doing too well and we had a great opportunity to win one of them, believe it or not. So I feel good about that one. I feel good about the last inning in last night's game. We hit some balls decent, and scored a couple runs. And, you know, at least we got something out of it. I think the only really good thing last night that came out of my night was being able to be in the same ballpark with the Legends Team. I thought that was as good as it gets. I just hope I have the opportunity some other time in my career to be with those guys again. I mean that's quite an experience for 50,000 people, I thought.

BOBBY COX: They're all pretty good, you know. Hernandez came over initially, helped us quite a bit, and got some pretty key hits at the beginning and Walt Weiss is a pretty good shortstop. Ozzie didn't look like it last night, but he can still play short. I don't know what happened on the humpback ball to him that he missed, I don't know if it got in the lights or not. But he can still play. Ozzie's a good hitter, Ozzie can hit. Walt maybe is the weakest hitter, but last year when he led off for us, he had a tremendously high on-base percentage the first half the season, then he hurt his leg and he's kind of floundered with that leg problem all the time. Right now he's healthy, and it's pick and choose. I don't think you go wrong with any of them, honestly. But tomorrow night we'll be playing Weiss.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. You're exactly right. It's a little bit advantage for us, quite honestly, because they're used to playing with the DH the entire season. That means one of their best hitters has to come out of the line-up and we've let them escape without the DH in the line-up. So that should have been on our side of the pluses, and it didn't turn out that way. They still scored enough runs to win two. But, no, I'm sure, you know, we don't have that type of -- our DH may get a home run but more likely they hit a double or a single.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, we've always had some meetings when we got down. I may have one tomorrow, I don't know. If they mean very much, to be -- we can't play any harder, we can't try any harder, and all that. And I really, at this point, I don't really know what to say except a few chinkers here and there might help.

BOBBY COX: We've never been lacking for confidence. We've always felt because of the pitching we can always win a ball game, even on a few hits. And, you know, we don't want to be 2-down. I would feel a lot better if we were 2-up. The odds probably aren't good, but we've overcome that before. We've rode the table before, we've run it.

BOBBY COX: I don't think so. The pitchers, you know, did their side sessions, preparing for their particular start and that got fouled up some because Tommy at the last minute couldn't pitch. It didn't affect Maddux much, I didn't think. I thought he pitched a great ball game and really Brosius killed him in that game. He had the three ground ball base hits and then start the eighth inning with another ground ball base hit. I don't think he was bothered by it. I really don't think Kevin Millwood, I talked to Kevin this morning about his game, mostly it was the two-strike pitches. He just couldn't locate the ball where he wanted to. His arm feels great, he had great stuff, it was just his location was not good.

BOBBY COX: Sure. I think Gerald plays a big role. I know he's, you know, he hasn't had many hits in the past six or seven games, but he can get hot at any time. Of course Booney is just as likely to hit a home run as he is anything else. He's got real good power for a second baseman. I think some of the other key guys would be Jordan and Chipper, they have been holding their own here for a long time. We need to get Ryan Klesko and Andruw Jones, those guys have really good power and we haven't seen that lately. If they could get hot, it could be a huge swing here. But they've got to get hot.

BOBBY COX: I don't know. You know, if it does or not. You're trained to look ahead, it's your day. You're prepared for that. Psychologically, I don't know. Maybe it's even better because you don't sit as long. Because these guys were going to have a little bit of rest in there. And I don't think so. I really -- I don't think so.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think he does. And, you know, I know he regrets getting sick. He wanted Game 1 pretty badly. He's strong enough to go tomorrow night, that's for sure. He does, he pitched a lot of big games, we've been in so many playoff games they've all pitched in big ones. We've been in pennant races now for almost ten years straight. There's big games during the course of the season as well as these playoffs, and they step forward. And Tommy's one of the guys that's capable of doing that. Happens to be one of our better hitting pitchers, too.

BOBBY COX: I don't think it's negated, but it's certainly a factor, you bet. That means -- having good pitching means we have a chance to win every night. If we can score a few runs some way, you know, we can win a ball game, sure. It allows us to do that. Doesn't offset it, I mean it kind of offsets each other. Somebody's got to get some runs.

BOBBY COX: It's exactly the same. Not quite as bad, maybe. I mean we could afford to lose one more game and sweep, but in St. Louis, we had to win them all. There wasn't any tomorrow, and it had to be a W on the board. But, you know, we have done it.

BOBBY COX: A lot better. It's a lot more potent. There's no doubt about that. I can remember playing Minnesota in '91, they had Chili Davis. He didn't play, as I recall, when we were in the National League. And it changed that team around a lot.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, it is. He does a lot of things good, and he's a strong make-up guy. He wouldn't have come this far, you know. Tommy's had a great career and is going to have a long one, even after this season. Tommy's going to pitch a long time. And he's a great student of the game, and he's a little tricky and he's as tough as they come. Tommy's very, very tough competitor. Very quiet guy but extremely tough.