MLB WORLD SERIES: PADRES v YANKEES

October 21, 1998

Bruce Bochy

BRUCE BOCHY: Without question, they're ready to go. And we feel as long as we're playing, we still have a chance, and there's hope. And as long as I keep seeing you all, there's hope. So our backs are to the wall. We're realists here, but we're still playing on the field.

BRUCE BOCHY: With our ballclub, I don't feel that's necessary. They know our situation, and we were down 2-0, and came here, I thought we played well last night until late in the ballgame. I can't say enough about what Hitchcock did, and the club themselves, battled back. They were set to go yesterday, and they'll be ready to go today.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I guess from the start I let -- with Rivera in there, we had two outs, I let Hernandez hit, our righties were getting good at-bats against Rivera, and this is something Rettemund and I have been talking about, he's our hitting coach. And New York, I threw lefties up there, and he was tough on them. Greg Vaughn had a good at-bat, so I let Carlos hit. Well, now I'm caught with Carlos on first who doesn't run very well, I need a pinch runner, and I didn't have any speed on the bases, or on the bench, with the exception of Sweeney and Vander Wal. Well, we thought the matchup with Sweeney against Rivera was our best matchup, so I pinch ran Vander Wal, knowing if Sheets comes up, we were going to let Andy hit. He took two good swings, and so really the nonmoves were working out, we had first and third, and a chance to tie the ballgame. I could have hit Greg Myers, but we felt like the best chance was to let Andy hit. And it didn't work out. But these are -- these moves are thought

over, they're discussed and we felt like that was our best shot.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, if I had a pitcher that could have run, sure, I would have. In our staff, I didn't feel I had a pitcher that could score on a double, for example Sweeney hits that ball harder and gets in the bullpen, Vander Wal scores. I felt like I needed to score on two base hits. And I couldn't get a station-to-station base runner out there. So we felt the best chance to score is put Vander Wal out there. I wasn't going to use him, because Andy Sheets was going to hit, that's why Vander Wal was out there. He's not here to pinch run, I'm the first to say that, but when you're down a run, you've got to do things that you think is going to tie the ballgame up, that's what we did.

BRUCE BOCHY: Andy Ashby will start tomorrow, he'll be going on three days. The other option would be Joey Hamilton. Joey doesn't pitch tonight, we may -- there's a possibility we could change that. But the plan right now is to go with Ashby.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I think we have a lot of talent on our ballclub and the makeup of our ballclub, if anybody can do and make history, this team can. That's a tremendous club, over there in New York. Again, it's just a matter of how you feel, how you believe in yourselves. A lot of people don't give us a chance, that doesn't matter, it's what we think. And we still think we have a chance.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, he feels a lot better today. He had something yesterday, a little bug, and he was dizzy at times, but he felt like he could go, and today he feels a lot better. He took ground balls, he took batting practice, and he just says he feels a hundred percent better. With Cammy, he's tough to read sometimes. '96 there were days when I questioned putting him out in the line-up. And he was the MVP. So he's as mentally tough as anybody, and I think he'll bounce back today, and have a good game.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, good matchup. We know how good Wells is. I thought we swung the bats well against him, they swung the bats well against Ashby. Both of them will make adjustments, I'm sure. So hopefully we're at that point, and I think we will be, and at that point you just go all out, and two good pitchers going against each other, I think we'll see two

different pitchers tomorrow.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, it goes with the territory. I'd love to be in this situation all year. Or every year, and let people take shots at me. We're in the World Series, and when you're playing in a series like this, every move is going to be scrutinized, and that's fine. People are watching, that shows you people have interest, especially here in San Diego. And for me, I just have to keep going with what I believe and what my gut tells me, use my instincts, and sometimes it works, sometimes they don't. The bottom line is what the players do. But I'd rather them point a finger at me, than the players, because we have a tremendous ballclub, what they've done this year, nobody expected us to win the West, nobody expected us to beat Houston or Atlanta, I'll take this situation every year.

BRUCE BOCHY: He's doing pretty good. He says he's fine, he's good to go. We'll keep an eye on him. How far he goes, I don't know. But I'm sure he's going to have some effects from his illness, but he says he's good to go.

BRUCE BOCHY: The staff. At this point it's the whole staff. We will do whatever it takes to win this ballgame. And we'll use all the guys we have down in the bullpen. If necessary we'll bring Ashby out. At this point you play with nothing to lose.

End of FastScripts�.