NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PADRES v BRAVES

October 12, 1998

Bruce Bochy

BRUCE BOCHY: I think that's pretty harsh of a word. It's a tough loss, no question about it. When you have a two-run lead and they come back on us -- but we battled back. I think that says a lot about the club. And we're still up 3-2. We'll go to Atlanta, and we'll put this game behind us and be set to go.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, we said today if we had a two-run lead, with Brownie with three days rest, we could use him in the pen. And something like this -- if something like this happened, then we could move him back a day. And right now, that's what I think we'll do. And we'll pitch Hitch the first game.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I feel like I had my best guy out there with a chance to win the ballgame, who was rested, and I'll take my chances there. Sure, it didn't work out, and I take responsibility for that. But with Kevin out there, I have all the confidence in the world. It didn't work out. They got a couple of breaks. The groundball to Lopez, it just got through. And he had a full count there, but it happens. And, sure, it's a calculated risk, but I thought it was well worth taking.

BRUCE BOCHY: Came in and did a good job. He came in and stopped him in the 7th, and he fought back hard on them, and you give him credit there.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I guess it's a similar situation. They had their best out there, trying to save the game, and it didn't surprise me. These games are big, and we saw him down there warming up. So I thought he might be in there.

BRUCE BOCHY: I had Ashby out there, who is a veteran, and motioned to Carlos: Take a shot at a pitch there, and he gave him too good a pitch. And looking back, sure, I wish I would have walked him if I had known he was going to throw that kind of pitch.

BRUCE BOCHY: No, he had thrown 35 pitches. Again, he had three days rest, and we felt like he was the guy we wanted out there, and he made some good pitches there. He just ran a deep count, and I just had all the confidence in the world in Brownie there. And, hey, you tip your hat, and they came back on us.

BRUCE BOCHY: That's the way I'm looking at it. We have our best guy out there with a two-run lead, and we've got a chance to win that ballgame. And we went for it, and it didn't happen. And the thing we've got to do is put this behind us. And the series is still at 3-2. We have to get ready to go to Atlanta.

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I look for him to play in Atlanta. I think he's all set to go.

BRUCE BOCHY: Sure, I think they can. I think they've shown a lot tonight after what happened. They battled back. And we had Tony Gwynn up there at the plate on the winning run. We got the game -- we let the game get out of hand. We came back and walked the pitcher with a double and the ball gets thrown away. It's hard to overcome three runs, but if it stayed a one-run game, we had a chance.

BRUCE BOCHY: I'm sure Brown is going to want to go. Today he would have thrown a long pen, anyway, that's his work load. I'll sit down and talk to him. It could be Brownie or it could be Hitch.

BRUCE BOCHY: We'll make it tomorrow. We'll sit down and talk on the flight and discuss it, Dave Stewart and myself and Brownie, and we'll go from there.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, actually we talked about it yesterday and today before the game. And we said that depending on the score and what the situation was -- we had him down in the bullpen yesterday -- and today we have him down there. When Vander Wal hit the home run, had Langston going in to face a lefty, when he got the infield hit, Brownie was ready and we brought him in.

BRUCE BOCHY: No, because today he would have thrown a long pen, anyway. If you would see one of his pens, it's about like the outing he had today. He throws a lot of pitches. He throws two days in a row, and if he feels good, he'll go Game 6.

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