NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PADRES v BRAVES

October 8, 1998

Bruce Bochy

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, we feel like we have a good ball club, and we know how good Atlanta is, and so you come in and try to take every game. And to say we were going to come in here and take two, that's hard to say, but we felt like if we played well, pitched well, we had a chance.

BRUCE BOCHY: For me they were similar starts. I mean, he had great stuff tonight, he had great stuff in Houston. And when Kevin Brown is on, he's as tough as any pitcher in the game. And with the stuff he has, and when he's hitting the spots, he's as good as I think any pitcher who is pitching right now. He's as tough a competitor as I've ever seen, and he feels good right now, and he's just locked in.

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, Sterling will go the third game, and Joey will go the fourth.

BRUCE BOCHY: We know it's the best out of seven. The two games you haven't done anything. We know there's a lot of baseball left. And it's nice to take two games here. But we still have to go home and play good baseball and continue to play the way we're playing right now. That's as good a club in the Big Leagues. Atlanta, you look at their defense and offense. And we're playing well, when we go home, we can't relax. We've still got to keep going.

BRUCE BOCHY: I don't know. These players, I can't say enough about how they're playing, and players make you look good. Sometimes your decisions work out, sometimes they don't. And it comes down to the players, how they perform, and our guys are playing outstanding.

BRUCE BOCHY: No, Kevin was going to stay in. In fact, he led off the inning there, and he's such a tough competitor. It's not just when he pitches and when he's at the plate. I had talked to him when he came off the mound after the 8th, and he says: "Hey, I'll give you all I've got. I'm fine." Actually, in our situation I wanted to stay away from Trevor. And we had Myers and Miceli going with him.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I think when you have somebody like Kevin Brown, he gives you a tremendous sense of confidence. When he's out there, sure, you feel like you're going to win the game. And I know he's pitched well against Atlanta, but the way he throws, he can pitch well against anybody. That's how he feels when he goes out there, he can beat anybody.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, early we did not execute very well. We had some chances there. But again, you're going against Tom Glavine, and he's had a tremendous year. We knew it would be tough scoring runs off of him. So you need to do those little things, and we just didn't do them early. So sometimes that can come back to haunt you. And that's why it's nice to have somebody out there like Kevin Brown out there throwing the way he is.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I said this earlier: I knew Kevin would make a difference in our ball club. I didn't know he would make this big an impact, and I'm not talking postseason, but during the course of the year. When you have a No. 1 guy like Kevin, I think it does something to the rest of your staff, too. And just the way he approaches the game, and the way he competes out there, I think he's helped out the other pitchers.

BRUCE BOCHY: Are you talking about now?

BRUCE BOCHY: No, we have some intelligent players, and they know there's a lot of baseball left. And there's no time to letup or relax. We know that. Again, it's nice to get two wins here, but we're going to go home and we'll have the day off tomorrow, but we have to put these two wins behind us and be ready to go the first game in San Diego.

BRUCE BOCHY: He's made a lot of improvement today. He's had treatments all day. But I think he's questionable for the first game back. But he came up to me and he said: "You know, I think I can play once I get home." But I think that would be pushing it a little bit. And the last thing we want to do is set him back more. And if we can, we'll rest him as long as we can. But if he's ready to go, he's going to be out there. And talking to our medical staff, they feel like he has a chance to play that first day back. But for me it's questionable.

BRUCE BOCHY: He's killing me. I'll be honest. To watch him head first sliding into third, and he tried to pick him off twice. And actually when he got on base in the 9th, I hoped that wouldn't tax him a little bit. That's how he plays the game. He's all out. It's not just when he's pitching but when he's at the base or running bases, he backs up every base. He's a throwback. But to be honest, he does scare me sometimes out there.

BRUCE BOCHY: It was obvious that his command was a little off for Glavine, but he ran a lot of deep counts and walked some guys. I didn't know what his pitch count was, but we knew he had thrown a lot of pitches. And eventually that does catch up with you. But he threw well. We had some -- some good situations there, but he made pitches when he had to.

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