NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 16, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: I knew they were going to double-steal there. That was an automatic. It was a curveball down and away, and we couldn't get rid of the ball. We had a plan where to throw it. It was such a slow pitch.

BOBBY COX: I think he was intent on getting the hitter out.

BOBBY COX: To stop the running game, Remlinger -- generally he's almost impossible to run on. Cedeno is the best there is in the National League, I think. We tried to stop him, and he got a strikeout on Agbayani and Cedeno stole the base. He did a good job. The fact of the matter was Rock made some good pitches, and the ball hit in front of home plate pretty good and skidded. We had him play against Rocker; John Olerud hits a lot of balls the opposite way on the infield. It's hard to defend him. But he hit it right up the middle and he made contact, and that's what he was up there for. We made the pitches and he got a ball through.

BOBBY COX: We really wanted to win that game tonight. We woke up the bats there late with back-to-back home runs, but other than that, neither team did much hitting tonight. It was two outstanding pitchers going again tonight. Reed was absolutely great, and so was Smoltz. It was a remarkable, good game, again. It's amazing how good the pitching has been on both sides, really.

BOBBY COX: You get long odds. You get long odds on a sweep. It's hard. But we were four outs away from doing it.

BOBBY COX: I don't think any of our shortstops catch that ball; we're shaded too much the other way. All of our shortstops basically -- Weiss and Guillen -- Hernandez is more of a utility guy, but Weiss and Guillen, the range is the same. Depends on where you play them to get any ball. No, I think it ends up the same way.