NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 18, 2001

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: I feel a little better. Improvement has been made.

BOB BRENLY: Tony is fine. He just reaggravated slightly that right calf muscle that put him on the disabled list earlier this season. With the off day today and his numbers against Tom Glavine, we felt it was probably good just to give him last night off. We had him up a couple times with a helmet on to use him as a pinch runner. We had him with the helmet to use him as a pinch-hitter. Fortunately we were able to keep him out of there. He says he feels much better today and he'll be good to go tomorrow.

BOB BRENLY: I don't know if I'd call it well-being. We like our chances when Curt takes the mound. I know you've seen his numbers after losses this year. He's been just tremendous coming out and stopping losing streaks. He's always prepared to go out there and take the ball and attack the weaknesses of the other team. Whether it be the post-season or whether it be regular season or spring training game, we know we're going to get the same kind of consistent performance out of him. We like sending him out there.

BOB BRENLY: Well, certainly that's what they've come to expect of themselves. And by the way they've pitched this year, that's what I have come to expect from them. But we feel the same way no matter who takes the ball. I mean Miguel pitched a tremendous ball game last night, a couple bad pitches, the first one of the game. You can't even call the Lopez pitch a bad pitch. It was off the corner low and away. He went down, got it, hit it down the rightfield line. Other than that, Miguel pitched a tremendous ball game for us. Unfortunately when we went to the bullpen last night, those guys just couldn't locate the ball very well and what was a close ball game, well within reach, turned into a blowout. So we expect all of our starters to go out there and give us a chance to win. Miguel did that. Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't able to hold on.

BOB BRENLY: At this time Albie will be Saturday. Miguel will be available and able to pitch tomorrow night.

BOB BRENLY: I believe so. I mean, if we had a game today, he'd say he could pitch. You guys have seen him all year. That's the way he is. He just wants the ball and any way he can contribute to a victory he wants to help out. He told me already he's ready to go tomorrow night if we need him.

BOB BRENLY: Not yet. Not yet.

BOB BRENLY: He threw real well. I mean, I think John Burkett has really benefitted from being around specifically Greg Maddux, but also Tom Glavine and the other pitchers on this Atlanta staff. Burkett is not an overpowering pitcher. He needs to rely on location and movement on his pitches, and I think from watching the way Greg Maddux goes about his work, he has not necessarily copied those things, but he's used them in his own preparation for a ball game. If you put two tapes on, one of Greg Maddux and one of John Burkett, you'll see a lot of similar pitches. The off the body sinker to left-handed hitters that freezes them, then the ball tails back over the plate. He'll follow that up with a cut fastball that starts in the same location and bears in on the lefties. Change-up, down low, out of the strike zone, very similar to Greg Maddux. I think being on this staff has really helped him a lot.

BOB BRENLY: Well, Marcus Giles is letting us know very quickly that he will swing at pretty much whatever you throw up there first pitch. He's a very, very aggressive leadoff hitter. He went up there looking for a fastball, got one up in the zone and hit it out of the ballpark. The Lopez home run, if I'm not mistaken earlier in the ball game, he got a base hit to rightfield on a pitch out away from him. Shot it to rightfield. Didn't try to pull it. I'm not sure if he was looking for a pitch out there or whether he was just trying to protect the plate and got a ball he could handle. For a right-handed batter to hit that pitch as hard as he did the opposite way, you get the feeling that at least he was thinking about going to the opposite field that at-bat.

BOB BRENLY: I don't really recall a lot of the '93 playoffs. I don't even know if I saw any of the '93 playoffs to tell you the truth. But I think obviously, as we've talked many times, that may have been the beginning of his relishing the spotlight. He certainly has proven over the course of this season that he is one guy that really loves it when the lights are on and everybody's watching and his teammates expect him to go out there and do well. It brings out the best in him. Perhaps it started back then.

BOB BRENLY: Well, that certainly entered into it. I believe it was Albie's last start before we acquired him. We were up in Seattle playing the Mariners, and Albie was pitching against the Braves here in Atlanta. So the game came on very early in the morning out there. We watched Albie pitch extremely well against the Braves. And I know he beat them another time, and... We just think that he should be capable of going out there and doing it again. He's got a real good idea of how to face these hitters. He's had pretty good success lately watching the way Curt Schilling goes about working his way through a line-up. Because in some respects, they're similar in that they both use that high four-seam fastball. I think Albie has fed off of Curt's success a little bit.

BOB BRENLY: Absolutely. I think so. I mean, one of the things we preach to our players all year is, "You'll be much more successful if you're relaxed and confident." And certainly all the post-season appearances that this team has had over the last ten years, they're very familiar with this situation, they know all the peripheral things that go on before and after the ball game, and I feel that helps them to relax. Because they've been in this situation so many times, there really aren't any surprises for them, and relaxed and confident ball players are very dangerous.

BOB BRENLY: Well, I can't get them going. That's entirely up to them. I think our approach has been good. I look at that ball game against Tom Glavine last night. Not taking anything away from his performance, because if you were there last night, I told you that he pitched the kind of ball game he wanted to pitch. He allowed us to hit the ball. In some cases we hit it hard but we hit it right where he wanted us to hit it. I thought our approach against him was very good. We were looking out over the plate, trying to hit the ball to the opposite field. I know Craig Counsell lined out to the opposite field twice. Damian Miller, Matt Williams hit some balls into the opposite field. But unfortunately we hit them right into the teeth of their defense. You just hope to get mistakes. And with the pitching staffs that you see in the post-season, mistakes are rare. As a manager, we can try to do some things as far as playing a little hit-and-run, maybe advancing runners with a bunt earlier in the ball game than you normally would just to try to play for a run. But no, it's really up to the players to go up there and make the adjustments that they need to make.

BOB BRENLY: Well, in style they probably couldn't be more different. We don't have a flame thrower in our bullpen. Bobby Witt hits the low 90s on occasion, Mike Morgan is consistently in the mid 80s, Greg Swindell is consistently in the mid 80s. Mike Koplove, who we have not seen yet in this series, approaches 90 with good movement. But they've got a bullpen full of guys that can throw the ball through a wall. They can get away with mistakes a little easier than our bullpen can. Our guys have to rely on putting the pitches where they need them to be and counting on their defense to make the plays behind them. Last night's ball game, we weren't able to get the pitches where they needed to be and they got whacked around a little bit.