NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 14, 2001

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: I'm sure there were a lot of people ready to put them on me. With Kline on the mound -- I mean, he's death on left-handed hitters. I thought we could catch him by surprise. And, unfortunately, he threw a slider in the dirt. Tony couldn't get the bat on it. Even after that, I felt confident Tony was going to make something happen. You could see it in his eyes today. When he showed up at the ballpark today, the way he went about his batting practice, his extra work in the cage, and the at-bats he had in the ball game, he was a very focused man today. And I was confident he would do something to help bail me out.

BOB BRENLY: I appreciate that coming from Tony. That's very high praise. I don't know if I'm deserving of that, but Matt Williams is deserving for his perseverance, his ability to block out distractions and go up to the plate, regardless of the situation, and do his best to make something happen. Tonight was another one of those nights leading up to the 9th inning. He didn't really get a lot of hits. A lot of pitches out away from him, deep fly balls to the outfield. Once again, he persevered. He hung in there. And, I mean, Matty is my guy. If he doesn't get a hit the rest of the postseason, he's going to be down there playing third base for his defense. Leadership is what he brings to this team, but I know he's going to hit.

BOB BRENLY: It seems like it was a lot more than five games. I know that. It was just the ultimate challenge up to this point. You know going against Tony LaRussa and his ball club, they are well prepared and well schooled. They play the game fundamentally sound. He has a bullpen staffed with good arms. We know how he likes to use his pitchers. His front starters matched up well against ours. You just had the feeling this was going to have to go five games, and it was going to have to go into the bottom of the 9th inning before someone won it.

BOB BRENLY: I think this one was even better than the first one. The fact they did it just a few days ago, the familiarity factor, seeing a guy twice in one week, a lot of times that swings the advantage to the hitters. It certainly didn't seem either team had an advantage on either one of those guys. Tremendous, tremendous pitching by both starters.

BOB BRENLY: I'm sure they feel great right now, but I don't think it's in a vindictive way, it's just in a way that they're pleased they came through for the teammates and the fans. And that feeling of joy will be very short lived because we know we have another uphill battle against us against the Braves.

BOB BRENLY: Bob Melvin, that's part of his job to present me with all the options. He asked, "Would you hit for Matty, would you hit for Damian, who do you want in the pitcher's spot?" And I said, "No, no," and, "Tell everybody to be ready." I mean, maybe it's a blind-faith call, call it what you will. I'm a firm believer Matt Williams can come through when nobody else thinks he can. He made a believer out of me even more today.

BOB BRENLY: I don't know, and I've got a feeling there may be even a couple more left in there that he hasn't tapped. He was throwing 98 miles an hour in the 9th inning. I don't know what else I can say about him. He's been amazing, but when the light shines the brightest, he seems to come through with his best performances. And tonight was another in that line of performances.

BOB BRENLY: We have a lot of confidence in our defense. It allows our pitcher to be more aggressive with hitters, not worry about them putting the ball in play. And that, in turn, gives the defense confidence because they know the pitchers aren't going to walk a lot of guys. They have to stay on their toes. Tony, going up the ladder to catch that line drive, and Counsell doing it on the next batter. We were kidding Matty he better keep his legs loose because he was going to jump for the next one. The defense has been the unsung hero all year. Curt and Randy in the rotation, the guys in the bullpen, Gonzalez hitting the homers, the defense kind of went unnoticed because it's not the glamourous part of the game. But it's what wins ball games.

BOB BRENLY: He's another guy that, you know, Morris is cruising along here and cutting right through our lineup with very little trouble. And he made one bad pitch and Reggie just doesn't miss mistakes. And that was one of the very, very, very few mistakes that Morris made in two ball games. And the fact that Reggie was able to hit it, you know, after seeing high fastballs and fastballs off the plate, curve balls in the dirt, and suddenly Morris rolls one up in the middle of the plate and he just doesn't make mistakes. To get us on the board in that ball game first with Curt on the mound, that was just huge.