NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 9, 1999

John Smoltz

JOHN SMOLTZ: Oh, there's no doubt. I definitely thought that we were going to clinch, but I always feel that so those feelings never change, but I think the team was obviously a little more relaxed because of yesterday's game. I mean people don't understand how tense those first three games were and how different they could go one way or the other, and, you know, there's just too many guys to say that we are heros on our team this year to say one guy. I mean the one guy I could think of is John Rocker. I've never seen a guy dominate these last two days in crucial situations like he has.

JOHN SMOLTZ: That's just a belief from spring training that we are going to do whatever it takes to win a World Series, not necessarily win. There's very few organizations, I think, that year end and year out have that mindset to do whatever it takes, whether it be trades, whether it be a manager leadership, whether it be -- it just doesn't matter. The Astros just ran into some dominant pitching. I don't think it should take away from their success either. I mean they have done something in the new division but central, I mean, that expectation is one thing and to win when you're not supposed to is one thing, but to win when you're supposed to is another and they have done it. We've done it. It just seems like if you don't show up, you don't make the playoffs. It's easy to forget and get them next year, but if you keep going to the playoffs like we have and they have, it's more like a sore thumb, if you don't win at all. It's kind of a warped way of thinking but that's the way it is.

JOHN SMOLTZ: When the postseason comes, you're not, as a pitching team, going to let those two beat you. In a regular season you take more chances and that's what happens in the postseason. You let somebody else be the hero or let somebody else beat you. They faced some pretty tough pitching. It has no reflection on them on how they have done on the postseason other than teams that face them definitely don't pitch in that way. You can't, in every game that you play against those guys, you can't pitch them that way like a playoff game and the playoffs are basically like the NBA. You cannot give a layup and you can't get those guys -- get runners on guys and be the guys that beat you. That's why Caminiti single-handedly almost won the series for them and, you know, but that doesn't have any bearing. They haven't done anything different and some credit has to go to the pitching sometimes because if you got a game plan and executed, there's times as a hitter there's really not much you can do.

JOHN SMOLTZ: I thought it was a great pitch. Again, he just got me baffled when it comes to this time of the year because of how good he is and on pitches that I don't think he should be hitting homeruns on. It's a credit to him. I made a very bad pitch to Everett. Obviously, I'm not trying to hit aim and make any kind of -- I was very careful, if I was to stay in, that I would have got the next couple of guys out. Too bad we created that situation in the 9th. That's why in a postseason you can't really ease up and I never did and he just had a good pitch.

End of FastScripts….