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NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS v METS

October 4, 2006

Grady Little

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game One

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Grady.

Q. Your guys just never seemed to quit. How did you feel going into that last inning?
GRADY LITTLE: Well, we felt like we always have a chance because that's the kind of ballclub we have. We haven't quit all season long, especially these last couple months. We'll keep coming at you. They know it's gonna go all the way till the end, and they showed it out there again tonight.

Q. What happened in the play in the second inning as best you could see it? Maybe you could explain it.
GRADY LITTLE: I tell you what, I think it was explained to us right before our eyes there.
But it was certainly a base-running blunder there that more times than not you're going to pay for later in the ballgame. It will come back to haunt you; that one certainly did.
We've been in LA all season long. We know about traffic jams. We certainly had one again right there.

Q. Could you talk about the decision to bring in Penny.
GRADY LITTLE: Penny was our best option right there, we felt like. And he was throwing the ball very well. The key to his inning, missed on 3-2 pitch to Reyes which started the whole inning. He was throwing the ball as well as we've seen him lately, and he certainly showed us that his back is healthy.

Q. Was there any concern he had pitched relief just once this season, that he would be uncomfortable in that situation?
GRADY LITTLE: None whatsoever. I know the stage he was out there tonight, the situation we were in in the ballgame, it would be very similar to the All-Star Game for him this year. He showed us that was true.

Q. Can you take us through that play at home plate and explain. I'm sure you asked Rich (Donnelly) what happened.
GRADY LITTLE: What happened, he was getting ready to stop Kent on the play and J.D. was running on the ball all the way, he was about 10 yards behind Kent, so it kind of altered his decision on Kent. J.D. kept going. As it turned out, if J.D. continues on without stopping, I don't know if Lo Duca would have got the second one. He might have snuck in there. That's a trick play we work on in spring training.

Q. Just talk about this Mets lineup. It seems like from Beltran, Delgado, Wright to Floyd, they have guys that keep coming at you.
GRADY LITTLE: They do that. They do that. It's very similar to an American League lineup. We knew that coming in, that that was our number one target, to see what we could do to stop that lineup over there.
We just came out of three games in San Francisco where we scored four runs a piece, we won all three of those games. That's certainly not enough against this ballclub here.

Q. Not to be too harsh, J.D. ran up Kent's back, that forces Kent to come, J.D. ran through the stop sign.
GRADY LITTLE: This is what happened: It was a terrible base-running blunder that we had to pay for.

Q. You've managed a lot of baseball games. Is this the kind of play when you go home tonight you'll have nightmares over? Can you get it out of the way?
GRADY LITTLE: We don't have time for that right now. We've got to come out tomorrow and be ready to play another very important game.
You know, a lot of clubs' objective is to open a series like this on the road and try to win one out of two, out of the two games. Maybe that means tomorrow's our day (smiling).

Q. What did you think of Lowe's performance today on the mound?
GRADY LITTLE: Lowe, he pitched his normal game outside of a couple of pitches that he got up there. Then the base hit that took him out of the game there by Wright in the right field corner. The two home run pitches were left in the wrong place and were hit a long way by some awfully good hitters.

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