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NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS v METSOctober 4, 2006Carlos DelgadoDavid WrightNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game One Q. Carlos, Willie was just asked about how he felt about the day that you had and he said he was really happy for you. Can you describe how you felt after waiting all this time to be in the postseason, have this kind of a day. CARLOS DELGADO: I was very excited. I mean, I had butterflies in my stomach the first couple innings, I was saying, "Whoa, what is going on here? " But I was able to kind of control my emotions and just go out and play. This is a great team effort. We came up with a big win. So that makes it that much better. Q. To follow-up, how did you control your emotions? What did you do? CARLOS DELGADO: I just keep telling myself, don't try to do too much, don't try to do too much. I guess the fact that you facing a guy like Derek Lowe, that he's got a very good sinker, to make you kind of slow it down a little bit. If you want to hit him, that's the only chance you're gonna get. Q. On that last at-bat, when you kept on telling yourself not to do too much, how about on that last at-bat? Did you have the same mindset? CARLOS DELGADO: You know, same thing. Same thing. I just kind of chased the fastball up, you know, I been doing it all year, so no surprise there. But, you know, I felt good out there. Every time I went to the plate, didn't matter what situation it was, I felt like I was in control, you know, of myself. Q. Carlos, after waiting so long to get to the postseason and then coming up with the home run and the night you had, the reaction from the crowd, what's going through your mind that whole game? CARLOS DELGADO: I don't know. I hope it gets better, you know (smiling). It was a fun day, and I didn't want to have any expectations. I wanted to go in and, you know, play the game of baseball, you know, 'cause you start thinking about this and that and next thing you know, you forget about the most important thing, which is playing the game. That's what I wanted to do. I mean, we got a great bunch of guys. I mean, we got a good chance to win here. So we're gonna come back tomorrow and try to do the same thing. Q. Carlos, after your RBI single in the seventh, put you guys ahead, you let out this huge windmill fist pump at the first base. What kind of emotion was that? CARLOS DELGADO: Windmill fist pump, I was happy (smiling). I mean, 4-4, seventh inning, you know, they just tied the game, give an opportunity to take the lead, I was excited. You facing a guy throwing 98 miles an hour, you come up with a big RBI, so I was pretty fired up. Q. David, after your first couple at-bats, you forced out, struck out looking, you got a couple doubles after that, what's going through your mind after the first couple at-bats? DAVID WRIGHT: Believe it or not, I felt pretty good up there, first couple at-bats. Seeing the ball okay. Tough shadows. Derek made some great pitches. So, you know, I knew I felt good. I had to just keep that confidence level up going into the third at-bat. Got behind early. You know, just had in my mind that I was going to lock it down here, put the ball in play. Got a pitch down and away, got the barrel of the bat in. Just trying to elevate and get that run in. I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could drive out over the plate and drive it the other way. Q. After Carlos' home run, it looked like you were going to break your arm. DAVID WRIGHT: That's what I was going to say. For the record, he definitely did not control his emotions. Almost took my arm off, hitting my hand on the home run. Q. It seems like you have been feeding off each other. First man goes out, goes one, two, three innings, Carlos hits the home run. Seems like that spring-boarded you guys? DAVID WRIGHT: I think we did a tremendous job. It seems like we had an answer. For every time they scored we answered right back, or went out and shut them right down. It was a game of momentum tonight. Just seemed like the momentum was going our way the majority of the night. Seems like they couldn't go on too many big runs. Played good defense. Got great pitching. And, you know, we had a couple big plays. When we get the middle of our lineup guys swinging the bats well, that's contagious. A guy like Carlos, he can put this team on his back and carry us. I mean, he gets that hot. So, you know, it's fun to watch him hit. Q. David, similar question to what Carlos answered: Did you have butterflies earlier in the game? Did it feel like a normal game? When did it start feeling like a normal game to you? DAVID WRIGHT: No, I mean, you definitely have the butterflies. You get anxious, a little nervous. Come the middle of the game, you start to settle in a little bit. The crowd was electric. There was just so much energy. I think it rubbed off on us. You know, my heart was definitely, you know, beating a little faster those first couple innings. But it was a great environment. It was fun to go out there and play tonight. Q. To piggyback on Andy's question, the first few innings it seemed like the Mets' offense was nonexistent. After Carlos hit the home run, was there a palpable break in tension, like, okay, we can all exhale and do what we have to do? DAVID WRIGHT: Yeah, I think so. We have a team full of igniters. When a couple of these guys get going, it rubs off. I've said from day one the hitting is contagious. For Carlos to go out there, break the ice, let everybody relax a little bit, get focused and, you know. Especially everybody's first at-bat, you're gonna have the butterflies a little bit. You're gonna be a little overanxious, swinging at bad pitches. Jose Reyes had a tremendous at-bat against Brad Penny to start that inning off, and, you know, since then I think that rubbed off and, you know, we were able to go out there and be ourselves. Q. Game 1 is always important in every series. Considering what you guys are going through with not having Pedro or El Duque today, is there more importance placed on winning today for setting an emotional tone in the series? DAVID WRIGHT: This is my first playoff experience, so, you know, I think the way that we were treating it was that we were gonna go out there and, you know, almost a must-win for us, you know. That's the way we were treating it. You know, for us to go out there, you try to take it one game at a time, you know, but we realized we had to get off to a good start, you know, especially with, you know, everything that's been going on with Pedro and El Duque. We wanted to go in there and, you know, prove to ourselves that, you know, we were capable of, you know, swinging the bats and getting some great pitching from John Maine, which he went out there and was tremendous. So I think that we needed this game, as far as momentum goes, because we've had the last couple days off. We had to get back into the swing of things. Q. David, do you think it's important that you had a good game today because you have a left-hander going tomorrow? DAVID WRIGHT: No. I've said that, you know, we went through that little stretch where we struggled against left-handers. I think that's one of those ins and outs of baseball, that if you look hard enough you can find something, you know. Just happened to be that we were struggling against lefties at the time. I think we're past that. I think we've had a couple good games against lefties since then. I think that our overall record over the course of the year was above .500 against lefties. All of our left-handed guys swing the bats well against lefties throughout their career. It's not something we concerned ourselves with. At the time, I think that it got a lot more attention than it deserved, but we put that behind us and we're just focused going out there trying to win games. Q. Did you all see any nerves at all out of Johnny Maine before the game? Did anyone say anything to him? CARLOS DELGADO: I didn't see them. I mean, he's pretty quiet, so it was -- keep to himself. He just stares at his locker. No difference today (laughing). Went out there, took batting practice, went back to his locker and warmed up. I mean, he was great. DAVID WRIGHT: No, I mean, he seemed to me before the game nice and loose. I didn't see anything different. You know, I think it also kind of helped that he just kind of got thrown into that position. He didn't have too much time to outthink himself. With El Duque getting hurt, he had, I guess, less than 24 hours to prepare himself, so, you know, I think it was -- that was a blessing in disguise. Obviously we don't want to lose El Duque, but for John just to be thrown in that mix and for him to come out here and not even try to outthink himself, I think it was good. He was smiling. He was, you know, not any different than before. I think he was very poised. Q. David, you're 0-2, like you said, you fell behind the third time up. You get the double. Was it, I mean -- what was the feeling standing on second? DAVID WRIGHT: You know, it was just, you know, unbelievable. I mean, that's what as a kid you put yourself in that situation, you know. You know, big moment. You know, playoff time. With this atmosphere. It was just absolutely nuts out there tonight. I mean, it rubbed off on the players. You know, to come through like that, you just -- the emotions sometimes get the best of you. You start taking your teammates' hands off, like Carlos did. You give some windmill fist pumps like Carlos did. So, you know, it's just fun to go out there and be able to play with a lot of emotion. I think we got an emotional team, so I think it was big.
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