NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS v BRAVES

October 7, 2002

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Well, we've never gotten ahead of ourselves. We're still completely focused on the Giants. You know, we'll have our scouts meeting in the morning, the people that have been covering St. Louis. But just my own knowledge of them, they have one of the most potent lineups going, lefty/righty-wise, and Scott Rolen, a big lineup like that, too. One of the best lineups in baseball, I thought. Balanced like crazy.

BOBBY COX: It takes a strong team to knock a strong team out. As we said, you know, going into a five-game series, it's really a crapshoot. A team gets the right bounces, gets a little bit hot, you can knock off a good team. But those teams that beat Arizona and New York are good teams. It's not a shocker. You would have thought, probably, in your mind that going against Schilling and Randy Johnson that it's going to be tough to beat them and going against Oakland's three starters, that it would be tough to beat them, and look what happened.

BOBBY COX: Well, you go with the elements. Whatever the rules are, that's what you go with. Any time you come from the West Coast and get in at 5:30, 6 o'clock and get in bed at 7:30, 8:00, you should have an off-day scheduled. During the regular season that would happen but this is the playoffs. Some of these guys got some sleep on the airplane and they are energetic and the weather is good here, not too hot or humid, so should be good for both teams, I think.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think so. He threw a good ballgame his first outing against the Giants, one of his best starts of the year, I thought. He's rested up. He only threw 70 pitches. He flew home before the team did, so he's had some sleep and is ready to roll.

BOBBY COX: Well, he's going to get a lot of shots, that's for sure. (Laughs). I thought the first ballgame he pitched, he was fine, those balls just fell in over the second baseman's head or just in front of the right fielder. There was one ball hit really good off him in the first game and that was Aurilia's double to centerfield. Last night, we started that game off with three bullets ourselves off Livan. We hit three rockets, we had nobody on, three outs. They hit three balls off Tommy in the first inning, they have got bases loaded, no outs, and that's the way the game kind of went. He shattered three bats last night, and he got no outs on those three shatters. But he was hit a little bit -- probably a little bit harder last night than he was the first outing. He was strong last night. He was throwing a fastball topping 90, 89; he generally throws 84, 86. He was pumped up. He was just missing the black on the strike zone. It was one of those nights where it just didn't work out.

BOBBY COX: No, the sun didn't come up till around 7:15. We were on the ground around 5:30, something like that. I think most of the guys got in bed by 7:30 or so. I was telling Corrales, we used to do this in the Minor Leagues all the time and drink beer all the way. He says, you know, we're not 19 years old any more, either.

BOBBY COX: Seems like we played in L.A. at 5:00, they have those 5:00 starts, and came back and played, I think, yeah.

BOBBY COX: All of the teams that make the playoffs have the best pitching, some exceptions but not many. The Florida team has great pitching and so does Montreal, I feel. I can't explain it. I was asking Rob Dibble the same thing. I was asking Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. I can't explain it. You would not think it would be that way because everybody has got four good starters. One of those years. I don't know, some of the pitchers are getting a little older, I guess the Yankee guys. It's a long haul during the season. But Maddux pitched great and Tommy is strong. It's not a matter of being pitched out. There's a lot of fuel in the tank. I don't know. The strike zone is a little bit smaller, for one thing. Hitters are getting better pitches to hit.

BOBBY COX: Well, all of those guys went -- one went one and a third and the other ones went two. They are all good to go tonight. I've polled them all and they are fine. The main guys that pitched the core of the game, they are okay and they are strong. We'll be okay in the pen.

BOBBY COX: I've got my fingers crossed that they will both be here. They have been so -- the mainstays of the ballclub through all of these years, and Smoltzy. Of course, we have Smoltz for two more years after this. So we would love to see them come back. Nature of the game, they are free agents. Let me put it this way, the organization wants them back. We all want them back and we will give it our best shot it. It would be hard to imagine them not wearing a Braves uniform. They wouldn't look right.