NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS v BRAVES

October 3, 2002

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: He's been swinging the bat much better ever since we went to Florida, our last trip. He hit the ball good there. He hit the ball good in New York. Hit the ball good in Philly. It was toward the end of the season, and Terry has been working real hard with him, not so much the hands or the stride, but just swinging at pitches that are around the plate, and it's made a big difference for him.

BOBBY COX: No.

BOBBY COX: No. Barry is a lot different hitter than he was years ago, and the game has not dictated what to do with Barry, pitch to him or walk him. Every situation so far, we've walked him once intentionally, and that's all. It just has not dictated that. You have to really realize he's -- maybe, I don't know. He's just a great hitter and he's a great home run hitter. He can change the game around real fast. We've got all kinds of what-ifs in the first inning, second inning and whenever he comes up; the lead, behind, whatever; what are we going to do with the guy? It's hard, actually, to pitch to him.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, Vinny started swinging good about two weeks ago, hitting some balls hard, hitting the ball out. It took him three months to get his last home run, and Vinny has always been able to hit the ball out of the ballpark, just one of those things. But he's hitting the ball hard everywhere right now. It's just a great time, really for those two guys to kick it in. That's what you hope for. When you get into a five-game series, which is a big crapshoot, you need for anybody to get hot, and especially the guys down toward the bottom. DeRosa hit .300 this year, one point below it and those were typical hits of him tonight. The blooper in the right, he gets a lot of those, and the line drive into right, he gets a lot of those.

BOBBY COX: He's had a great year. He and Maz were two of the keys this year, winning 18 and 12 apiece, that's 30 ballgames, and that's a tough. Kevin was coming off sort of a so-so year last year. He was extra good to tonight. He has not thrown 95, 96, maybe ever. The good thing is, Tommy threw 70 pitches the other day and Millwood threw 70, and they both came back on three days' rest, which they can do very easily.

BOBBY COX: It was about 20 percent factor. The other factor was he was so fired up tonight, he about wore himself out. He was actually done after his last out that he got.

BOBBY COX: I'm going to -- we'll determine that tomorrow at the workout. We'll see. Haven't really thought about that right now. I always like to sleep on those. Julio is swinging real good, for me. He's been a .320 hitter for last three months are so, and so has Matt. He didn't get a lot down the stretch, but still a very good hitter. We'll look at that.

BOBBY COX: Nothing major but a little bit. We wanted to give him some time to recoop and we wanted Javy to go out and talk to him and Julio and it took him a while to get back and first pitch, home run. A little bit but nothing, really. He'll make a start, believe me. He's fine.

BOBBY COX: That's a loose term, "Step up." I don't know how to accept that. Barry Bonds in his years with the Pirates would always hit .300, 35 home runs; did he step down? You get lucky, you get pitches to hit. I don't think there's any such thing as that, myself, except you do take advantage of the pitches you get to hit, or if you're a pitcher, you are able to make the pitches. That's a step up.

BOBBY COX: We've got to win every game we can win right now. Holmes is throwing great, don't get me wrong. He's throwing absolutely great right now. I just didn't want to get Kent on there and Bonds coming up. I wanted to get Kent out. I thought Smoltz, something fresh. He was ready to go two tonight, as well as Rem, and he had a real short inning going with the first two hitters and then he got two infield hits and ground balls and he ended throwing a ton of pitches to Bell and finally struck him out on a ball in on him. Rem was prepared to go two to night, as well as Smoltz, because of the Hammond situation.