NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 20, 2001

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: We're still thinking about it. Right now I'm leaning toward Tommy. We wanted to give Millwood one inning last night for sure. He still could pitch easily. Be good for him. But we're leaning toward Glavine right now.

BOBBY COX: We had 40-some-thousand last night. I thought that was huge. It seemed like a completely packed stadium to me. I didn't see. I never look up, so... But it appeared to me it was packed. That's a lot of people. That holds more than Wrigley and Fenway Park so...

BOBBY COX: Well, we're expecting a great game out of Greg. I'm sure Bob is expecting a great game out of Lopez. He's pitched good against our ballclub, if that helps you.

BOBBY COX: He's made his pitches. Maybe caught us at the right time, I don't know, when we weren't swinging real good. For me, he's made his pitches. I can remember Bill Fisher's comments when he was the pitching coach at Tampa Bay. He liked Albie Lopez a lot and thought he would be a star.

BOBBY COX: Oh, yeah. Smoltzie probably could go two, Karsay could go two or three. I think Rudy can repeat. Bullpen's fine.

BOBBY COX: We go over everybody pretty much in detail, so everybody concerns us, but, you know, he's the guy that always plays big late in the year for some reason. He never has a starting job, with most clubs that he's been with, and at the end of the year, he's grinded it out and he becomes the starter. He's the guy that knows how to play the game of baseball. He does a great job of playing the game.

BOBBY COX: Well, I'm not even sure I have a style (smiling). We've had great players here for the last ten years. Anybody could have managed this club and done well, I think. It's a great organization. We've always had fine players come through here. This year has been a little bit more of a test for us probably, but we've had other years with just as many problems and succeeded. That's it (laughter).

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think it's just the time of the year that everybody gets this flu bug thing. We've been battling it for about three weeks now off and on. I think the Diamondbacks are going through the same thing over there, too. It's nothing new this time of year. Generally in the spring you have an outbreak during camp, and then later on in the fall in playoff time you get it.

BOBBY COX: Well, we've been talking about our bullpen for a long time. So that's nothing new, that they threw almost five innings of shut-out ball last night. It's very capable of doing that, yeah.