MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES v BRAVES

October 24, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: We didn't hit the ball last night. Really we didn't hit the ball tonight until the ninth. We didn't really tear up the ball against the Mets either, so... You know, both those pitchers are tough. You got to figure the game's going to be pretty tight actually. We didn't have the pitching tonight to make it tight. You know, to keep it close, we just couldn't do it.

BOBBY COX: You know, we played a bad game. I know the Yankees played a real bad game against Boston. '96, we went up there and beat them. We were in the teens the first two games of '96 up there, facing good pitching. You know, that's kind of the way we got beat up tonight. We didn't give up that many, but we, you know, we're a team of good pitching and timely hitting. And we can't -- we did not get runners on tonight to do anything.

BOBBY COX: I don't know. Kevin can ride the ball high and also go downstairs. I think tonight, honestly, he was kind of in the middle where he shouldn't have been, and it was all a matter of location. He wasn't down, and he wasn't up high enough. You know, he got right in that area that's good to hit on.

BOBBY COX: We're facing a left-hander when we go up there. We'll play the other guys. We're just honestly trying to score some runs right now.

BOBBY COX: He threw today, and he felt pretty good. He stuck around for a while, and he should be ready to pitch Tuesday if not Smoltz's ready to go.

BOBBY COX: Well, it's frustrating. I don't know if it's helpless. We kept waiting to get something going. David kept the ball down really good tonight. He had breaking stuff. He wasn't overpowering at all. He didn't throw that hard but his ball was sinking like crazy. He had great movement. I still think the best pitch in baseball is a good moving fastball, and he had that moving tonight.

BOBBY COX: I thought we were going to escape with one run. I said we got the double play, but then they tacked on two more. Even that wasn't bad. We were three down, got nine innings, we haven't even hit yet. We might get four or five runs, but one would have looked a lot better, yeah.

BOBBY COX: I don't think so. The readings are all the same, everything's the same except his location, you know, he either rides it up or goes way down. He got that middle area. And you have to remember the Yankees are excellent hitters. They're going to hit good pitching once in a while, too. When you make bad pitches, they're going to take advantage of it and they're going to hit them.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, we're going to do some hitting tomorrow. We're going to air it out up there, we're going to hit, you bet. We're going to work with some guys, see what's going on.

End of FastScripts….