NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 5, 1999

Larry Dierker

LARRY DIERKER: I don't know -- no, not really. I don't remember what I did the last two times. I know we haven't performed well in the postseason and each time we have lost the first game and each time it has been a five-game series and when you lose that first game, it is an uphill struggle. Last year getting Randy Johnson, I think depending upon him so heavily and then losing the first game with him pitching was -- I think it was a real body blow to the whole team, a game we anticipated winning and we won 102 games last year, I just think we felt we were going to win that first game and go on. Then we didn't win the first game which really was tough. So in winning the first game today, I think it puts the shoe on the other foot. I am not going to say that the Braves feel like they are in a tremendous disadvantage because they have played so well in our ballpark that I think they feel like when playing in Houston practically it is like playing at home. We still have to win two more games. I don't think that is going to be easy but I haven't thought much about what I did strategically in those other series. To be honest having to go right up until Sunday to even know you were going to get in the Playoffs, and really concentrate on the regular season, didn't give me much time to think about what we were going to do here. Last year we clinched so early we looked at every one of our pitchers and how they performed against every one of the possible Playoff teams; then we looked at how they did in those parks and our home park and, you know, we did a lot of mental gymnastics trying to get ourselves prepared to enter the series in the best possible way. I don't know if the Braves did that this year, but they probably did because they clinched early enough to think about those things. We played on Sunday and we won and we knew we were in the Playoffs. We worked out yesterday and waited for the game and came here. We got here late; went to sleep; got up and came back out here again. In a way I think that might have been a bonus, maybe not a bonus, but it may have been a better scenario for us than had we gone to Phoenix and arrived relatively early and then had to sit around all day waiting to go to the ballpark. This way, there wasn't much time to think about anything and really what you do there, at least what I do in a game, depends on that one game. I can't remember anything that I did in those other series.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, our scouting reports say: Don't let him beat you. But we don't tell our pitchers that. There are situations where you have to pitch to him. Frankly, I am surprised that Shane pitched around him with men on first and second to load the bases because now you are up against it; you're still facing a good power hitter, you can't afford to be careful; you have to throw the ball in the strike zone. That made me a little nervous. I think had I been pitching, I probably would have tried to hit Chipper out there. If he leads off an inning -- I mean, it is hard to just put the lead-off man on because even as hot as he is, he makes more outs than he gets hits, and when he gets hits, he gets more singles than he gets extra basehits, or maybe 50/50, I don't know. But the chance of him doing something better than a walk is not great. So I think you got to pitch to him if he is leading off an inning. That is what happened with Doug Henry, they threw him a pitch leading off an inning; they got him out. I think that whenever you face a team that has a guy that's really hot, that you try not to throw him any strikes in a situation where you can afford to not throw him any strikes - base open, man on second, sort of thing; two outs nobody on, that sort of thing. So we haven't really told our pitchers just to not let him beat you. We just said to pitch him carefully because he is hot.

LARRY DIERKER: I thought his performance was really good. He felt after looking at some paper that he wasn't getting much movement on his fast ball. He normally has a sinking type fast ball. He worked on some things with Vernon and shortened his arm stroke a little bit; tried to get slightly different angle. He felt like he had more movement on the ball in this game and I would say that he probably needed it because I could tell by the way Maddux was reacting. Then he felt like he was getting squeezed a little bit; wasn't getting the corner calls that he is used to. When Shane came in, he said that the strike zone was tight; that he wasn't getting the corner calls that he is used to. And I didn't see any inconsistency in Mike Winters; looked like he was, as far as low and high, and what I could see, he looked like he was pretty consistent. But I would say from the reactions of the pitchers that he was more of a hitters' umpire, forcing to you get the ball on the plate. With that said, I mean, a guy pitches six innings against the Braves with that kind of a strike zone and gives up one run on sort of a dribbler up the middle, I would say that is pretty darn good. Then Miller, Henry, and Wagner came in and did the same thing. You know, up until Caminiti's home run, they did the same thing to us. I felt like with the way the game was going, you know, that if you had pitchers that didn't have real good control, it could have been a lot of walks today and there could have been a lot of runs scored.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, we squeezed and they sniffed it out. I don't know if they knew we were going to squeeze. I don't think they had our signs. On a 1 and 0, it is almost a free pitchout if you want to do it; especially with Maddux pitching to a pitcher. You are not in great fear that he is going to walk the batter, if you give up one ball intentionally. So it is not a 1 - 0 pitch -- I mean, an 0 - 1 pitch is not a normal suicide squeeze count. Usually you do it when the pitcher is behind in the count and has to throw a strike and you don't think that the manager will pitch out. I didn't think he would pitch out because it is not normal count. Normally, you don't do it -- I don't think I have done it in three years with one strike and no balls. But they pitched out; I don't think our runner broke early. I don't think the hitter squared around. I think they just decided to pitch out. That is why they call it the suicide squeeze, when it doesn't work, it kills you.

LARRY DIERKER: I wasn't really afraid that he would hit into a double play. In fact, statistically a double play is not a great likelihood. When Caminiti hit into the double play after they walked Everett, you know, they got what they wanted but it is not a high probability. Reynolds doesn't run that well so it is a little higher with him because if he hits the ground ball they are probably going to get the double play. Maddux throws a lot of ground balls, but I wasn't thinking about the double play. I was thinking we get another run in and we have second and third and Biggio would be up in that situation.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, I don't know how much it took out of him. He is a very well conditioned guy. I mean, almost fanatic about conditioning, but my experience as a pitcher tells me that when you have to run that hard on the bases it takes something out of you. His pitch count wasn't extremely high, but on the other hand, we had a lead and, yeah, that dash from first to third had something to do with my decision.

LARRY DIERKER: Well, I don't know. I don't think about carryovers from one day to the next, but I think it was big because it allowed Wagner the freedom to go after the hitters, Chipper Jones -- I mean Andrew Jones is a guy that can hit the ball out of the park, already had a two-run lead, but if he does that, then you are square. Billy has had trouble a couple of times against this club; gave him some breathing room. He ended up throwing some sliders which he normally doesn't, so gave him a chance to put that thought in their minds that he might do it again and he had a real good slider, so I think the biggest plus about that home run was what it did mentally for Billy in terms of closing this game and what it may do for him in other circumstances if he gets out there again.

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