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NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS v CUBSOctober 1, 2008Derek LoweManny RamirezCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Game One Q. There were a couple times that you fell behind in counts and the at-bats kind of went on. Did you feel like they were nibbling you? Is that just taking a good at-bat? Do you feel like they were trying to avoid giving you something to hit? MANNY RAMIREZ: Well, in that situation I ain't thinking about nothing. I'm just trying to get ready for every pitch. He did make a great pitch. You've got to give him credit. But I don't know how I did it. Put a good piece of wood on the bat, and I drove the ball. Q. Derek, if it were up to you, would you go on three days' rest for a possible Game 4, or would you rather pitch in Game 5 in a possible clinching scenario? DEREK LOWE: We've already discussed that, and I think we've already made a decision. But there's no sense talking about it right now. The decision has already been made. I'll leave it up to Joe to tell everybody. Q. Derek, how were you feeling physically tonight coming off the flu and all that crap? DEREK LOWE: All that crap. Fine. You know, even if you were under the weather five days ago, you're still going to go out there and pitch. It's the playoffs, and this is why you play the game. I didn't have one 1-2-3 inning. There's constantly guys on base and they did a good job of working the count and getting the hitter counts. DeRosa hits a home run and you're down 2-0 but it's still early. You've got to believe in your offense, that they're going to come around. But I think for me the biggest out was Geovany in the sixth inning. I had fallen behind 2-0, lead-off double, we're up 4-2, and to be able to get that out, for me kind of kept the momentum on our side. Q. Manny, on that home run, you're bent over, you're stumbling out of the batter's box, your helmet is coming off, your pants are falling down, and you hit it out. How do you do that? MANNY RAMIREZ: First, I want to thank Joe for cutting my hair. He did make a good pitch, and I just drove it. You've got to give that guy credit. I was just lucky just to drive it out of the ballpark. But in that situation, like I said, I'm just trying to get ready for every pitch out there. Q. Manny, you really played superbly since coming to the Dodgers. What do you think has transformed you? MANNY RAMIREZ: Nothing, I'm just being Manny. That's it. I've been playing great everywhere, and I'm just happy that I'm here in LA. It was a great move for me, just to go and show people that that other stuff that I left behind wasn't true, that I just want to come and get a new life and play the game, play hard and show people that I still can do this. Q. You guys have both been on winning teams. What kind of edge do you think it gives you winning the first game and kind of going into their ballpark and taking it like this? DEREK LOWE: You know, I've seen both sides of it. I think we both have. With Boston we've had so many great match-ups with the Yankees over the years. We've been up, down, down 3-0 and found a way to come back. It is only one game. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves. He's won one more World Series than I have, and again, having been part of being up one, down two, up three, down three, you can never get too excited. We know Zambrano is a fantastic pitcher. So yes, it's one win, but we've got a long way to go. MANNY RAMIREZ: Like D-Lowe said, you cannot get too happy and too sad. It's only one game. We've still got to go tomorrow and play hard. We're going against the best pitcher in the National League, and they've got a great offense. But we cannot fall asleep with those guys. They're the best team in the National League and anything could happen. Q. Manny, along those lines, with the history here and the 100-year drought at the Cubs' organization, could you guys feel out there tonight with the crowd that there was kind of a sense of dread around the fans here? MANNY RAMIREZ: It's a great atmosphere. It's like when you're playing in Boston, a lot of history, and like I said, they're the best team in the National League, and anything can happen. We've just got to come tomorrow and play hard and live day by day and play everybody hard. Q. You two in particular helped break the hex, the jinx in Boston in 2004 with that performance. What do you think generally about the idea of a curse? I mean, this is 99 years now. That's an awfully long time. DEREK LOWE: I don't believe in it, I really don't. I think it's 2008 and the Cubs are playing for 2008. Just like in '04, when you're going through -- all you care about is that year. You can't change history, you can't worry about what has happened before. A lot of us, we had nothing to do with it, so there's no sense worrying about the jinxes. Like I said yesterday, a lot of that is media driven. I think playing for the Cubs at this time and playing for the Red Sox in '04, it gets kind of monotonous talking about the drought. I don't believe there's any added pressure for them to win, because again, they only care about this year and not trying to make up for the previous 100. MANNY RAMIREZ: Like D-Lowe said, we don't believe in any curse. Whatever happened in the past for the Cubs is in the past. They've got a great team. Whatever happened tonight is over. They're going to come tomorrow and play everybody hard, and you've got to keep going. There's no curse. They've got a great team out there, and you've got to respect that. End of FastScripts |
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