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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DODGERS

October 8, 2009

Joe Torre

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Dodgers Â– 3
Cardinals - 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joe Torre.

Q. How thrilling was it to pull out the victory on your last out?
JOE TORRE: I mean, I can't describe it. Wainwright was a horse today. I mean, he was incredible. He just -- my bench coach and I were talking, it was like old-time baseball where your starter's allowed to get out of jams.
And for us to be able to come back, especially Ethier making the first out and then Manny making an out and all of a sudden we got a break. Looked like the ball got in the lights on Matt in left field and Belliard came up and was big for us again.
Casey Blake had an amazing at-bat, an amazing at-bat.

Q. How big was that play where Loney cut the ball off after Rasmus's double had scored a run? That turns the whole inning around, doesn't it?
JOE TORRE: He was all over the field and that was a great play. There's no question they weren't going to get DeRosa at the plate. And that stopped any further damage. So but I understand why he was going to third because DeRosa doesn't run very well. So you want to make sure the run's scored. It just turned out as you look back on a game like this, you know, just something like that.

Q. You mentioned that this was like old-time baseball with the pitchers getting out of jams. Did you have a pretty long leash with Kershaw, letting him get out of his own way?
JOE TORRE: This is what you save all those innings for during the season. Again, he was very economical going into the seventh inning. He pitched great. Looked like both outfielders, Ludwick and Ethier, both had trouble with the sun out there in right center field, one on Furcy's ball and then the leadoff there in the seventh inning.
But I was very comfortable watching Kershaw pitch today. I thought he responded to the challenge very, very well. We just have to figure out a way to get our left-handers get left-hand hitters out. We just haven't been able to do that these last two days.

Q. What were your thoughts when you saw the ball go through Holliday's hands?
JOE TORRE: It's a break. The first thing I did was go to James and see that, made sure he was running. I would have been very surprised if he wasn't. Being on second base, puts an enormous amount of pressure on Franklin at this point in time, because just a single it takes to score a run.
And you basically push all your chips in at this point. Pinch hitting Juan and use all your players. If that game stayed tight, I had no idea what I was going to do. But we discussed it as we got closer and closer to possibly playing the top of the tenth.

Q. You all kept Albert in check so far. Does that continue to be a significant key for the series not to turn around real quickly?
JOE TORRE: You know, to me he can do so much damage. And I know -- and it's not like we don't know who the guy hitting behind him is. Matt Holliday did damage today. He hit the home run. I have past experience from last year what he did to me when he was over at Colorado. So he's no stranger.
As I said many times, Albert is in a class by himself. I think Albert is such a threat that you are willing to put the winning run on base. You're willing to give them an opportunity to hit a three-run homer instead of a two-run homer.
But I just want to make somebody else beat me, basically.

Q. Did you think Kershaw had hurt himself running after that ball in the sixth inning?
JOE TORRE: You know, he did. But it was his right shoulder, the one that was dislocated. In an effort to get out of the box he sort of ran it up. But by the time we got to talk to him, not that he would ever admit it to us, but he said it was gone. Because he had done that before.
He had a couple starts ago where he sort of looked like he had the one flap down coming back. But it seems to get better. It's just something that's going to be a reminder for him I think for a while.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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