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NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS v BREWERS

October 5, 2011

Kirk Gibson

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Game Four

Diamondbacks Â– 10
Brewers - 6

Q. Can you talk about the decision-making process on Saunders. Obviously he's struggling early on, but he still got the lead. You make the decision to pull him and Cowgill comes up with a big hit.
KIRK GIBSON: It was easier because we had a chance to score runs. Didn't like the way Joe was throwing the ball; he was elevating, overthrowing the ball. Didn't see any ground balls. And I had a feeling Milwaukee was not going to give in, which they didn't. We had an opportunity to score some runs, so I took advantage of that.

Q. Back's up against the wall, how impressed are you with the way your team has swung the bat the last two nights?
KIRK GIBSON: Well, we know we're capable of scoring runs. So that was outstanding.
But to keep things in perspective, we haven't accomplished anything yet. We didn't come here to win two games and not win the Series. We have to stay level headed about it.
It was a battle today. I give Milwaukee credit. They didn't go away. It was not easy, believe me. They made us use a ton of pitchers. They kept coming at us.
So we're just going to have to stay level headed about this and we're going back to a very hostile environment. We know what it's like, we've been there the first two games. And we've got our work cut out for us.

Q. Cowgill and Shaw performed well tonight and yesterday Goldy and Collmenter. A lot of rookies, you're putting them in positions to succeed, and most of them are. Can you talk about that a little bit?
KIRK GIBSON: I think it's one of our organizational philosophies from day 1 when we thought about how we were going to approach this. We brought them into the mix, into the environment, tried to get them to understand what our aspirations were, what our goals were and how we were going to approach it.
And I think just overall you try and put people in situations and try to motivate them to believe in themselves and fight through some of the negative things, and maybe some of the labels or stereotypes. The sky's the limit.
And those guys -- we obviously have confidence in them. That's why they're in the game. We've brought guys up from Double-A and they were exposed to a very good environment down there, as well. They've got good stuff. They've got good abilities. They're getting a chance to prove that they have the character to utilize their abilities and be a great team player.

Q. You guys have hit four grand slams in four straight home games, the second team in playoff history to hit them back-to-back. Any explanation for what your players are able to do with bases loaded?
KIRK GIBSON: I'm not sure. The key is to get the bases loaded. I hope we get to come back here and maybe do it for the fifth time.
I think we talked about this a little bit earlier today, when you get people on base, it adds a different element for your opponent, because they have to deal with it. And certainly when the bases are loaded it has a lot of pressure, with two outs. That was big, that hurts.
When you've got bases loaded, we have Parker, we're thinking just make a good pitch, get a double play, get out with one run. Shaw came in and did a great job. Hart hits the ball, Parra runs it down.
The other thing, the 6th inning, we had a really good 6th inning, on the bunt play with Gomez. We had talked about Aaron Hill was going to cover the bag the whole way there tonight. We were going to come in and try to detour the bunt.
For them to trust it and for us to trust it and execute that, it was a tough play. That was a big out. When you get in a situation like that you're just looking at outs, just get outs, just get outs. There's a lot of game left. We're not trying to make a great play and compound our problems like we did in Game 2.

Q. Can you talk about the decision to use Parker in that situation and then evaluate his performance?
KIRK GIBSON: Well, you know, we were up some runs and Daniel Hudson would have been in the bullpen, as well, he was down there in the end of the game. You're just trying to get innings. When Joe Saunders went three innings, Micah gave us two, Shaw give us an inning and two-thirds. You just try to get outs. You're trying to save your guys the best you can.
Like in the end we had Ziegler and Paterson and Hudson, the guy we didn't want to use. We had the lead, so we had to do what we were going to do to preserve the lead.
But the Brewers did a great job, kept coming at us. And fortunately we kept tacking on, as well.
But you need a contribution. It was a big stage for him. I think he'll be better because of what he went through tonight. The first hit on Betancourt was a fluke hit. He hits the ball in front of the play and it bounces over Roberts' head. I think it will be instrumental and big if we have to use him again.

Q. Chris Young, the two home runs, how much does he mean to your offense?
KIRK GIBSON: Everybody means everything. I moved him in the lineup today. I told him before the game, he's one of my picks to click. I moved him before and he's responded well to that.
Chris Young has been there for us all year. He'll play every day. He never runs from anything. If he's slumping, he doesn't care. He's hardheaded about it. If he's hurt, he'll say he's not hurt.
He puts himself out there to be able to succeed. He doesn't think about the failures. That was a huge game from him tonight for us.

Q. Looking ahead to Friday against Gallardo, he's had a lot of success against you guys, swinging the bat the way he did today help you guys out at all?
KIRK GIBSON: I haven't thought about it. He's been very good. He's mastered us pretty good. So we're going to have to think about how we approach him. We have to change something different than we have before. Very formidable.
We have Ian Kennedy on the mound for us. As we sat and laid it out, if we can get to Game 5 in their environment with our No. 1 guy against their No. 1 guy, you couldn't ask for anything better.

Q. After the momentum you guys built from the last two days, do you wish you could play Game 5? Are you worried about the off-day slowing down the momentum?
KIRK GIBSON: We're not worried about that. We have to absorb this, stay focused. As I said earlier, we didn't come here to win two games and go to Game 5. We got into this round to try to win and advance to the next round and we'll gather our thoughts here.
It was an exciting win today. A good environment we've been in and we need to get ready for our next challenge.

Q. When you pack, do you pack for more than --
KIRK GIBSON: We pack for five days. If we win, we'll go right to wherever we have to go.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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