	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CARDINALS v BREWERS

October 13, 2011

Jerry Hairston

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game Four

MILWAUKEE BREWERS 4
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 2

Q. Speaking of your forearm, can you talk about the slide that you had to make to score that run?
JERRY HAIRSTON: Well, I tell you what, I wish Yuni would have hit like a 35-hopper through any hole so it would be a lot easier for me to score. He hit a bullet right at Jon Jay, and I had kind of a late jump because you want to freeze on a line drive, and I took off and thought I might get held up, but I was just still running hard and I just found out that Albert cut the ball off.
So I just wanted to get in there. I knew Yadi was getting ready to receive the throw and I saw a little bit of an opening and I was just able to get in under the tag.

Q. Ryan just got done telling us that the goal was obviously to take the series back to Miller Park, and you've only been around since the end of July. What have you seen about that home-field advantage in that short time and how much does it mean that you get to have that again?
JERRY HAIRSTON: Well, it does help. Our fans are unbelievable. The atmosphere is definitely electric. I remember going in as a visiting player when I was with the Cubs, Reds, it was always a tough place to play for the visiting team.
But that being said, the Cardinals are a great team no matter where you play. We got beat up pretty good in Game 2, so even though we lost last night's game, we felt we played a really good game. We gave ourselves a chance to win, and we felt that if we play that way tonight, we'll be right there, and we're able to scratch and claw.
Obviously Wolfy pitched an unbelievable game. That's one of the best lineups you're going to see. It reminds me of an American League type of lineup. They are a great-hitting team and we were able to fight tonight and get a win.

Q. Just expand on that a little bit, about how great Wolf looked this evening and what was working for him this evening that wasn't working in his NLDS start?
JERRY HAIRSTON: Well, I mean, first of all, he was able to kind of get ahead. I think in Arizona, it seemed like he was always 2-0, 3-1. The Diamondbacks are a really good team and swing the bats well and tonight he was able to establish his curveball, obviously his cutter and sinker and he was able to kind of get ahead.
Obviously Matt Holliday did a tremendous job hitting. That's not an easy pitch to hit out anywhere and he was able to hit it out. Craig did an unbelievable job. I saw the pitch, and, wow. But he didn't get rattled. He kept us there and gave us a chance and we were able to fight and fight back and get a win.

Q. How do you approach that slide? You have to come down and touch the plate, but you can't come down too early otherwise you're going to run into his arm.
JERRY HAIRSTON: Not the biggest guy out there, so usually running over a catcher is not an option, so I'd better learn how to slide. Yadi does a great job behind the plate, blocking the plate. So I just wanted to get there as soon as I can and avoid his tag, and I was able to do that. It's not that easy, but just try to find a way to find the plate and I was able to do that.

Q. What do you think of the job Ryan Braun is doing in the post-season?
JERRY HAIRSTON: Everyone says what a hot streak he's been on. He's Ryan. He's been doing that all year long. Probably him or Prince will win the MVP, both deserving of it. He's a complete player. He can run, hit for average, hit for power and he's been clutch for us all year long. So having him do this, it's not surprising. He's been doing it for us the whole season.

Q. Television cameras caught Alex in the beast costume. Go back to that a little bit and why it's so important for this team to stay loose. You've said that it's imperative for success.
JERRY HAIRSTON: Oh, man, that beast costume, he looks great in it actually. You know what, we are a loose bunch of guys. Even when we were getting beat pretty good in Game 2, we were still kind of loose. They just caught fire and really beat us pretty good, and I think one of the guys said we need to score two touchdowns to get back in the game.
That's the type of team we have to be. We have to be loose, because you know, I think it was in late August or early September, we tried to tone it down and we lost three or four games in a row and we said, you know, we can't be that way. We have to go out there and have fun. No disrespect to any team, but we have to go out and have fun and enjoy ourselves, and we've been doing that and we've been successful.

Q. You had lost eight playoff games in a row on the road; that streak is gone. Does that do anything for you tomorrow going into tomorrow with one last game here?
JERRY HAIRSTON: Eight? Oh, like in '82? (Laughter.) Come on man. I guess we can blame them for most of those losses; right?
They were a great team, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor.
Listen, that was a long time ago. We felt that we had been a pretty good road team the last six weeks of the season and we felt our team really started to get complete. We felt we could play anywhere.
Now we went to Arizona and ran into a team that really swung the bats. I think they hit two Grand Slams. It's one of those things where they beat us up. We didn't necessarily play bad, it's just they swung the bats. We don't really think about that type of thing. We just go out there and try to play our game, have fun, and play good baseball. If we do that, we feel that we have a pretty good team and we have a chance to win the game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297