NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v GIANTS

October 5, 2000

John Franco

Jay Payton

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: He had the most at-bats of any of the outfielders we had available this year, between the minor leagues, and the major leagues, and I think he's a good player. We went with him. And this guy gets a big hit at the end. Timo got a big hit at the beginning. That guy got a great save at the end, and it all worked out fine.

BOBBY VALENTINE: This team never does cease to amaze me. They're a great group of guys, with an extreme amount of talent, and they played until the end of the game. I thought the three-run homer fired us up. Jay came up with two outs after Darryl Hamilton gets a big hit, and we get a win. We keep playing. Sometimes the other team gets more runs at the end of the game, but it's not because of the effort we put forth, first to the last out of the game.

JOHN FRANCO: I've been facing Barry for I don't know how many years now, and he's won the battle, and I've won the battle. I'm just trying to make my pitches and don't give him a chance to extend his arms where he can hit a homerun or anything in the gap. So I threw mostly fast balls. I threw him one change-up that was in the dirt. I've been making a living for 17 years getting people out on my change-up. What better time to throw it than that time. I faced Barry a couple of times this year, and got him out on change-ups, also. Tonight, fortunately, I got it right where I wanted it, and the umpire called it.

JAY PAYTON: I wasn't down. That's the point in the game where we wanted to clinch it and get the game over. The game was tied; it wasn't over. We knew we were going to get another chance to get up and swing the bat. We stayed positive, and it worked out for us.

JOHN FRANCO: It doesn't justify anything, unfortunately, tonight. He's our closer, the guy's a human being. He's going to make mistakes like we all do. One of the reasons why I came back is because I felt that this team could win. And I'm sure, come Saturday, if we have a lead going into the 9th, knowing Bobby the way I know Bobby, Armando will be back out and get the save. It's going to take 25 to get where we want. Tonight was a team effort, and we picked each other up. Jay got the big hit; I got the big out. Saturday it could be somebody else.

JAY PAYTON: Timo is great. He plays with no fear, he plays hard. He's confident. You can tell watching him play he's confident in his abilities. He pretty much carried us early on in the game. If it wasn't for him and Fonzi, we wouldn't be in that position where me and Johnny came through.

BOBBY VALENTINE: It's 1-1, we're going to our ballpark. We proved to ourselves we could win here, a tough win, and everyone knows we can win here, in case we have to come back. And we're going to have a home-field advantage now for two games. And I think our fans are going to try to outdo their fans, and that should be a real exciting challenge for them.