NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 18, 2005

Roy Oswalt

ROY OSWALT: We had two more games, and they are trying to catch us; we are not trying to catch them. So that was my mood last night going home. The mood on the plane was actually pretty cool. The pilot had a pretty good joke for us on the way here, pretty good mood on the plane.

ROY OSWALT: That stays between us. (Laughter.)

ROY OSWALT: What was the last part?

ROY OSWALT: Well, if it happened in the regular season, we would have been off to play another series with somebody else. So same with Brad, he's the type of closer that has amnesia, he won't think nothing about it next time he gets out there. You have to be as a closer, that's your job to come and get the last three outs. He's been doing it all year for us, made one mistake last night, cost the game. He'll come out tomorrow, end of the game, and I'm sure he'll be lights-out just like he always is.

ROY OSWALT: Well, since I didn't get in the game, it's hard for me to contribute last night. But as far as tomorrow, I'm going to pitch the same way I pitch, I never go out there with the mindset I'm going to lose. I always go out there to win. Doesn't matter what happened yesterday. A lot of guys get caught up in what happened yesterday. You have to go do your job that day you're out there. Can't worry about yesterday.

ROY OSWALT: It would be nice, for sure. The thing with me, if the team wins, it doesn't matter how I do, give up 10 runs and we win 11-10, I would be just as happy in that as if I won 1-0. I'm not a big statistics guy. All I want to do is win ballgames. If I win, it would be great. If the bullpen comes in and wins it behind me, it will be even better.

ROY OSWALT: He's a good hitter. The thing about Pujols is he's got power to all fields. That's one thing that a lot of power hitters usually have power to a certain part of the field. With him, you can make a pretty good pitch away or make a pretty good pitch in and he'll hit it out to either left or right field. So a good hitter. You've got to respect that he can hit the ball out of the park, but you can't be afraid of him, for sure.

ROY OSWALT: From last year, that was a pretty good pitch, I remember that. I don't think he's in that classification yet just because of the years, he's only been playing the same years I've been playing. You can't classify a guy that has 130, 140 home runs, however many he's got to, to a guy that's got 700. It's hard to compare. Now if he does it over a stretch of time the way Bonds has done it, yeah, he could be classified in the Bonds category. The thing about baseball, to be classified as a great baseball player you have to be do it year after year for ten or more years. That's the way I classify it. You can't just do it a few years and be classified as great. I wouldn't put my classification anywhere near a guy that's been pitching for 20 years, even though that may be his first four years and my first four years are the same. He's done it for 20 years; I've only done it for four or five.

ROY OSWALT: That's the way I would classify it. I wouldn't classify it not even close to Clemens. You have to do it for a long period of time to be classified as a great in the game.

ROY OSWALT: It's nice. You know, one thing coming back to St. Louis, this is the last time you're going to play in the stadium. This stadium has a lot of baseball memories in it, and to come back here and pitch in this stadium before it's gone is great. Hopefully the biggest thing with us is to get going early, get in a groove early and hopefully get some momentum going our way.

ROY OSWALT: Oh, we kidded with him the whole time on the plane today. We actually told him we almost got hit by the ball when it took off. (Laughter.) That's the thing about baseball, once it happened last night, it happened last night. You can't do nothing about it today. I'm sure he didn't sleep too well last night, but with Brad, I'm just like, when I was here when Billy Wagner was here, I've seen Billy Wagner give up a home run and come out the next day and strike out three in a row. That's the life of a closer, you have to go out and have amnesia and next day, be the guy.

ROY OSWALT: (Laughing). You guys know a good bit about him. Only thing I know is I need to keep to myself so he won't bury me when he gets up here. (Laughter.)

ROY OSWALT: You know, he's a classic, what I'd liken to an old-time baseball player. You know, back in the old days, it wasn't so much around power, it was so much about getting the bat on ball and creating havoc on the field and getting on base by an error or hitting a ball in the infield. He's a good player. I didn't get to see him when I played in the American League but I've heard about him. Once I came over here I got to face him a good many times. With him, you have to pitch him and defense him the way you pitch him, that's how you get him out is you have to make your pitches against him to make him hit it where you want him to hit it. He's going to put it in play. You're not really trying to strike him out. You're trying to make him put it in play but you've got to defense him right, too.

ROY OSWALT: You know, I read a few things off the tape I did last time that maybe I could conserve a few pitches here and there. Overall, the bullpen has been doing a great job for us. I feel like if I can get seven or eight innings in, that I can hand it over to the bullpen any time. One-run game, give it to them against anybody. Just because one game last night happened the way it did doesn't mean that we lost face in the bullpen. The bullpen has been doing great for us. One out of 80 games, it happens.

ROY OSWALT: No. Actually I didn't get the memo. (Laughter.) I started noticing these guys having pretty good beards probably about five days ago, and I didn't get the memo. So I didn't really start on it the same time they did, so I didn't want to jump in after they got it going.

ROY OSWALT: Probably the biggest game I pitched is United States in the Olympics games. If we didn't win my game, we competed for the Bronze Medal instead of the Gold Medal. So it was a little bit of pressure there. A few wild-card berths here and there. But I don't treat it no different than any other game. I do what I do. I'm going to go after hitters and make them hit the ball.

ROY OSWALT: 2000.

ROY OSWALT: You know, I've been here, this is my fifth year and I've had three different managers. First manager was (Larry) Dierker and he was a real big pitcher's manager, he'd leave you in there to throw 120 to 150 pitches a game and I loved that. Then we went from that to Jimy Williams, where he used the bullpen a lot more than most managers do. Then we went back to Gar and the thing about Gar, we went back to the pitching mentality of it and he'll leave you out there and get through crucial situations and times. I think it's great for young pitchers especially like Backe and Wandy to be out there in crucial situations to learn to get themselves out of it. The way he manages is aggressive. He tries to make things happen. The difference between him and other managers is we do a lot more hit-and-runs, sacrifices, squeezes, anything to produce havoc on the field. That's the way he played and that's the way he manages.