NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 9, 2004

Phil Garner

PHIL GARNER: Yes, yes. Yeah, we're good for tomorrow with Roger.

PHIL GARNER: Well, you look at how many starts he's had this year, the workload that he's had. You put a lot of consideration into his last start. You look at the other alternatives for starts, then just keep coming back to the idea of it. I would hate to think something happened this series and I had one of the greatest pitchers sitting on the bench. I think that the final straw that weighed it towards Roger is the fact that he's been a fantastic pitcher. I think you have to go with one of the best pitchers in the game today, and in the last decade. You have to let him have the ball.

PHIL GARNER: I looked at all the stats. I'm aware of what he's done in 2000. He had pretty good success. I'm also aware of the stats that said it doesn't work. Last year when Beckett did it, everybody said it wasn't going to work. I'm aware of every stat I think there is in baseball, and I think I've tried every one of them. Sometimes they work. I'll give you a classic example when I put my high on-base percentage guys up earlier in the earlier in the batting order and my high slugging percentage guys behind them it didn't work. So I placed guys where they felt more comfortable even though it was untraditional. When I tried that, they played better and we got on a streak. I'm fully aware of all the stats that are out there. Bottom line is that's Roger Clemens; I'm going to use him.

PHIL GARNER: I don't know really what's a "hard" decision. I think what you want to try to do is make sure you make all things -- take all things into consideration. You would hate to think that you get to this situation, there might have been something you overlooked that is very important. Don't know that we have done that, overlooked anything. You also want to make sure you weigh things properly. Bottom line is I'm not expecting him to go out there and throw nine innings of shutout ball. I'm just asking him to give us what he has. If that's three innings, then somebody has to pick it up anyway. I don't think you can expect him to go nine. Somewhere between one and nine, he'll give us his best. The decision is he's the best guy to start the game. That's what it came down to. I don't know if it was a tough decision, but you try to make sure you've considered everything.

PHIL GARNER: Well, I think we have clicked when our offense is performing well at the top of the lineup. We seem to win most of our games when the top of the lineup does something - when they're on base, when they do something. Having said that, you still need everybody to pitch in and do something. Who would I go to in the middle part of the game? It will depend what the matchups are. I could use Gallo in certain situations. I would use Harville, as I have in the past, in certain situations. I will use Qualls in certain situations. It will depend on what inning, where we are, and it will depend on the score of the game. Let me continue on that. I would use anybody and all of them. If Lidge is okay, I'll use him in the fourth inning - I'm kidding about that. It gives you something to write about (laughter).

PHIL GARNER: They're fresh. As you well know, I like to have everybody in the ballgame if the situation allows me to do that. It hasn't allowed me to do that just yet, but I would expect that these guys, they've been throwing, they're okay. The only thing I think is it's nice in these playoffs to get your feet wet without having to be thrown right into the fire. We haven't had the opportunity to do that with a few of our guys, but I expect them to get in when they have the opportunity and do the job.

PHIL GARNER: I will continue to use him in the role that I set out to do in the beginning of these playoffs. That is, I will use him in a pinch-run role first, defensive role second, and offensive role thirdly.

PHIL GARNER: Lidge is available for today. How long, I don't know that yet. We're out on the field. When he throws a little bit, he'll give me an indication. I would not expect to use him for three innings today, but I would expect he's okay for two innings or a portion thereof. Although you really don't know that until we've been on the field. Beltran is feeling better each day.

PHIL GARNER: Well, not today. It did two months ago. When I took over this job, the idea was to get it turned around, to get back on track and get into the playoffs. That was the whole idea. I felt like at the time you can't try to build a rapport with players. In other words, what you like to do coming out of spring training is you like to give your starters a chance to go long, get out of trouble, try to build confidence in that sense, with your pitching staff. You might go a little bit longer with some of your position players if they're struggling, because you're going to depend on them for the entire length of the season. You make a decision on who your best players are, and those are the ones you're going to go with. When I came in, the style was not like that at all. We were going to do what we had to do that day to win and if it hurt anybody's feelings, we were going to have to get over that. I think every player - position player, pitcher - accepted that and lived with it and actually stepped up to the plate and performed well in those circumstances. Case and point was Mike Lamb, who got hot. I put him in at third base. Morgan Ensberg had been playing well. As a matter of fact, when I first got here, I thought I was going to have to bench Morgan because he wasn't hitting the ball well. He began to hit the ball well. He started for us, and there for a stretch he was our most productive guy in key situations. Mike Lamb got hot. I sat Ensberg on the bench. He had an injury, as you well know; he came back from the injury. He was ready to play. Mike Lamb was still hot, and we kept Mike Lamb in the lineup. So prior to, in a different situation, that might not have been the same scenario, but both players accepted it. As Mike cooled off a little bit and Morgan got his opportunity to swing the bat, we switched that around. That's been the case with pitchers as well as position players for the most part. That's a little different than I think you would manage if you had the team the whole year.

PHIL GARNER: No, I haven't. I think that Biggio's 2600 hits speak for themselves. He may be struggling a day or two, but I think he's going to do something that's going to help us along the way. The most sleep I've lost this year was the Saturday when I was going to play Biggio when Estes was playing against us, next to the last day of the season. Came to the ballpark, still hadn't made up my mind, and decided, you know, "This guy's done a lot of things. He might do something big," even though his record against Estes was not very good. He ended up hitting two home runs that day off of Estes. You never know when it's going to happen. Today's probably going to be the day.