NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

September 30, 2003

Felipe Alou

FELIPE ALOU: No. We're unsettled still about Game 2. But probably make an announcement. We need to make an announcement for everybody after the first game, so we can get the guy who is going to pitch Game 3 start working towards getting ready. Because both guys are ready for Game 2.

FELIPE ALOU: Not the biggest factor. Small factor. But we looking some other things. We went with a 12-man pitching staff, and something will depend on how many guys we use. Hopefully today we will use one guy, but two at the most. And then we go from there how we going to pitch Game 2.

FELIPE ALOU: We not looking for benefit. We looking at -- we manage for 161 games here. It's not a matter of benefit. It's that we know what we have. I mean, for example, the guy pitching today, we had to one day take him out of the game because he had a little bit of an elbow stiffness. The guy pitching tomorrow, Rueter, it's possible he also had to be taken out of a game. So both guys are extremely healthy. There's no problem. They're both playing and everything. But we protected ourself against any possibility, you never know, by going with 12 guys. By going with 12 guys, and going with our ace today, already says as many pitchers into the eighth or seventh inning, it's something he's been doing almost all year, we don't use the bullpen, that is going to affect who is going to pitch tomorrow (inaudible).

FELIPE ALOU: We looking at him going tomorrow. We looking at Ponson, too. What happened here is Ponson I give more inning than Rueter had. Rueter we have been protecting because he been on the DF. Ponson has not been on the DF. That's more or less what we looking at, depending on the relievers we use.

FELIPE ALOU: Yeah, obviously (laughter). Williams is the No. 4 guy, Williams.

FELIPE ALOU: My feeling is I thank God for it. God always has some good things for me, even in my old age. Give me an opportunity to manage this team first, and to have such a good ballclub, being able to manage it successfully, make me feel better about myself, because I really didn't want to go down as somebody who managed 10 years, never made a playoff, never managed a club to a playoff. I mean, we all have our own egos and things. It's not a goal or anything, but turned out to be the right place for me to be, and right team to manage and everything. Let's see if we continue to win games this year.

FELIPE ALOU: Well, we do it like not announcing who's pitching tomorrow, that's different, because this is a short type of thing. When the game starts, I really don't know any other way to manage. I have done it for so long, I just can't change anything. We are going to respond to a few things that that club is obviously going to do, and they going to have to respond to some things that we going to do. It's a war, you know. Half the time you don't do what you want to do, half of the time. It would be great to be able to do what you want to do every move and everything, but there's another team on the other side. By the way, a pretty good team. So you manage what you get, you know, or what you have. I'm not anticipating - and I said it yesterday - to see some incredible play that I never saw before. Everything that's going to happen today we already seen many, many times. I believe I know my club real well. They probably know our club better than we know their club because our club is a veteran team, and everybody know. They have some younger guys, younger pitchers, that have that many at-bats. Don't show very many at-bats against Beckett, or against the guy pitching tomorrow, Penny, or even if Willis happens to pitch. Sometimes it's a wait and see thing like that when you facing a young guy. But when it come to managing different or anything, I just don't want to mess up. I want to do what I always do.

FELIPE ALOU: I won't. I won't. I believe if you get to be against a wall, if you have a team against the wall, you probably do a few things different, trying to win at every cost or trying to get it over with at certain time. But in a game like today, you know, you have your No. 1 guy pitching, you not going to take him out. They score two or three runs, you got to let your ace pitch. He's waited for this for almost 12 months. There are some written rules that you got to follow in this game. And I like to make pitching changes. This is a regular lineup that I didn't pinch hit for. I believe we were one of the clubs that were lowest in pinch hit because we have such a set type of lineup most of the time, you know. Just looking quickly, what else can I do different? As a player, we really have the same 12 pitchers that we had, after Ponson got here, and the same players we have the second half of the season.

FELIPE ALOU: It will have to be today because we have to tell the two guys. I imagine the guy who's not pitching tomorrow, he probably going to have to go out and throw, maybe today or tomorrow, preparation for Friday. What we have right now is two guys that are ready to pitch tomorrow.

FELIPE ALOU: I was 60 miles away from him because I live in South Florida. But I didn't go to see him play. I saw some of the dads that were at that World Series, and many others, too, that went to see their kids play. But I didn't do that. I didn't want to drive south. I was tired. I had a trip to make to the Dominican Republic. Then again, he should have won the MVP of that series. I was a glad when the announcement was made that I was not there. I follow it very, very closely on TV and radio.

FELIPE ALOU: Last time I was working with a TV station from the Dominican Republic when the Red Machine was in action. I came with a group of Dominican broadcasters. We cover playoff with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The other guys stay for the World Series, but I had a fishing trip and I had to go back home.