MLB WORLD SERIES: PADRES v YANKEES

October 20, 1998

Bruce Bochy

BRUCE BOCHY: We haven't named a Game 4 starter yet. We're still checking with Brown. He's made some progress here, I think, tonight's game will help us decide Game 4 starter. But it's obvious we would like to make sure Brown is okay.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, again, checking with Kevin Brown, we'd like to make sure he's okay. Actually we have to make this decision before the game, because if we use Joey Hamilton tonight, we're not going to use him tomorrow. So I think if you see Joey warming up, you'll know who Game 4 starter is.

BRUCE BOCHY: He's not a hundred percent. He still feels the effects. And he had some fatigue there. But we're being optimistic that he'll be fine, and be okay to go tomorrow.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, the second game was just a horrible game for us, we know that. We didn't play well. Kind of beat ourselves. Ashby wasn't on the first game. I thought we played well. And we swung at-bats, we had the lead, just unfortunate that because of Kevin's illness, he couldn't go any further. And that might have been a difference. But we do have to get on track, we can't give up nine runs again, we have to pitch better, catch the ball, and get back to playing the type of ball that we played to get to this point.

BRUCE BOCHY: That's correct. I really caught wind of it around the 6th inning there. But you could tell something was wrong, just looking at him. And even watching him out on the mound. He just didn't look well. And he was struggling from the start, and then we caught wind of that and with the ball going off his shin, it was a rough night for him. It shows what he's about, going out and pitching the way he did, under those circumstances.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I'm not confident he's going to be honest with me. Knowing the kind of guy that Kevin is. He's going to do what he thinks is best for the ballclub, for us, and you like for him to be honest. Like Caminiti, I'm trying to get him to tell me exactly where he's at right now, he's caught a little bug or something here, too. And with the groin injury, I don't know if he's a hundred percent. But it's hard to get much out of him. And at this time I tell you, they want to be out there. They're not going to make any excuses. If they can crawl out there, they're going to try to do it.

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, yes, he has. Now he's -- in '84 he was young, and he didn't feel like it was his place to say anything. We had some veterans on that ballclub, to help lead the club, just like we do now. Tony is one of them. And we have some real class veterans to help lead this ballclub, from Tony to Wally Joyner, to Kevin Brown, Caminiti, Greg Vaughn, they all do a great job helping out in the clubhouse. And you do need that kind of leadership among the players, and they do a great job of staying on each other, and keeping each other focused. And Tony is a big part of that now.

BRUCE BOCHY: Oh, I do. I think they're very comfortable being here in the World Series. We don't like being down 2-0, but to be at this point, hey, it's a long road. It starts in Spring Training. It's a long season, and to get through the playoffs, it's tough to get here. And now that we're here, I think the players are very comfortable with it. I think they're enjoying the situation. I don't think they feel like there's a lot of pressure. They're playing to win, but again, the first game we came out, we played well. We were in New York, sure, we let it get away from us. We had a bad game. We haven't had those in quite a while. But now we're back home, we need to get back on track. But the club is very comfortable with this whole situation in the World Series.

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