MLB WORLD SERIES: PADRES v YANKEES

October 18, 1998

Derek Jeter

Chuck Knoblauch

Tino Martinez

Paul O'Neill

Bernie Williams

Tino Martinez: Being up 1-0 definitely helps. The other team is down a bit. There was less pressure on us. But you can't let up at all in the World Series. We are up 2-0, concentrating on Game 3. We don't want to look ahead beyond that. We are concentrating on winning Tuesday.

On O'Neill's play in the first inning: They are looking at a 2-0 lead and his catch took -- all the momentum got taken away right there with his catch.

Paul O'Neill on playing defense behind Hernandez: He is fun to play behind. He throws strikes and keeps you in the game.

On their 2-0 World Series lead: Going to the West Coast 2-0, you can't be in a better position. Being the home club is a big advantage. I am sure the Padres are looking forward to going home. But things can change in a hurry and there is still a lot of baseball to be played.

Derek Jeter on O'Neill's catch: It could have given them a 3-0 lead right off the bat. We kind of settled down after that. You want to score first. You want to score often.

Derek Jeter on their offense: We are being patient. We are running the counts in our favor. If you do that, you take -- you can take advantage of their mistakes. We have proven we can beat people in a lot of different ways, good defense, pitching and offense:

Bernie Williams on scoring early: Every one in here understood that we were not going to relax. We were swinging the bats aggressively and not giving them any breathing room. As far as our offense was concerned, that was key.

Knoblauch on the catch and scoring in the first inning): It was a big advantage. A lot of times, the game can be won in the first inning. That is what we try to do, go out and have quality at-bats early in the game.

Knoblauch on the O'Neill catch: That is as big as any play all year. I don't know whether it goes out or not, we'd be down 2-0. That catch changed the whole game right there before we even took a swing at an Ashby pitch.