NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PADRES v BRAVES

October 8, 1998

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: I think it does, really. We had won 10 games in a row coming in here, and we had hit the ball pretty good with the exception of one of those games. And Ashby, I thought, was tough, and this guy tonight was even tougher. We hit two balls good all night: Chipper's long fly ball to right field and Glavine's line drive down the left field line were the only balls we really hit. And he walked a couple. We had him in trouble with a couple of walks a couple of times. But we couldn't get the ball to fall in. We didn't hit it good. And Tommy pitched a very valiant game tonight, I thought. It was a little windy and cold out there,. It was hard to hang onto the ball for him. But he pitched out of jams all night long. And the bullpen did a very good job up until the last inning. We couldn't score against him. He was good. There's always a next time. We feel -- can't feel great, being 0-2. But we have the type of club and pitching that we can easily roll off four in a row.

BOBBY COX: Against our club, yes. I saw him pitch a no-hitter against the Giants on television, and I thought he had the same type of stuff that night as he did tonight. But against us, this is the best I've seen.

BOBBY COX: I know what this club is made of. We were trying like crazy to win the ballgame, but we couldn't hit the guy. I don't know if any teams would have hit him tonight. The Houston team has as good a line-up as is any in the National League and they didn't touch him. And we have a good line-up and we didn't touch him. Maybe we can do it next time.

BOBBY COX: No. The pitching rotation will stay the same. We just need to hit the ball better. Getting one run a night is not going to cut it too many nights, off their starters, anyhow.

BOBBY COX: We haven't played that poorly defensively. There were some odd plays. Javie tried to pick a guy off and threw it away. Last night, that was a tough play, and Rivera created a couple of errors, himself, I thought, with his base running.

BOBBY COX: Well, I never looked in the stands tonight, so I don't know. I guess it wasn't packed.

BOBBY COX: Well, we're still drawing a lot. We drew almost four million this year. That's got to tell you something. That's got to be the top two in baseball. And I think we have great fans. But if some of them want to stay home and watch it on TV, I can't blame them for that. That's a pretty good idea sometimes on school nights.

BOBBY COX: No, not at all. Like what?

BOBBY COX: Tommy goes 3-2 quite a bit on a lot of hitters. He did that tonight. He always leans a little bit but never falls. He certainly didn't tonight. He pitched a great game.

BOBBY COX: The one similarity is they both come at you. And Kevin threw an awful lot of strikes tonight and Greg Maddux throws an awful lot of strikes. They don't mess around. They go right after the hitters; that's the similarity. But Kevin was probably throwing ten miles an hour harder than Greg.

BOBBY COX: We were down 3-1 to the Cardinals, and with this club, we have the type of pitching and I think we've got the hitting, once it gets going, we could do that. It's that type of club. San Diego is the same way, too. If they were 2 down, they have the type of pitching, hitting that could real that off. I'd rather be 2-0 than 0-2, but I feel like we can rally back.

BOBBY COX: I don't know if it does anymore than Smoltz and Glavine did for ours. I thought they both pitched brilliant games, and their guys did, too.

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