NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 17, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I talked to him this morning. He's fine. He's not going to lose much, that's for sure.

BOBBY COX: He had one good change-up to second base that he hit good. This time of year, you're facing really good pitching every night, so they're going to shut you down once in a while. I don't think there's anything mechanically wrong or anything like that. He's having pretty good swings. He's got to be patient and get his pitch like we always talk about. It's tough. It's good pitching. I feel good with him in there.

BOBBY COX: Well, we did it the night before. We were covering second, really, trying to get Mora at second, and the pitch was too slow and too low to attempt a throw that would go into centerfield. You expect that they're going to do that. It wasn't a surprise or anything like that. It happens, and we couldn't stop it.

BOBBY COX: Through the years, a few games where the pitchers matched up pitch-for-pitch, but this series has been that way every ballgame. The games have been so tight, and I think the winning run is either at the plate or on deck, it seems like, in the 9th inning. That shows you how well they have pitched and we have pitched. They have been good and so have we. We're really fortunate, I guess, to be 3-1 right now.

BOBBY COX: You never know. But if I had to predict one way or the other, I would predict they were going to be tight ballgames and low scoring.

BOBBY COX: The only thing I can tell you, he's a real good hitter, and real good hitters have a way of coming out of things. I don't really consider him to be in any type of slump right now. I consider the opposing pitching is getting him out. Maybe he needs to make adjustments there somehow. But we trust him a lot with that bat in his hands. And maybe he'll loom real important today.

BOBBY COX: Millwood.

End of FastScripts….