NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PADRES v BRAVES

October 11, 1998

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: I just thought the odds were with us tonight on his bat. He's like everybody else: He can get cold for four or five days, and then he can get hot and carry you. It had to happen sometime, and boy, it was a big one tonight. It was a big, big hit. Of course, Ozzie, I thought, played good, and got a base hit from Myers. But Galarraga's ball was a big one. That set the stage for us. I thought Neagle played a great game. Leyritz's home run, I thought, was a gapper. And then the ball in BP tonight was really, really jumping. I don't know if it's going to be that way tomorrow night. It probably will be. It was really traveling tonight.

BOBBY COX: Well, it's either win one tonight or go home. So it's darned big right now, that's for sure, because I probably wouldn't have come in here if I got beat. I'd be sitting in there somewhere. They're all huge, and we had a one-game series starting tomorrow. And then two-game run home.

BOBBY COX: I'm not one to BS anybody. And I have a lot of faith in our pitching staff, and it's about time the bats came around. Any kind of clutch hit at all anywhere in the first two games, even against Brown, we had runners at 2nd and third, and it went into left field and he caught it. If you catch a break, I'm not saying we're playing well enough to have three wins or anything, but it was time for the worm to turn a little bit with our lumber. And we haven't been hitting the daylights out of the ball, but it helps to have one fall in that's not hit hard. We feel pretty good.

BOBBY COX: Well, there was a big celebration after Galarraga's home run, too. No, when you're in the playoffs, even in the regular season, somebody hits a big home run, it puts you ahead and you're going to get a lot of high 5's and all that, and that's fine. As long as they don't do jumping jacks around the bases, that's okay.

BOBBY COX: Well, it set the stage for Galarraga's at-bat. His leg's feeling pretty good. He's not running probably a hundred percent, but he's pretty close to it. I left him in to face Myers, because right now the way Myers -- to me, I'm not sure if he gets left-handers out better than right handers. I'm not sure of that, but that's why I left Ozzie in the ballgame; he got a base hit. And I left Lock in. He's come up with a good changeup and pitches off the plate, that if you start chasing, it you can't hit the guy. He hustled, to answer your question, you bet.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think I'll play Ozzie tomorrow.

BOBBY COX: It was nothing more than -- Ozzie was playing awfully good. I kept trying to get Walt Weiss well for the playoffs. And I still don't think he's running a hundred percent. Ozzie was really -- he had a lot of tough luck at the end of the season, but he still was getting his hits, and hitting two or three balls hard every night, some of them getting caught. I thought he might get some hits on base and get the hits started. And I know Weiss had the hits yesterday, but I just thought maybe he could add something.

BOBBY COX: No, not at all. He is in such great shape, I'm not sure that he would fatigue any more than a guy ten years his junior. He is in tremendous shape. And his hitting problems here in the last few days is nothing more than a hitter not getting any hits. And I don't know if anybody in the other series is doing it, but maybe he's out of it. I know Houston has a tremendous hitting ballclub and they didn't hit very good. Galaragga has been chasing some bad balls, No. 1. But he's certainly not tired.

BOBBY COX: He hurt his neck and right shoulder, his throwing arm a little bit. But if I had to use him tonight, he could have played very easily. That was a pretty good collision.

BOBBY COX: It was the 8th. Really only wanted to use Rocker one inning, and I wanted one inning to get Gwynn the following inning. If we scored more runs, I would probably let him start the inning. Rocker stiffens up bad, and he gets to the point where he can still pitch, but he's still very stiff. And that was enough for him. He had had enough.

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