That was the key right there, ... That extended the inning. He could have just jogged down the line and let them turn a double play. We're fortunate he ran hard and through the base. But this club does that. We're able to score extra runs because of that. |
That was the key right there. That extended the inning. He could have just jogged down the line and let them turn a double play. We're fortunate he ran hard and through the base. But this club does that. We're able to score extra runs because of that. |
That's a great positive, I think, for everyone in St. Louis. To see him actually be able to turn on it and hit it as far as he did, we were very excited about that. |
That's something Tony does a lot. I knew something was going to happen. We weren't going to sit still. We were going to put things in motion. I enjoy it. |
That's the one thing early in the season ... I wasn't being efficient to the pull side. I've gotten pitches, and I need to turn on them. If you ask Hal, I am hitting my best when I'm able to hit the hard line drive to left field. That's something we talk about and work on because if I hit that pitch well and stay on the pitch, I will hit the line drive to right field. |
That's what we try to do, put pressure on the other pitcher. |
That's when we really knew we could beat the best. That woke up everything for us. Confidence doesn't show up in the box score, but it's so important. After that, we knew we could win it all. |
The bottom of our lineup has done such a great job to provide opportunities, getting on base. The one inning when Nunie had a great at-bat, goes 3-2, draws the walk, and then Carp goes up there and gets another walk, that's with two outs there. And that gives me the opportunity to do something. That's a lot of fun. |
The great thing about this club is we are able to put that stuff behind us and approach every single game the same. |
The one thing I didn't want to do was get into any type of jumpiness, ... Any type of anything in my body besides just focus on the baseball. And it's pretty calming to step into at the plate in that situation. I have no idea, no reason why. |
The thing you don't do is come to a new team and force yourself on people. We walk in here as a bunch of guys but over time we're going to develop into a team. It's going to be interesting to see how it ends up playing out. |
The way Jimmy [Edmonds] hit the home run in Game 6, and making the catch he made in Game 7 -- it just seemed like every one of those games was so intense. Home-field advantage was a real key, so you definitely have to be ready to play. |
There is definitely a lot more to it than show up and swing. I'm working on staying inside the ball, working on different hit-and-runs, moving runners, creating situations in your head. So when the game comes up, you're prepared to execute whatever needs to be executed. |
There will be no letup. We have a week and a half left. We're going to play every game hard, as you can tell by the last two nights. |
They battle. There's no quit over there. After the first two nights, they came back with the same game plan. They definitely play hard. It's very impressive. |