«He's got some sore areas and we decided not to push him,»

«I'll be surprised if he plays tomorrow.»

«Guys took their place and did a terrific job with the bats and we were pitching well. We don't have Scott back, but we have Larry and Reggie back. Both of those guys can handle a bat, so you don't push as much with them as you would with some of the other guys.»

«Al Reyes was in the middle of any situation in the last three or four innings when we were trying to close out a game. He had a great year.»

«He's pitched with so much intensity and so much pressure for so long that when the pressure's not there, he lost a little edge, ... He had good stuff his last two starts, but his location was off.»

«Think I haven't talked to these guys about that? I guarantee you, what you're not hearing in the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse are players who'd be glad to be matched up against the San Diego Padres.»

«I know it sounds like bull, but I don't care. If you get in, you've got as good a shot as anybody, five games or seven games. It's that kind of a tournament.»

«A lot of it was really the brainchild of Dave,»

«But the thing that came together for us was, No. 1, we had a legitimate No. 1 closer in Eck. Secondly, we had a real good team. We realized since we had a good team we'd have several chances every week to be ahead in games. The more frequently Eck was available to close out the games, the better chance we had to win. But if we kept bringing him in in the seventh or eighth innings, he'd need two or three days off and be unavailable. The next two or three days we'd have to use somebody who wasn't a closer. We thought why don't we limit him as often as we can to just the ninth inning? That way he'd be available for just about every win opportunity.»

«somebody good enough to get the outs in the seventh and eighth innings. We had Gene Nelson and Rick Honeycutt.»