Oct. 9 Adam Wainwright postgame interview

Q. How gratifying is it with a game of this magnitude to come up with that kind of performance?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT:  I've got to put it right up there with the most fun and one of the greatest moments of my career so far, no doubt. Just incredibly blessed to be here today, to be able to start that game in the first place, but to pitch a game like that was one of the highlights of my baseball life, no doubt.

Q. You were saying yesterday the culmination, the kind of thing that you shoot for and have been shooting for for a long time, right?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT:  Yeah, these are the kind of moments that starting pitchers live for. I think back to Josh Beckett when he was with the Marlins, getting carried off the field in the World Series, and Chris Carpenter in Game 5 against Philly. Those big moments like that, that's just something that pitchers dream of that stuff.

Yadier, I almost didn't want to let go of Yadier. I was so happy to be there. I'm so happy he's my catcher. This is why I signed back here. There's no amount of money worth what this city and this team means to me. I'm honored, I'm privileged, I don't deserve any of this.

Q. Can you talk about the two plays that Pete made in the fourth, and secondarily, CG has meant a lot to you. Can you talk about how much it meant to not only start that game, but to get the final out too?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT:  Yeah, Pete was amazing today. His defense was great. He struggled some at the plate this year and we trusted him and kept throwing him out there because he's defensively very, very good, and we knew his bat would come around. He's proven in the Postseason that this guy swings the bat great in the Postseason.

Down the stretch last year, if we didn't have Pete Kozma on our team, we didn't get to where we got. Today I was so proud of him. He made that diving up the middle on Neil, and he made that really tough play in the hole going the other way. He went both ways today made tough throws, tough hops, diving plays. I couldn't say enough about him.

Q. And complete games?

ADAM WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, in my press conference yesterday, I said that ‑‑ somebody asked me would I like closing or starting better. In my mind if you pitch the game, you should be your own closer.

Going out today there was no way I was even looking back at Mike at the end of that game. I wanted that game. I'm so thankful he trusted me there at the end.