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AL WILDCARD GAME: ATHLETICS v ROYALSSeptember 30, 2014Eric HosmerKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas City – 9 Q.  Eric, the same kind of question about being in a hole 7‑3 to a guy as tough as Jon Lester, how did you guys approach it? ERIC HOSMER: It's a battle. You know, we are realizing we're battling for our season. This team showed a lot of character tonight, and like we said, we're not going to quit. We still had three, four big innings left, and we don't care who's on the mound. Like everyone kept saying in the dugout, just keep the line moving, and when you're playing with guys that believe, it's a lot of fun. Like I said, we showed a lot of character tonight battling back and just getting it done. Q. Can you talk about your triple in the 12th, and did you think it was out? You were running pretty hard. ERIC HOSMER: Yeah, yeah, I definitely hit it good, put a good swing on it, and nighttime in this ballpark, if you hit a ball and you know it's gone, you've got some serious power. The thought process for me was just get around the bases. We're down one run, one out, at least get to third and CC came up right after me, and being a rookie in a playoff situation like that, and even though it was off the plate, we had some good fortune. He looked comfortable in there and he got the job done. Q. Ned was just in here and described this as the most incredible game he's ever been a part of. How would you describe the four plus hour roller coaster ride this was? ERIC HOSMER: Oh, man, it was a roller coaster ride just like you said. They put up two in the first inning, 2‑0 alone off a guy like Lester, you realize it's a battle, and we battled back. Both teams battled back the whole night. For us to come down from a four‑run deficit late in the game like that, it was crazy. But this game just kept going back and forth, back and forth, both teams battled, and I think that's what postseason baseball is all about. Q. Besides the obvious that it's a playoff game and not a regular season game, you guys had had your struggles when you had big crowds here at home, the record wasn't that good. The crowd seemed to be something you fed on tonight. Why did it work out differently than the 5‑11 record previously? ERIC HOSMER: There was no quit. There was no quit in the crowd, there was no quit in the team. Like I said, to go down a big deficit like that, it's real easy for the crowd to get comfortable in their seats and just watch the rest of the game. You look around the stadium, every time we were hitting, there was a ball being thrown. Everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs. I think we feed off their energy. You get a couple guys on base, you hear the crowd, everyone is on their feet like that, you feed off that energy. This team, this city, this crowd, everybody, they've showed no quit. Q. You mentioned the confidence and the belief in this team and yet you showed it, but what does this do for this bunch moving forward? You guys have never been in the postseason before. ERIC HOSMER: It's definitely a big momentum swing. Like I said, after getting done with the game like that, I think a lot of the guys on the team really still haven't realized what happened as of right now. But we're going to enjoy this one. We're getting into LA late tonight. We realize we're playing a team that had the best record in baseball, but it's a five‑game series, and anything can happen. Like I said, we're going to battle until someone sends us home. This team has got a lot of fight in them and this city has a lot of fight in it, and we're just going to keep it rolling. Q. Can you just speak to how many people, how many players contributed to this win throughout the four hours and maybe off the top you had a guy who was pitching in college earlier this year, pitching two extra innings? ERIC HOSMER: Yeah, the list goes on and on and on, from guys getting two‑out hits to having a rookie that just got drafted this past year coming in and eating up some big innings for us. It's tough enough to make a big league debut, but to be fresh for a month, a month fresh in the Big Leagues and come in in a playoff situation, a do‑or‑die situation like that, it shows a lot. Go down the list to everybody; this guy included. I told this guy after that second at‑bat with the guy on third and the ground out to second, I said, don't worry, you're going to come up with a guy in scoring position, you've got another chance at this. That's what this team is. The team believes in the guy next to him, and we're not going to fight until someone sends us home. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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