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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ROYALS v ORIOLESOctober 11, 2014Ned YostBALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Game Two Kansas City – 6 Q. When you had Moustakas bunt in the 9th, is there any consideration of not having him bunt? NED YOST: No, not against Britton. Britton is really, really tough on lefties. We had a decision to make right there, if Omar got on, you know, do we pinch‑hit Colon and bunt him over there or do we try to create a little havoc and pinch‑run for Omar and let Mous bunt. That was the direction we took, and it worked out great for us. Mous did a great job of getting the bunt down. It just worked out really, really good for us. Q. Of course you've seen what Lorenzo Cain can do all season long. How happy are you for him that now the rest of the country, the world, is getting a chance to see what he can do on both sides of the ball? NED YOST: I'm happy for him. He had a great day today, four hits. Made great plays in the outfield, none bigger than the one J. J. Hardy hit down the right field line, came out of nowhere and caught it. I thought for sure that ball was going to drop when it first left the bat. And then all of a sudden here he comes and makes the play. The country is seeing a very exciting player in Lorenzo Cain. Q. Your ballclub has been evolving the past couple of years, and it's always seemed like the underdog. Does it finally feel like you're the front runner? NED YOST: Well, you know, I think we came into this series the underdog and our guys, they don't really pay much attention to that.  I don't think they mind being the underdog, because they have a lot of confidence in their abilities. But they're playing their best baseball of the year right now, and it's sure the best time to play it. Q. You got Cain and Escobar in the same trade from Milwaukee in 2010. How much did you know about them from your time with the Brewers when you got here? NED YOST: Everything. I knew both of those kids when I was in Milwaukee. Both kids were special to me. They were very athletic. I brought those kids up to the big leagues to play in Spring Training whenever I had the opportunity and they were an A ball or Double‑A at that time. So they were always fun to watch. You could see Escobar was a little more advanced than Lorenzo Cain. Lorenzo was really raw at that time. But you could tell with his athleticism that one day he might turn into one heck of a player, and he sure has. Q. In the same vein, how important, when you look at, especially tonight, how important was that trade to get you guys where you are now? NED YOST: It was a start. It was the start of our championship team. That was the start of putting together a championship caliber baseball team, to get two guys as athletic as they are and in a trade. We got Jake Odorizzi, too, who was a pretty darn good pitcher from Tampa. We flipped him. There was a start of putting together this championship group. That's where it started with that Greinke trade. Both of those guys, it's sure fun to watch them evolve over the last couple of years and really get to this point in their careers, where they're fantastic players. Q. You said the other day after you swept the first round that you would have taken 1‑1 on the road in the first round. Did you ever envision coming here and winning the first two, and going home with the 2‑0 lead? NED YOST: I know you get tired of hearing it, but I just stay focused on today. And again, when you start this series playing against a ballclub of this caliber, I think when you go into a series like this if you could go home 1‑1, you're going to be really, really happy. If you can go home 2‑0, that's as good as it gets. Going home 2‑0 with our crowd for the next three days is going to be exciting. Q. Update on Ventura? NED YOST: He's fine. He developed a little shoulder stiffness right there, started to get a little bit tight. And we got him out of the game. I don't anticipate him missing this next start. We'll see how it goes day‑to‑day, but I think it will be all fine. He was all smiles at the end of the day. I think he felt pretty good about it. Q. When you have a couple of bloop hits, a lot of hits that are just well placed and a lot of also players fouling off a lot of pitches to get to those situations, is that just good hitting? NED YOST: That's good hitting, yeah. That's good hitting. I'll take bloop hits all day long. They get bloop hits, too. They're a little bit aggravating. Like Hos's hit in the first inning to score two runs. You would much rather see a sharp line drive single than a bloop hit that the shortstop almost catches. It works against your mindset little bit. That, hey, that other club is just real lucky right now. We'll take anything we can get like that. Anytime it hits the outfield grass we'll take it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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