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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 11, 2015

John Gibbons

Arlington, Texas - Pregame

MODERATOR: Okay, we'll get started with questions for John Gibbons. Start right here.

Q. Hey, Gibby, I understand that you made your decision for a Game 4 starter and how you plan to use Price. Can you just go over that with us, please?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, let's hope there's a Game 4, put it that way. Yeah, if things go as planned, we have a good ballgame tonight, win, you can expect to see Dickey out there, but we also could have Price coming out of the bullpen. You could have anyone coming out of the bullpen because you have to win. We've done it before, he's on board, so we'll see how it plays out.

Q. With losing Cecil, do you have any righties? I haven't done my homework, any righties with reverse splits that you've become comfortable with against lefties in certain situations?
JOHN GIBBONS: Jerry, yes, you know, the guys that have been really good at it, Osuna, of course, he's our closer, he's done a nice job with lefties. Hawkins, most of the year, he's been a little bit banged up, up and down a little bit, he's been better against lefties. And Tepera, which we just brought up, he came up from our complex down in Florida, that's really been his strength, is his cut fastball. Sanchez has struggled a little bit with him this year. Lowe struggled a little bit. He really dominated Ryan, that kind of thing. We have some guys that you might not necessarily go to you but they made need to get some big key outs. That's why Luke, too, is going to be very valuable to us, he got a couple big outs the other day in that extra inning game so we can see him playing a big part in this.

Q. John, after you go down two games, do you readdress the team or do you just sort of stick with your original game plan and not have to talk to the guys all over again?
JOHN GIBBONS: We're stick with our game plan. They're confident. All that's happened the last two games is they just beat us, they played a little bit better than we have. I've said this before, it's a different group in there. They don't rattle, and they come to play and they think we can win three. Three in a row. We've done it many times. We're facing a real good team and that's going to be extra tough to do, but I think the key is a nice offensive outburst maybe early in the game, get us on the board. Take the lead would do wonders for us because that's really who we are. We're an offensive team for the most part so I think that would lighten the load a little bit and maybe help us out tonight if we can get on the board early.

Q. John, what do you see right now from Tulowitzki at the plate?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, he's not getting a lot of hits, but nobody in the middle of our lineup is getting a lot of hits. Nobody in the middle of the Texas lineup. Really both pitchers to have shut down the middle of the order for both sides and that's probably surprising to everybody. And their bottom of the order with Odor, Chirinos' big home run the other day, Gimenez with a couple big hits the other day, they've done the damage and set the table for the guys up top. That's been the difference but I think both teams have pitched very well, and especially for the guys that everybody anticipates are going to have the big series. Whether that changes tonight, we'll find out. Tulo's really not doing anything different than anybody else in our lineup really.

Q. John, could you talk about the kind of a season Dickey's had for you this year?
JOHN GIBBONS: He's had a great year. Maybe a little bit of a slow start and he really kicked it in. He's that one guy early on got zero run support. As many runs we were scoring, he's the one guy that was a victim of that. That usually happens to one guy. But you look over the last few months, he's been great, he's been on a nice little roll he's been one of the better pitchers in baseball. If we get to the point tomorrow and he throws that knuckleball and he's on, he's awfully tough to hit. So hopefully we get to that point.

Q. Given the nature of the knuckleball, I don't think even he knows sometimes how it's going to work. Does that make it more difficult to trust him going into a big game?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, I don't know if it has anything to do with trust in him but it's so hard, you watch it, he keeps that thing in the strike zone. It's amazing how those guys do it. If he's a little strong, a little revved up, it might make him that much tougher. He's like all of them, you get a couple outs and they generally settle in anyway. It's a big game or big games but it's still just baseball, they have to do their thing. But I could see where games like this for a guy that throws a knuckleball, it could be a little tougher.

Q. Did Stroman throw a side today or could he possibly give you an inning if you need it?
JOHN GIBBONS: No, he didn't throw a side today, so you never know, you never know.

Q. John, what was your reaction or thoughts on the Utley slide last night as a manager?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, put it this way, you know what? I thought, I mean, you saw the results. I thought it looked also a little late but I'm sure there wasn't any intent behind that. He's trying to win a game. We've seen Chase enough, he plays to win. But it did look a little late but you know what, I don't think there's any intent behind it. It's unfortunate what happened with --

Q. In general terms, not specifically about that play, what constitutes a dirty slide to you?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, I don't know if you want to get into that on this particular day, but that's slide used to be like one of those olden day slides, you see a lot of highlights but that's changed now. What really makes it unfortunate is the guy broke his leg. That's where it really wakes everybody up. I would just as soon leave it at that. The guy does play hard and he was playing to win right there, I don't think he intended to hurt the guy and his intention was to go break it up. But he definitely slid late, so there's -- I'm sure there's different views in the country, in the world, you know. Depends on which team you root for, I guess.

Q. Gibby, Marco's very quietly become one of your most consistent pitchers this year, you've seen it time and time again when he's given the lead to pitch with and he's also got some playoff experience. Just how confident are you going into a game like this knowing you've and he got Marco?
JOHN GIBBONS: We're very confident. He's been so big for us this year, and we need to be confident, this is our last straw right here. I expect he's going to go out there and have a heck of a ballgame. He's done it all year, I don't see that changing. But you really never know how any of them are going to react, especially when they're the guys on the mound. But, you know what, he gives up very few hits and if he's on he's going to make it tough on Texas. You just hope he stays away from the home run ball, if anything gets him, it he is it that. But I expect him to be really good. We need him to be really good and he might be the perfect guy we need tonight.

Q. You said these guys don't rattle. Could you describe a little more the atmosphere in the clubhouse a little more, what's the vibe in there?
JOHN GIBBONS: They're confident, they're doing what they normally do. They're sitting there watching some football, playing some video games, things like that, really what they always do. I've been saying all year there's something different about this group. There really is. I'm not sitting in other clubhouses either, some of them may be very similar too. But they're confident. Their results, we dropped the first two but I don't sense desperation, anything like that, which is good to see. So we'll see. But they know the magnitude of it, you've got to win. Our guys, they never back down from anything.

Q. John, have you had conversations with Price and Stroman about potential relief roles and what was their reaction, if you have it?
JOHN GIBBONS: Yeah, very short, very short conversation. They say, hey, basically they came to me and said, hey, if you need me, I'm ready. That's really all it took.

MODERATOR: Thank you, John.

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