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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BLUE JAYS VS ROYALS

October 21, 2015

John Gibbons

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame five

Q. Is there a circumstance in which Price would be available out of the bullpen today?
JOHN GIBBONS: Yeah, you could see David for a couple of innings, definitely. You could see Sanchez for multiple innings, Osuna, you could even see Dickey if it came down to it. Not an ideal spot, but we need Estrada to be really good, and he normally is.

Yesterday is gone and we feel good coming up into today. It's not going to be easy, it's do or die time. But we'll see.

Q. Bringing in a position player to pitch, was that purely tactical, or were you trying to lighten the mood or something like that?
JOHN GIBBONS: I don't know if it was tactical. Actually, he looked pretty good. No, we weren't trying to lighten the mood. I think it was beyond that at the time, to be honest with you. I think the crowd got a kick out of it. I've always been anti that even during the regular season.

But yesterday I think called for it. But it was no strategy.

Q. When you guys were down 0-2 to Texas you talked about before Game 3 going in the clubhouse you wouldn't know if you guys were up 2-0 or down 0-2. Is there a similar vibe?
JOHN GIBBONS: Yeah, I do. Really, the personalities haven't changed one bit. It's a fun-loving group. They enjoy competing. They enjoy playing baseball, really. And they know they're good.

To this point we've been outplayed by Kansas City, really. The first three games, really, couple of them could have gone either way. Yesterday it got so ugly, that's kind of soured a lot of the series to this point. But they're good. They're beating us. That's really all it is.

Q. Up to this point, you had a great contribution from veterans and young people. Can you talk about the contribution of the youngest you have, Roberto Osuna, and how does he project for you guys as a closer in the future?
JOHN GIBBONS: We wouldn't be here without him, that's for sure. He came into Spring Training, it was really a long shot. And he had a tremendous spring and he came here, and filled some different roles for us. Out of necessity we put him in the closer role and he ran with it. He's tremendous.

For a guy his age and experience level, he's played some serious baseball down in Mexico, and that's definitely helped him, but getting in the Big Leagues and the way he took to it, you can't salute him enough, really.

As far as the future, there's talk maybe making him a starter. He was so good out of the bullpen, who knows. It's a little far away. I think he could do either one of them. He's one of those guys that you'll see him for a lot of years in the Big Leagues being very successful.

Q. You've had the video review on Rios yesterday where you got the out. That kind of play, though, seems like it's something that no umpire would ever really catch on the pop-up slide where the guy comes off for a split second. We've seen a lot of that in playoffs in overslides and slides that aren't completed. Are you happy with that being part of the replay? Would you like to see any change to those types of plays, for what you have to do on making replay challenges? Is that in the spirit of replay, so far as you're concerned?
JOHN GIBBONS: That one yesterday, he really came up pretty good. That was kind of obvious, you've got to bag him on that.

I don't really necessarily like that. You've seen some close calls. I don't think that was the intention of replay.

Because those guys are sliding hard, whether it's feet first or head first, there's a lot of momentum. It's tough to stay with the bag. So if somebody comes off that much, it costs you. That's tough if it's going against you, it really is. Because there's a head of steam going, and it's tough to grab ahold of that thing sometimes.

But they've got to make the decision. I don't know how you differentiate between certain plays and things like that. I think it's maybe hurt us a couple of times, but it's helped us a couple of times. But personally I don't like it, but I'm not involved in all that.

Q. Down 3-1, knowing that today could be the last game. Do you say anything different or is it business as usual?
JOHN GIBBONS: It's business as usual. Everybody knows what situation we're in. I really don't worry about this group. Every day we approach, I don't care what time of year, no doubt right now is much more important than the regular season, but they come to play. And we've always had our ups and downs.

And really, the last two months of the season, we caught fire and really never looked back. We were on the verge of elimination against Texas and came right back. We could still do that. It won't be easy, but there's always that possibility.

It's not a group you really need to talk to much. I think, to be honest with you, in this sport after a game like yesterday and the last couple of days, I think it would be counterproductive.

Q. I imagine, I know you said all hands on deck, but I imagine Liam is not available and what about Mark Lowe?
JOHN GIBBONS: Liam won't be available. We were pushing it yesterday. Even before yesterday's game, Marco had been in three out of four games. If he got in at all yesterday he was down.

Mark, and really, you look at Price, two big acquisitions for us, done a tremendous job, both free agents. I have a conscience, it would be easy to take advantage of them and really abuse them, probably not the right word, you know what I'm trying to say, but you can't do that.

These guys have bright futures ahead of them, still a lot left. What it comes down to, if a team is going to get to the World Series, it takes more than one or two guys. And if you don't have those, you probably don't deserve to get there.

We need to rely on all our other guys; Dave will be available today, maybe couple innings max. But the couple of guys have to step up like they have all year. That's the importance of depth in this game, especially this time of year. I don't think you can approach it recklessly, because I do have a conscience.

Q. Do you feel like the fact that you did win three in a row to conclude the previous series that it gives them more hope than they might have ordinarily in this situation?
JOHN GIBBONS: I think so. They've done it before. It definitely wasn't easy. But we proved to ourselves we could do it. But it will be a battle.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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