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AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX VS INDIANS

October 6, 2016

John Farrell

Cleveland, Ohio - Pregame one

Q. What's the mood of this team going into Game 1?
JOHN FARRELL: Prepared. Ready. Anticipating a very good series. And looking forward to going out and competing tonight.

Q. Just a thought on David and what maybe the rest has done for him coming down from Sunday, how he looks going into tonight.
JOHN FARRELL: I would think that just by getting to the hotel and having a night to just kick back and relax would be the first one in four or five months for him. We all know he's a pretty special individual. But I think even he would acknowledge that a couple of days to recover, recoup, energize is needed.

So looking forward to seeing how that plays out tonight.

Q. How would you describe David Price's season?
JOHN FARRELL: He's had a very good year for us. It might not have met expectations of some but when you consider a guy who's pitched the most innings in a year in his career, has the highest number of strikeouts, personally, in a given season for him, he has been a dependable starter for us. There's been some games where because of command didn't play out as maybe we had hoped. But when you consider the body of work and how he's been a very dependable guy standing on the mound every five days, he's been a very good starter for us.

Q. Can you tell about Benintendi, will he be in left field?
JOHN FARRELL: Right-handed starter, we've got a platoon in left and at right and at third base. It's pretty amazing that for a young guy who was on the university campus, University of Arkansas campus maybe 15 months ago, he's now in a Major League postseason. It's obviously a rapid assent, but as we've seen, this is a pretty calm and very much under control young player. So I'm sure there's going to be butterflies, we just hope they're flying in formation.

Q. How much do you think having success in the postseason kind of drives Price at this point, and putting that in the past for him?
JOHN FARRELL: You know, getting to know him over the course of this year I don't know that he puts a whole lot of stock in what has happened or the anticipation of what lies ahead. He's really good at staying on task and what's needed today. I know he spoke openly at his initial press conference. He's probably reminded by some things by other people. But in terms of just a sheer competitor, a good teammate, a great teammate, a guy that wants to be the guy in the moment, he is certainly prepared for that tomorrow.

Q. What does this mean for your young players now to get to this stage in their career? They've done some great things, but of course this is October now.
JOHN FARRELL: Yeah, this is the next step and hopefully the progression of a core group that's going to win a lot of games going forward. I know that they've had a lot of conversation, whether it's been Mookie, Jackie, Andrew Benintendi, Bogey has been here one other time already. I liken it to the year that Pedey and Ellsbury came up. They've got guys around them that they can lean on, that they can have conversation. I know I've had conversation with a couple of guys as well.

The game is still the same, it's everything around it that might be a potential noise for them. But as long as they anticipate the situation, the game is still the same. And if they anticipate, they'll make the right decisions and that's what it boils down to.

Q. With Price, was there a lot of work behind the scenes with his mechanics throughout the year and lower half and staying in sync, and going into the game is he going to use the windup?
JOHN FARRELL: I would expect him to use both, and not just because of guys on base. We saw him open up the other day pitching out of the stretch, just to gather himself over the rubber, and that ties into the conversation on the bigger year as a whole is that the work done was like any other pitcher, and that's to be on time more consistently over the rubber. When he wasn't, when his hands were breaking late or didn't have enough rhythm in his hands, that's where a lot of pitches were elevated in the strike zone, he lost the shape of his curveball. He became a pitcher, everything was a little bit more flat. But once he got locked in in being over the rubber a little bit more, everything kind of fell into place at that point.

Q. Given his career rÃ©sumÃ©, which is so good, are you surprised by the struggles he's had in the playoffs?
JOHN FARRELL: Having not seen him pitch in the postseason, other than when he came out of the bullpen in I believe it was '08 against us -- you know, I happened to watch a game on TV last year when he was in Kansas City, I think it was a one-run game or a shutout going into the seventh inning. So much of those are circumstantial.

So to speak about all the other games, I'm not equipped to do that. I just know that we've got a very good pitcher and certainly looking forward to him taking the mound tomorrow.

Q. Just a thought on your lineup on the two holes.
JOHN FARRELL: Just more balance left, right. This is the time of year there will be more matchups probably earlier in the game, as early as the fifth inning. We've used a lineup that was heavily right-handed at the top of the order, heavily left-handed at the bottom. Hopefully those matchups aren't as obvious or prevalent with the way we've got things constructed here today.

Q. You played here, you lived here for a long time. I was wondering what your feelings were like when the Cavs won and finally end that drought here?
JOHN FARRELL: I'm sure it was a huge boost to civic pride. There's been some really good Indians teams over a number of years, no better than in the mid-'90s when that run was taking place. This is a great sports town. Maybe certain things haven't always played out, but it's not surprising to see the outpouring -- I saw clips of the parade after the Cavs won. It's not surprising to see that kind of support, and like I said, more than anything, the burst of pride that people were able to take on and have ownership with a world championship.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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