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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BLUE JAYS VS INDIANS

October 15, 2016

Terry Francona

Cleveland, Ohio - Postgame 2

Cleveland - 2, Toronto - 1

Q. Do you take any special pleasure beyond just obviously winning the game in a guy like Tomlin who under different circumstances not even pitching in this game, he was supposed to start Game 3, you move him up, if not for the injuries, he's probably not even pitching in this moment and yet he steps up and produces like this?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know about that second part. August wasn't the best month for him, but he's been pretty good.

I think to your point, though, I think it's really cool that he is pitching, because he embodied so much of what we like about our team. And for him to be pitching in these games I think everybody is excited about it. It's the way it should be.

Q. Josh has been prone to giving up the home run ball at times, and Toronto can hit the ball out as well as anyone. Why do you think he was able to keep them in check today and keep them from getting the ball in the air?
TERRY FRANCONA: I think there were a couple of things. One, I thought he really pitched according to the game plan and stayed with it and he was very prepared.

The other thing, and you get into this time of year you're going to face good pitching. And with these starting times, with the sun shining, it's hard. Those first five or six innings, it's tough. And he was changing speed so much it's hard on the hitters. When you're facing good pitching and it's hard to see you're going to have a lot of those games.

Q. Can you describe what Andrew Miller has been able to do this postseason? Obviously ALCS, having a lot of success, but the entire postseason he's been really good?
TERRY FRANCONA: I would say before that, his rÃ©sumÃ© is not too shabby, either. There's a reason we gave up what we did for him. We thought that he could be a guy that we could leverage in situations like we have. And it would make our bullpen that much better and give us a chance to keep playing. And that's exactly what he's doing.

Q. Congratulations on the win.
TERRY FRANCONA: Thank you.

Q. You've done your business in the first two games at home. What are you expecting in Toronto now?
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, we're going to hopefully have a nice workout tomorrow. And then we'll play -- what is today, Saturday? We'll play Monday. We'll play the next game. That's what we always do. It's baseball. I'm sure it will be a fantastic atmosphere. But we'll just play another game and see if we can be one run better, that's what we always do.

Q. How big was Lindor's single to kind of counter after they had scored and tied it up and come right back?
TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, we had a runner on third with us and two outs, didn't pick it up, and he gets the two-out RBI. But I thought even before that, Perez working that walk to start the inning gave us a chance. Because you could see, it was going to be hard to score today, even though the ball was carrying, it was warm for this time of year. It was just so hard to see. And both pitchers were so good that every run was going to be so meaningful.

Q. What did it mean to have Rajai Davis on bases, he made the pitchers --
TERRY FRANCONA: Is there an end to that?

Q. He just made the pitchers jerky, once he was on the base path?
TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know if I'd say that. But I get your point. He can disrupt a game. And he does it very well. Not only the stolen bases, the things you can see, but making pitchers sidestep, potentially leaving a pitch up in the zone for one of our better hitters. He's done that all year and done it really well. And at age 35 it's not easy. He works at it every day, and hopefully he's got another couple of weeks in him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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