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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS INDIANS

October 10, 2017

Joe Girardi

Cleveland, Ohio - Workout Day

Q. Joe, do you believe in momentum? And if so, how much do you think this ball club has right now?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, momentum a lot of times depends on your starting pitching. CC, I thought, threw a pretty good game here the last time. And CC's used to these big moments, so we feel good about him on the mound.

But our guys are confident. And we know we're facing a good team and we know we're facing a tough pitcher. But you go through that during the course of the season, a lot of games. We've had three must-wins and we've been able to come out on top on all three of them and hopefully tomorrow, fourth one, we can do it too.

Q. Joe, is there anything you learned from facing Kluber last time, the success you guys had against him?
JOE GIRARDI: You know, I don't know. We've seen him extremely sharp and I think we caught him on a night that he wasn't sharp. So you hope you catch him on another night that he's not sharp.

He's extremely talented. There's a good chance that he's going to be Cy Young this year. We didn't do a whole lot against him the first two starts that we faced him. I thought we did a little more the second start and, obviously, more the third start. So hopefully, the trend continues.

Q. Joe, when you look back at what happened in Game 2, and all the controversy that followed, how much do you look at this game as potential redemption for yourself personally to come back from that?
JOE GIRARDI: I mean, obviously, it's really important for the guys, the organization, the ownership, management, fan base. You really want to move on.

We got back to this spot by battling and fighting, and we're going to need to do it again. So it's a really important game.

Q. Joe, looks like they might have Encarnacion back. How much does he change that lineup?
JOE GIRARDI: Obviously, he changes it, because we have a lefty going too. That's one of the things. He's dangerous. We know how dangerous he is. You can look at Edwin, he's probably been one of the best RBI guys in our league for the last three or four years. That's who he is. He knows how to drive in runs. He changes the lineup.

Q. Joe, what are your plans for using Chapman tomorrow night, kind of in the context of the whole bullpen?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, I think he's probably available for a couple innings if I need him. I mean, trying to draw up a scenario, how are you going to use your bullpen, it's determined on the game and how it's going and what you're going to do and what's available and how much distance you get from your starter and the score and match-ups. I don't think that you can really say, well, this is how we're going to do it. Because the game determines how you're going to do it.

Everyone should be available. The only guy that I probably wouldn't use would be Seve, and everyone else is probably available.

Q. Would you anticipate putting more or less the same lineup out there that you did against Kluber the first time?
JOE GIRARDI: I'm going to look at it, but yeah, there's a pretty good chance.

Q. What about Dellin? Just given how he looked last night, is that just a one-game thing?
JOE GIRARDI: You look at the other two games he's pitched, he's pitched really well. So I look at it as a one-game thing. And there's a good chance we're going to need him tomorrow, and he's going to have to pitch well.

Q. So you wouldn't hesitate to use him in an important spot?
JOE GIRARDI: No, I mean, I still believe in Dellin. I believe in all of our guys. We wouldn't be to this point if they hadn't had success along the way. See where we're at.

Q. You said there's a good chance you'll need to use Dellin. Do you mean like sixth, seventh, eighth inning, you'd go to Dellin?
JOE GIRARDI: No. I'm just saying you get in a game like this, it could be really close and it could be extra innings. There's a lot of things that could happen in a game like this. We've seen some pretty tight games in the four that we've had. So, I mean, there's always a good chance that he's going to pitch.

Q. Joe, you said the likelihood of the same lineup. At this point, is Holliday not a possibility just because he hasn't played a lot and you don't want to feed him to someone like Kluber in a game like this?
JOE GIRARDI: It's something that I'm going to take some time to look over, Joel. I can guarantee you that eight of the nine guys that we had in there are going to be in there.

As far as the DH, there's just some things I'm going to continue to look at and make a decision. I have not made a decision on that spot. But the other eight are going to be the same.

Q. Joe, on your flight here, did you take any time to kind of reflect how unlikely it was that you guys would be able to force your way back to Cleveland?
JOE GIRARDI: No, I really didn't. I tried to relax and I watched a movie on the flight. And I think that probably that when I get a chance to turn my mind off, I try to, because I reflected a lot, probably, in the last six or seven days. So when I do get a chance, I turn it off.

Q. To followup, what movie?
JOE GIRARDI: Megan -- it was about the lady that was the war hero who brought her dog, a doctor. "Megan Leavey." It's an outstanding movie if you haven't seen it. And I know I'm not a movie critic. I do like movies. I don't see a ton of them, but I think it's outstanding and it's a little bit emotional, too.

Q. The resilience of this team, is it something about the makeup, or is it the fact that they're young and they just really have a short-term memory?
JOE GIRARDI: It's probably both. I think some of it is the makeup of it, definitely, and the leadership in that room. But I think the belief that a lot of our young players and the energy that they bring every day is part of that. And I can look at times during the season where we've been resilient, where we went to Boston for that four-game series and lost the first game. I think it was a tough game, and then we bounce back and win the second one.

We've been through a lot of this during the course of the season. I think most teams are going to go through those type of things and I think it's helped everyone involved.

Q. Joe, in the DH spot, you said you'd be weighing some things. What are the things that you're weighing?
JOE GIRARDI: You kind of look at the quality of at-bats that guys have had during the course of a season, a couple seasons off of Kluber, how they're swinging now. You look at Matt Holliday hasn't played in eight days. That's kind of difficult.

So it's just kind of trying to measure and trying to predict what type of stuff Kluber is going to have tomorrow, which isn't easy to do. So it's just -- you know, if there's one thing that's weighing on my mind, that's probably what I'm thinking about the most at this point because I know the other eight guys. I know who's starting. I know my bullpen, really everyone is available. It's that one spot.

Q. Joe, you gave those reasons. Won't it be more than a gut decision considering that you looked at the video before Kluber started the last game and there's no new video?
JOE GIRARDI: Right. And I think our DH got one at-bat off him. So that makes it interesting. So you look at some of the at-bats during the course of this year and last year and I'll make a decision.

Q. Joe, you guys have played in three elimination games in a week, which is a lot putting on the line. Does that help? I mean, does this team gain confidence from that? Do the guys -- I don't know if they're ever worried about it. What does it do for a team when it goes into yet another one?
JOE GIRARDI: I really do believe you gain confidence. I mean, that's my hope. Because you've been in three of them, and we've been in some spots. The first one we were in, we were down 3-0 before you could really think about what was going on and we'd replaced our starter.

So I think it should give them confidence. I think they feel good about themselves. And I think they're excited for tomorrow.

Q. Is there anything you saw from Kluber the other night that for him you think might be something that's relatively easy for him to address and clean up?
JOE GIRARDI: I'm sure that during the course of his career, he's had some rocky starts that he's -- obviously, he's had adjusted pretty quick. Because when you look at his record every year, it's pretty darn good, and his ERA. It doesn't seem like it's something that usually has a whole lot of carryover.

Q. You haven't had Kahnle that long, but you've gone to him in some pretty big spots. When did you first sense that he had more than just the big arm, that he could handle those spots?
JOE GIRARDI: Pretty quickly once we got him. I put him in situations and talked about how I would use him, where it was possible that I would bring him in in the middle of innings, not necessarily to start an inning.

The one thing that we weren't sure about was multiple innings with him. That was the one thing we weren't quite sure about, because he didn't do it in Chicago a lot this year. He'd had success in Chicago. You wonder if the reason the guy's having a ton of success, he's not being used multiple innings. He's responded pretty well with that lately.

Over these two months, we've learned a lot about him.

Q. The other day, you said you might stay away from Robertson out of fear you might injure him, if this stuff wasn't where you wanted it to be. Is he a full go for you tomorrow?
JOE GIRARDI: Yeah. I think the two days off probably helped him. I think part of his -- when you look at the last couple outings with him, he's still been pretty darn good. But probably some of it goes back to the 52 pitches. And we've gotten pretty far away from that. I have not used him more than 22 or 23 since then. I think he'll probably be pretty fresh tomorrow.

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