AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v WHITE SOX

October 12, 2005

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: It was a swing, our catcher caught it, Doug Eddings called him out, and somewhere along the line because the guy ran to first base, he altered the call. He called him out, and that's what is disappointing. When an umpire calls a guy out and you're the catcher, and I've caught my share of them, he's out. He didn't call swing, he ran him up with his fist and said "You're out."

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, it's not protestable. He's saying he didn't call him out.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I saw it.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Right. There's a lot of focus on that play, but we didn't play to a high enough level tonight to win the ballgame. That's the bottom line. You have to play at a high level enough. If there's a call you don't get or something happens, a bloop, whatever it might be, you have to play at a high enough level that you should be able to absorb it. We didn't get it done offensively. Our guys pitched our hearts out, and in the behind Crede came up with a big hit.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I thought Wash did a great job, and his makeup is such that that's what you expect from Wash. He felt fine physically as he started. He got a little wobbly as the inning got into the 5th, but he did what we needed him to do, put us in position to win that game or to set up our pen to win that game. Unfortunately Buehrle, he was terrific. He matched four of our pitchers with what he did, and he pitched an outstanding ballgame.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: They said that the play wasn't finished, the ball hit the dirt. I haven't seen a replay, but I thought he caught the ball.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: We asked for help from five other umpires. If we could find six, we'd ask for help. They saw the play that way and they gave him first base. Again, there's a lot of focus on that play, and yeah, it's tough. It was at the end. It was tough we were out of the inning, but the bottom line is we didn't play well enough to absorb something like that and we have to play to a higher level.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, we didn't play well. We didn't play well on the field, we didn't hit the ball. We'll bounce back, though. You have to give Buehrle some credit. He pitched a terrific ballgame. Wash had an easy come-backer that led to that first run, and after that he settled down and got us to a certain point, but we just didn't play the type of game that we needed to tonight, and part of it was Buehrle pitched a terrific game.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: The hitter can take off, but as a catcher when an umpire calls him out, rings him up with a fist, he's out.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, I'm not in favor of replay at all, not certainly on something like that. There might be some replay that can come in on a home run fair or foul or fan interference, something like that, but as far as plays around the bases or home plate or pitches like that, I don't think the replay is anything that we should bring into the game. Last night Brendan was up throwing in case the game got away from Scottie Shields, but Scottie Shields was going to go after Konerko. Tonight we brought him in after the fifth to clean up for Wash and he did a terrific job. We liked the match-ups with Dye and Konerko coming up.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, our pens have just been terrific, not only through these playoffs but for the whole season. Kelvim has been huge getting back into that bullpen, taking pressure off of Scot and Francisco and Brendan, and he did -- he did what he's been doing. Three innings, I think he has that ability and that's big for us. He was stretched out enough where he could go multi-innings if he needs it. He did a terrific job tonight. One of the only poor pitches he made was really the 2-0 pitch to Crede and that just got away from him.