AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v ANGELS

October 7, 2005

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: There's some things we're going to look at. I think if we are rained out, there's some things we might realign. I know we're going to do everything we can to get in tonight's ballgame and we'll take it one step at a time.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: He's shooting fourth? (LAUGHTER) I think if you look at where we are right now, especially against Randy, I don't know if there's a guy on our team swinging the bat better than Bengie. Rivera is swinging very well. Bengie is a guy we want to get behind Vlad and fill in there. Bengie, he's hit lefties well all year. I think that if Vlad is not going to get pitched to, we're going to have a good chance with Bengie swinging the bat behind him. We need Garret to swing it, but right now as we're facing Randy, to get a right-handed bat behind Vlad, it's important.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: That's something we've looked at. We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because there's a lot that can happen. He's certainly a guy on regular rest you want to get him back out there. We'll see how things play out. I don't want to deal two days ahead and rainouts, and we'll just hopefully get this one in and take it one step at a time.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Wash has been a guy that's been a consistent winner for us. He's a guy that has been banged up here and there throughout his career but one thing has always remained constant with Jarrod is his ability to go out and pitch and win, even when his stuff is not crisp on a given day. We have a lot of confidence with him pitching in this series and certainly here in New York. Hopefully he's going to give us the game we're looking for.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, in the event of a rainout or just a muddy track or the whole thing?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, a muddy track is not something that works in our favor. I think we need to run the bases, we need to stay aggressive. I think whether we play tonight or tomorrow or any time this series, you're going to have a slower track just because of the wetness that you anticipate the field having. As far as any decisions on pitching and what might happen, you know, we'll see. If we start the game and we have a delay and Paul Byrd can't go back out there, then most likely we look at Santana or somebody to step up and pitch. You're certainly going to play for early runs in the game, and they will become even more important with the threat of the weather and from there we'll take it one pitch, one inning at a time as we would any other time. One thing we're not going to control is the weather and whatever it's going to bring, we're going to have to adjust to and I think we have enough depth that if Paul can start and there's a long delay and can't go, we'll put a pretty good arm out there on the mound. Even though it might be a little slower track, we're still going to have to push the envelope as much as we can on the offensive side to create offense.