MLB WORLD SERIES: CARDINALS v RED SOX

October 26, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: To be very honest with you, the first two games, although there was a bunch of errors, they ended up in wins, and that's what we set out to do and what we set out to do tonight. But coming to their ballpark under different circumstances, like you play National League style, I thought we really played a very good game tonight. We caught a break in the third inning, when they had the mishap on the bases, and not only do we come out of that inning unscathed but we tack on a run the next inning. Billy Mueller bounced back and played third base the way he did, which is not surprising, but we played a very, very good game. We played good. We knew we would have to play good.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, he's had some history now being pretty good. This wasn't his first good game. I thought early on he was having a little bit of a tough time with his command getting the feel of the game. But once it seemed like he got out of that one inning and found his change-up, and used his cutter, and used his fastball, he got in a groove and started pitching like he can pitch.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I thought our defense played well, but it goes back to what we were saying about Pedro. Once he got into a groove, he really threw the ball well, he looked confident. Mike Timlin getting the ball and throwing it and throwing any pitch he wanted to. Foulke came in, and Walker does what he does with a misplaced fastball. That's why you want to spread the game out, so if someone makes a mistake it doesn't cost you the game.

TERRY FRANCONA: I'd love to (laughter.) First of all he kept his feet, and then after (laughter.) I'm laughing, that was a big play; big, big play. I thought Jason Varitek on the receiving end did a great job, stood there nonchalantly and then put the tag on. There were 50-some thousand people screaming, going crazy. Bases loaded and we come out of that inning not giving up anything. It was a big boost for us, great play.

TERRY FRANCONA: When you start using words I don't understand it doesn't make it that hard.

TERRY FRANCONA: Thank you. You know what? I think we got here the way we did because of the way we approached it. I won't have any trouble. We know who we're playing, where we're playing, how good they are. Tomorrow will be the most important game of the year for us, just like today was. And I think that's our best way to approach it, just make sense to do it that way. It won't be hard for me at all.

TERRY FRANCONA: I like to think I had perspective the whole way. Believe me, it wasn't fun being down 0-3. We thought the only way to come back was to approach it the way we did. That's why we continued to approach it like that. I think that's how we'll continue to be successful. I think it's the right way to do things. I think it's the only way.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I understand the question, but I think you're missing the point of what I'm trying to say. We won't get ahead of ourself that much. In Game 1 we wanted to win Game 1. Once that's over, you move on to Game 2. Once I get done talking about this game, this game is in the past. We'll show up and play tomorrow with different pitchers, different set of circumstances and try to win again. Our only goal is to try to win tomorrow.

TERRY FRANCONA: But you're going to anyway.

TERRY FRANCONA: I agree with that. That's why we'll show up tomorrow and -- has anybody ever seen me play as a player? You can understand why I would never be overconfident (laughter.) We'll show up, we know we're playing a good team. We'll just try to win tomorrow. I think the one difference is our guys enjoy playing regardless. We know we're going to have our hands full tomorrow, we fully expect that. We still think we can win tomorrow, that's our goal.