AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v YANKEES

October 15, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: Nothing as of yet. Bronson will go tomorrow, Wake and Derek.

TERRY FRANCONA: I take that back. The next two days are etched in stone. After that, most likely going to be Derek, Pedro coming back on the extra day. We kind of reserve the right to change that or look at it a little bit more.

TERRY FRANCONA: What he did is he went out and threw with a high-top shoe for a little bit of added support, without any stabilizing or bracing or anything like that, and threw an extended side day, along with a long toss throw program, which is usually what he does and actually did pretty well. Well enough where we are just leaving the door open for his season not to be over, but that's about the extent of it right now.

TERRY FRANCONA: Pardon?

TERRY FRANCONA: Game 5? I don't want to.

TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think that -- I don't want to do that. Whether you want me to or not --

TERRY FRANCONA: Okay. That's what it sounded like. (Laughter.)

TERRY FRANCONA: I think Bronson has shown the ability to make adjustments all year long. Early in the year he was the one guy that got bounced around a little bit from time to time. I think he'll be just fine. I think it will have no bearing on how he pitches tomorrow.

TERRY FRANCONA: He actually might have used a little bit, not in the whole area, though. He threw with a lot more of a normal stride than we had seen in New York, which just by itself was encouraging. The ball came out of his hand even in long toss different than if he was nursing a little bit. So again, we were encouraged, but that's the first step of a process to see if he can come back and pitch.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, he shows up tomorrow. That's the next thing. Can't get ahead of that because till he shows up tomorrow, we don't know how he's going to feel.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think we are hoping the mound is going to be dry. I mean, if it rains, they have drying agents and things like that. So, I mean, if he goes out there and it's wet, I assume we would ask for some drying agents. I mean, they are not going to play on a mound that's not playable.

TERRY FRANCONA: We will ask them not to bunt if it's wet. (Laughter.) I'm fairly confident that they would adhere to that. (Laughter.)

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I wasn't out there, again, when he woke up. Talking to Wally, talking to Chris, this gave us reason to be optimistic, watching his stride in the bullpen compared to his game, though, it was better today.

TERRY FRANCONA: Yes.

TERRY FRANCONA: Actually, a little bit of both. He threw with the high-top, he took the high-top off because the actual size of the shoe didn't feel real good; it's a brand new shoe. He went with a low-top, experienced some of the clicking, went back to the high-top, I think still experienced some clicking, but not to the point where he couldn't manage it. I think we got to the point to where we were talking yesterday that that clicking may be there. We all know what's wrong with him, but if he can manage it, that might be more than half the battle, and he seemed today, for at least in his bullpen session, to manage it, so we'll just see how it goes from here.

TERRY FRANCONA: Kevin Brown? You know what, I don't even know Kevin. My hope is it hurts him. (Laughter.) But, again, if it's a wet field, maybe we'll bunt. (Laughter.) He's a good pitcher. He's been a good pitcher for a long time. My concerns are about our guys, and I think Bronson will be fine.

TERRY FRANCONA: There was actually a lot of scenarios. We were here early today, again trying to do the right thing for him, for us, which is basically the same thing. I think our first plan was what we did. We thought it was the best thing to do was go out there after it was explained to us by the medical people to let him go out there with a high-top without it splinted and see how he tolerated that. So we really never got past that part.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, they didn't win tonight. You know what? I guess I kind of view it that we didn't play. We still need to win when we play next, and that should be tomorrow. It's going to help whoever wins next. That's what's going to happen, so we need to play good just like we've said all along.

TERRY FRANCONA: To be very honest, we really didn't get into that, and I'm being truthful. This is the first step, and the next step is to see how he shows up tomorrow. And from there, then we'll see. Again, I just kind of explained it truthfully. The door hasn't been closed, but that's where we're at.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, he was going to throw yesterday but he didn't feel good enough to do the throwing. As far as everything they have done for him with the trainer, I can't tell you that. They work on every pitcher before. You know, you've seen that; these guys don't just go out and throw. As to everything they are doing, I don't know. But he just felt good enough where he could go do it today. He may show up tomorrow and be sore again. We are just trying to do the best we can with the situation.

TERRY FRANCONA: What it's going to come down to is we are trying to win the series. That will be how we base our decision solely; not to extend the series, to get to a certain game. It's based on trying to win four games. So that's what we're going to do.

TERRY FRANCONA: Maybe I didn't explain that right. It was just the wrong size. It wasn't -- the upwards, it worked good. It just hurt his toes.

TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, we'll see if we can get a bigger size. All of that stuff, and we've got the wrong size. (Laughter.)