AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

October 5, 2004

Ron Gardenhire

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, we know we're facing a great baseball team with a lot of great hitters. You're not going to just, you know, shut them out every inning and strike everybody out. They are going to get some hits. But I think you saw Johan, I don't think he had his greatest stuff but he had very good stuff. It was hard to feel the ball out there, his hand was a little cold but he pitched, his heart out. He was unbelievable tonight. He kept battling and making pitches when he had to. Like I said, you're facing a lineup over there that every time you turn around, a man is on base, you get a chance for a two-run home run, and I think he pitched with a lot of heart tonight. So pretty good stuff, too, but a lot of heart.

RON GARDENHIRE: We had a chance to catch the ball and turn some double plays. It's not an unusual thing for Johan because there's not that many to get on base if you look at his numbers this year, but we can catch the ball and he knows he can go to that sinker if he has to. Tonight we made some plays. I think you'll see Torii Hunter probably stepped up and played the game like we see him do all the time, some catches in centerfield; a great throw; we turned four or five double plays, I don't even know. That's our game, we do that and we can turn some double plays. But Johan, he battled his tail off, made pitches when he had to and got the ground balls.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, I think he has a pretty big heart, and we know that he's going through a lot right now, but I think a lot of guys on the team expected to see him do something special tonight. I think we all know why. I think that's supposed to happen, he's supposed to hit a home run. He said he would do something tonight and he did. I tell you what, it was a good moment in the dugout. He needed that, our team needed that, but Jacque needed that for himself and that was a real big moment in our dugout.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, he hit it and you never know, opposite field. He's very strong that way. He can drive the ball that way. I guess it was one of those when he hit it, everybody jumped up and most of the time in the dugout, guys are cheering but everybody was clapping. I think everybody wanted to see that for Jacque in our dugout. We know what he's been going through, I think everybody. That was a great moment.

RON GARDENHIRE: I was just running out there because everybody was throwing their hands up to tell you the truth. I just wanted to make sure we got it right. I actually was staring right at Ruben and when he hit it, he started to go and then he stopped and then he saw them point fair and then he took off again. So I was kind of thinking, he knew it was foul, too, because he stopped. Then I ran out there and guys were holding their hands up. Just asked Jerry, you know, just get some help here and that's all it took. He got the call right. I honestly did not get up because I thought it was gone for sure but I looked right at Ruben and watched what he did. I like his song when he comes to the plate; I want to tell that you, too. We were trying to figure out who sings that, "I like the way she moves..." We were trying to figure that out, I'm telling my bench coach, "will you please shut up, I'm trying to concentrate here." That's a true story. Really tense out there. (Laughter.)