AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 5, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: I think Pedro is going to be fine. You know what, if he talked, again, we go back to the gamesmanship thing. I don't pay much attention to what he says to you guys. You guys probably feel the same way at times. I know he is an interesting story because he is Pedro. What I care about is how he is going to pitch, and I think he will pitch fine.

TERRY FRANCONA: Yeah, sure. The final roster has -- I am not going to name 25 names. Youklis is on, Scott Williamson was the one guy we didn't put on, and that was after talking to Willie, Dave Wallace, myself and Theo, and explaining to him the rigors of this five-game series, which he already was aware of. I think he felt like doing the right thing for the team was maybe not being on the roster. We appreciated his honesty because those roster spots are so important, and if he couldn't answer the bell, it could have maybe put us in a little bit of a bind.

TERRY FRANCONA: You guys or our team?

TERRY FRANCONA: I don't think there is a correlation between them being uptight and the intensity. If I did, I would have tried to step in and change stuff. Their personality is their personality. As a group, they are borderline nuts, but when they get out in the field, I think they try to play the game right, and I don't see that changing today at all. I don't want them to show up and be different. I want them to be themselves because I think we are a good team like that.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think like most pitchers, I think the velocity -- although I catch myself looking, too, because it's up there. In Tampa he looked like he got a little aggravated and threw the ball very hard, threw the ball by some hitters, but rather than the radar gun, I think the way a guy is throwing tells you how far good their fast ball is. And I think when he has run into problems, it's been location and command. If he is commanding, I am not sure it matters how hard he is throwing because he has four pitches and he can do what he wants to with them. He has had some tremendous success this year, some big games where he wasn't throwing the ball 96, and he is still a dominating pitcher.

TERRY FRANCONA: Millar is our first baseman. We are going to pretty much stay consistent with what we have done. If we have a lead later in the game, Mientkiewicz will come in because he is so good defensively. But we have talked to Dougie about this. You know, when we got him from Minnesota, we, basically, got him to play a lot, and it didn't work out that way. When we made -- when Theo made the trade, Millar got real hot, come back, things we didn't see completely, and it's cut Dougie's playing time a little bit, but when we have a lead, he may be in there. He may have a game this series, I am saying he is not playing tonight, today.

TERRY FRANCONA: I am not sure I necessarily agree with that. I think it depends on the situation, rest, who he is facing, hitters, how his innings were -- you know, the amount of labor. I think there is a lot of things that go into that and we will take all those into consideration. What we are going to try and do is win, and we will do the best we can with that. I think those numbers have changed a little bit this year late in the game.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think so. Damon, Bellhorn, Ramirez, Ortiz, Millar, Baritek, Carera, Kapler, three lefties and three righties on the bench.

TERRY FRANCONA: No, I don't think he looked extremely well the last couple starts and it cost him. I actually thought -- again, we talked about him getting a little aggravated that one start, he reached back and threw the ball, as far as velocity goes, extremely well. Sometimes guys just, for whatever reason, he went through a little bit of a rough stretch. I bet you every manager out there wishes they could start him in Game 2. That's kind of how I feel about it.