AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 5, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: He made some good plays. He tackled that one, but he made a couple. He made the pick on Cabrera up the middle. That was a good play on both ends. Still Dougie is so special defensively, you got to get him in there when it's appropriate, and Buddy laid down. Every run helps. You are asking about Millar. Millar is not a bad first baseman, it's just, in our opinion, Mientkiewicz is kind of special.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think he tweaked it a little bit on the play. Millar could have stopped that ball in two seconds. I think he tweaked it a little bit. I don't think it's anything that's going to slow him down, just I think it's a little sore. But he pitched for another inning and I don't think it bothered him pitching.

TERRY FRANCONA: No, no.

TERRY FRANCONA: Not sending him out to the seventh? No. He was fine. We wanted him to get through that inning. He probably could have gone another inning. I just thought it was -- when we got out of it with him was perfect.

TERRY FRANCONA: You know, in these five game series, the question is certainly pertinent, but it changes after every game. If we lose tomorrow, somebody will say, how do you feel now, you lost Pedro's game? We won the game that we have control over today. We show up tomorrow night and try to win that game. That was our approach all along. We did what we needed to do today. If we do what we need to do tomorrow, it will make it a lot better.

TERRY FRANCONA: Who is that?

TERRY FRANCONA: You know what, I didn't even notice that. If there was a reason, I didn't -- I didn't see that. I was nervous.

TERRY FRANCONA: You know what, you don't know. That's why you talk about it so much, trying to play clean baseball and not give extra outs, and that was a pretty special play. There is a lot of little things. You don't know what's going to lead to a win. When Johnny Damon fought off pitches and put the ball in play, I know they threw the ball away, but that was a pretty tough at bat for him off a guy who has had his way with him. He puts it in play. Some of it happened for us. We had base runners and we made them work, and because of it, we caught a break there. And then Manny comes up and puts the bat on the ball, as he does so often, and we spread it out, as we talk about so often, because you knew they were going to put (inaudible), and his pitch to McPherson was huge. I think it was a first pitch split rollover, and you know the kid has got a lot of power; that was another big at bat of the game.

TERRY FRANCONA: I like it so far. You know what, it's not really different -- I mean, the game is still played exactly the same, and we have good players, and if we play like we can, I will enjoy myself.