AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 6, 2004

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think as far as the strike zone, you know, if you are a good team, if you are a good team you have to -- is that my throat or is that thing -- I know I am hoarse, but -- you know, when you go through a -- if you are a team and you are a good team, then you absorb things like maybe a break bad, a line drive that doesn't fall in or an umpire strike zone. Umpires aren't going to be perfect all the time, and if you are a good team you absorb that and you move on. So that wasn't an issue. I think Boston did a good job in some key situations and they got to our bullpen, which has been terrific all year. The one thing that I think hurt us tonight, and it does bother us, is the fact we didn't do the things offensively that we needed to do. We didn't get our bunts down, we had a chance to go from first to third a couple times and we didn't take advantage of it. Those are things we have to have in our game and we know, we talked about it, and we are going to have to take that aggressiveness, bring it to that level as we go back to Boston.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, this was probably the best stuff he has had against us all year, and I think Pedro is terrific when maybe the situation gets a little hot. He gets an extra gear. He did it tonight, he changed speeds well. We had opportunities. You know, one turning point is the ball that Garrett hit, and that's a ball that's in there, we pick up a little run there, could be a different situation for everybody. But hey, Boston went out and did what they had to do. They got to one of the best bullpens in baseball. (Inaudible).

MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, it's -- I think it's -- if you are young players, it's tough, I think, at first trying to get your foothold in the big leagues. And trying to do it in a playoff scenario. We talk about McPherson or Kotchman, who gets an opportunity to do some things. You know, Figgie, it's really his first full year. These guys are terrific baseball players. They have had a little problem in executing some of the things that we need done right now. But, you know, we have got a lot of confidence in these guys. I think we can -- you know, we are going to look to play better baseball than right now, you know, these two games they have taken it to us, and we haven't gotten into our game like we can, and if that happens, then we are going to be able to turn this series around.