AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 7, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: We won the game. I mean, the bullpen was very, very good. When he started pitching, gets you deep into a game and then he allows your bulletin to do your job and not more than their job. Yesterday we made some mistakes but we overcame them and we won. That's what we came to do. Now saying that, those games are history. I understand the question, but it doesn't matter anymore. What matters now is tomorrow.

TERRY FRANCONA: Baseball is not like football. We are not going to go out and try to knock people down like a linebacker. We need to play the game of baseball. Obviously we'll be excited. This is a great place to play. Like you said during the regular season, and then with the playoff atmosphere, it will be special because of coming home. But we still have to hit and catch balls and things like that. I don't think adrenaline enters into it quite as much.

TERRY FRANCONA: No. We don't go for the big inspirational speeches and stuff before every game. We've played so many games up to this point, I mean, counting spring training, we're probably getting close to 100. It just doesn't quite work like that. Bronson has earned his stripes. He's made a lot of starts this year, and we've seen him evolve into a pretty good Major League pitcher. And we would not give him the start if we didn't think he could handle it. He doesn't need to be spoken to.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, that actually wasn't -- in my opinion, it wasn't adversity. But we had told Bronson coming out of spring training that we kind of -- if things worked out he may not get all of the starts; because not only we thought he could start, but we thought he would be fabulous out of the bullpen. And I still think he could use the bullpen, but he's turned out to be a pretty good starter, also. Bronson has got a good head on his shoulders and he's taken this opportunity and he's kind of run with it. He's learning how to work them. He's a hard worker but he's kind of growing into this. He's not been passed by to be a starter at the Major League level. He wants to be a good starter on a good team and we are seeing that right before our eyes.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think we know we have a pretty good bullpen. As long as we -- again, if our starters get to where they are supposed to be. As far as getting credit and things like that, I really haven't paid attention. If we win, everybody will be happy on our ballclub. I'm not really sure about saying, you know, we are going to go out and show these people and they give us extra credit. We just want to win.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, what we wanted to have happen was to have an improved defense and have the dynamic of our lineup not change a whole lot. Nomar is a pretty good hitter. Cabrera steps and we kind of moved him all over. We hit him second and hit him sixth and we hit him third one game. He's hit all over the place and he's really been a pretty good offensive player, on top of being a really, really good defensive player. Mientkiewicz, Roberts filled in, and although he doesn't play every day, played a big role in what we did the last few months of the season.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, actually, I think if that does happen, I mean, we're not even remotely afraid to go to Leskanic or Lowe. But in games when you start to get far enough, Embree and Meyers, depending on the matchups, that just seems to me to be the common sense thing to do. But if something happens -- and on the good side of that we could run Derek Lowe out there for five, six, seven innings. We really are balanced pretty well out there right now.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, our approach to him will be pretty much normal. We try to work pitchers, get the pitches we can handle in the strike zone that we can do some damage with. In doing that, usually we try to get a guy deep into a pitch count early in the game. If you do that, with the lineup we have, we should score. Even when you don't, if you work pitchers, it gives you a lot better chance, getting into the bullpen before they want to get into the bullpen, even with their good bullpen, it gives you a little bit of an advantage. Escobar has got a great arm, and I think his record is a little bit deceiving this year. He's pitched very, very well. The run support, if it was a little bit better, I think his won/loss record would be quite different.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, they are playoff games. I mean, they are different because it's the best-of-five and if you lose, it's at home, but you don't do silly stuff. I believe in what I believe in and our players are who they are. Their strengths don't change. Their weaknesses don't change. So try to do your best to win the game. I understand that, you know, at some point you may run a pitcher out there longer, or shorter, with a starter. But to this point we've pretty much done it the way we've done it all year and it worked fine.

TERRY FRANCONA: No. No. He doesn't need a speech. If he needed a speech, we wouldn't pitch him. He's ready to pitch. I mean, he deserved this and he's earned it. And not only that, we think he's going to be fine. We think he's going to do real well or we wouldn't send him out.

TERRY FRANCONA: Okay. First of all, there's somewhat of a difference maybe in being patient and wearing down pitchers. I mean, I understand and I agree, but sometimes being aggressive in the strike zone can all do the do the same thing. We have hitters like David Ortiz, Manny, Millar, big guys in the middle of that order, Varitek, that if you go first pitch football and it's the best pitch of the at-bat, we want them to go ahead and let it fly. We want guys to hit pitches they can do some damage with. If they do that and can keep pitchers in the strike zone, because they are good hitters, they are going to run up their pitch counts. If they start chasing balls out of the zone and make out on pitchers' pitches, you'll see quicker innings. That's pretty much with everybody. But because our lineup is good, if we hit the way we should, we should make pitchers work hard.

TERRY FRANCONA: I would make sure whoever is in charge of the base running is a different person other than me. The base running was horrendous and that was my area. (Laughing). Little things, you never know. We talk about it time after time. After Burnsie steps on home plate, you just never know. If Mickey keeps running; some bizarre incidents in that game that led to us having a chance to lose.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well it didn't help our chances. It's kind of common sense. Any time -- I think people that don't -- aren't necessarily in our uniform lose sight of the fact that you never think they are going to lose. It could be the ninth inning, you're down four. You know you're going to find a way to win; you're just not sure how. That's just the mentality. That's how people survive and how they excel at this level. We were not happy last year. We let them have it -- they won a game, and we respected how good of a team they were. I'm sure if you talked to Angels, they still feel that same way, too. But so do we.

TERRY FRANCONA: No, I'm here -- no. We got in about 10:30. You know what, you do what you're supposed to do. It's really not that big of a deal. Our life is so crazy anyway with the travel and everything, I haven't had a good night's sleep since spring training, anyway. So it really doesn't matter. We did the normal thing on the flight. We played cards last night. I lost money like I always do. Showed up today, do our job and again, if you have to make some adjustments to accommodate fans and media, that's okay. There's a reason you guys are here, because there's interest. So we need to get an hour left sleep.