AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 8, 2004

Tim Wakefield

TIM WAKEFIELD: I've never been in this situation, so I can't -- it's a nice position to be in because the last five times that I've been here, we haven't been in this position. We've been down, it's either 1-1 or we're down 0-2. But it's really nice winning both Games 1 and 2 on the road and coming home and trying to win in front of our home crowd instead of having to go back for Game 5.

TIM WAKEFIELD: I don't think you can substitute experience for anything else. It's still, you're pitching on the grandest stage that there is. You know, I've been in this situation before. It's still not easy. But, you know, I'm going to go out there tomorrow hopefully we can get it done today but if we need tomorrow and I'm going to go out and do my best and try to give us a victory here at home.

TIM WAKEFIELD: I'd love to pitch, but if we don't get to tomorrow, I'm perfectly happy with that. It means that we won today and we're going on to the LCS. Regardless of what happens today, I'll be happy either way.

TIM WAKEFIELD: Yeah, it's not very fun coming into Game 3 and you're down 2-0. Obviously it's a long road ahead of you, but we also know what can happen. We've been on the other side of the road. And we know that we have to go out there and play hard. They are going to be aggressive and play hard against us today and we have to go out there and try to win today. I have a lot of confidence in our club as far as today is concerned and the rest of the series, and hopefully we'll make it to the next round.

TIM WAKEFIELD: My season as a whole is not as good as I wanted it to be, but, you know, season's over right now. We're on to the post-season. I'm just very fortunate that Charlie was around and I was able to just, you know, talk to him. I'm one of two guys in the world that are doing what I'm doing, and it's nice to be able to talk to somebody that has done what I'm going through right now. To be able to just talk feel and mechanics and things like that with somebody that has a lot of experience doing what I'm about to do.

TIM WAKEFIELD: I don't know. I don't think it will affect me very much. I'm sure I'll get some side work and possibly maybe throw to some hitters tomorrow or whatever our work out schedule pans out to be. I'm not too worried about a long layoff.