AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS

October 8, 2004

Terry Francona

TERRY FRANCONA: I think more than thinking, I was begging. (Laughter.) We were, literally I looked at Millar and I said "Can he hit a home run here?" It wasn't that far out of my mouth where it seemed like once it left his bat our players knew it was gone before I did. A lot of begging going on.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, it obviously wasn't as good as it was about three pitches before. But, saying that, we weren't losing, and we weren't going to quit. I never felt like that -- we saw the mood shift. It was huge. We gave a good team a chance to get back in a game, but they never took the lead, and we're hitting last, at Fenway. I think we thought we were still going to win, but we sure weren't in as good of a position as we were two pitches before. Too many walks that inning. That's the last guy you would ever want to see come to the plate in that situation.

TERRY FRANCONA: I thought he pitched a very, very good ballgame, in a huge situation. I thought he was tremendous. I also thought after that first hitter, he looked like he was about out of bullets. And we had it set up pretty good. The bullpen has been very, very good. Again we just walked some people that we don't normally do. Got us in a bad situation.

TERRY FRANCONA: I don't know. I've never been close to going all the way. This is a big, big -- well, it's a win. Regardless of how we did it. The way we did it was certainly exciting, but the team over there, we knew they would never stop playing, ever. We knew that. But, we held them off. And now, because of that, you can hear everybody yelling, but even more, we can set up our pitching. We can sit back and watch the game and prepare for the next series. We don't have to play again. Any time they keep the series alive, something can happen, kind of like we saw in the game today. I don't want to say you feel good, but we were in the lead and we had a good bullpen and we saw what happens.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I wish he never would have come in. I know what you're saying. He had thrown a lot of pitches. I saw Scioscia talking to him out there. It looked like he said he had maybe about had it. I know what you're saying. Not that you don't ever have respect for Washburn, but this kid is one of a kind. I think the biggest, maybe the better answer to that, is that our pitching held them off long enough where we could get him out of the game.

TERRY FRANCONA: We have a lot of guys that give a lot of stuff in the clubhouse. We have a very close clubhouse, a little bit loose, but very good. But as good of a guy as he is, I'll take those 140 RBIs. That's what makes him so lovable. No, he's a tremendous person, but his bat, that's what helps us win more games.

TERRY FRANCONA: I thought it was fitting. Here is a guy we send to the bullpen, he's not, I don't want to say, somewhat broken-hearted, but I understand that. I think it's kind of fitting. Comes out, gets an out, gets a win. We've used a lot of people this year, and we've never been afraid to go to anybody, and I think it was very fitting that he got the win.

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, we certainly discuss everything. But I don't think we were really -- we weren't close. And, I mean, it's easy to say now, because of what he did, but that's why we don't take him out. If you take his bat out, you know, for a pinch runner, not only do you lose his bat but it's going to make it a heck of a lot tougher on Manny coming around next time, too. Those are our big boys. We'll take a shot and leave him in the game.