MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 22, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK MCKEON: The line-up is gonna be the same except we're switching; Conine's gonna hit fifth and Lee will hit seventh. We just switched those guys. Penny, yeah, will go Game 5.

JACK MCKEON: Well, we've had pretty good luck winning three in a row. I'd rather not have to win -- get in that position we're down 3-1. But we've been down before, losing two in a row. So we're gonna do the best we can tonight, get good pitching, if our offense picks up a little bit we'll be all right.

JACK MCKEON: Nah, combination of both, really. Just figured we'd done that all season long, just juggled a couple guys in and out, different spots in the line-up. Hope we find the right combination.

JACK MCKEON: No, I really don't have anything. I think that happens occasionally. We've had it happen two or three times during the year, just come in and got behind some hitters and possibly made too good of pitches so the hitters could handle.

JACK MCKEON: No, I don't think so. I think these guys know, they know what's at stake. Every one of those guys out there are trying the best they can. We all know they're facing pretty good pitching. On the other hand, sometimes some of the hitters said they're not swinging at good pitches. That happens sometimes when you try too hard. Biggest thing I could tell them is go out there, relax, do the best you can and don't worry about it, have fun.

JACK MCKEON: Well, it could be. There's no question they've got good pitching. Of course Chicago had good pitching. Everybody didn't give us a chance against Chicago, and we handled them pretty well. But things like this happen. This is the wrong time for the hitters to go into a slump. Hopefully, tonight's the night that we break out of it again. We've been in this situation a couple times before where we didn't hit, and all of a sudden, the bats came alive and everything fell into place.

JACK MCKEON: That's what happens when you get into the World Series. You generally run into some clubs that have outstanding pitching staffs. You talk about the Yankees. I certainly don't think they intimidate our hitters, but when you look back, they have a tremendous track record in postseason appearances and they're all quality pitchers and all have been 20-game winners in the past. We know that we were up against a good pitching staff; there's no question about it. But also our hitters are pretty good, too. It's just a combination of, right now, they're getting good pitching and we're not getting that good hitting right now. But it could turn around tonight, tomorrow night, and who knows?

JACK MCKEON: Well, both of those guys are key players on our ballclub, and they've been so successful all year long. Luis is an outstanding player, and really is a very good hitter. It's unusual to see him strike out because he's a tough guy to strike out. To strike him out three times is unusual. But hitters do have tough times with certain pitchers. Evidently, he had a tough time with Mussina last night. Hopefully, we'd like to see both of those guys get on because they jump start our offense. But, unfortunately, we haven't been able to be too successful in that area in this series so far.

JACK MCKEON: Well, you'd like to, if you could get the guys to put the ball in play and do some things, but we only have a few guys in our line-up that we play small ball with. We depend on the big guys in the middle of the line-up to drive in the runs if the little guys get on. Unfortunately, we haven't had too many situations where we could get the first or second guy on, going back to the Cubs series, when they handled us in the games that they did. Lofton was on every time up to lead off the inning and cause problems for us. We haven't been able to do that on a regular basis in the first three games. But we did the same thing in Chicago, all of a sudden, the last three we just got all those guys hitting on all cylinders and it was a different story. Maybe tonight's the night.

JACK MCKEON: Well, the problem in that situation was you got to throw strikes. He was very aggressive in New York, and certainly when we brought him in, we had tremendous confidence in him. It's a case where he just was missing the strike zone. When he does get in that situation, it's gonna cause you problems putting men on base. We look around, we walked six, seven, eight guys last night, hit a couple. When you turn that line-up around and give Williams and Jeter an extra time at bat, they can cause you problems. When we're successful, those things don't happen. But as we all know, this game is entirely different night after night. You don't know what's gonna happen; wish we did.

JACK MCKEON: I talked to Luis today and told him, "Hey, he's a very important part of this ballclub." Without Luis Castillo, we would not be here. I don't think any of the Marlins can feel sorry for themselves because they all deserve to be here and I want them to go out and have fun again, relax, don't think you two have to carry the club. Luis is a very, very good player. Sometimes he tries too hard and sometimes he takes it too hard when he doesn't succeed. He's an easy winner, he wants to win as bad as anybody on this ballclub. Sometimes he just puts a lot of pressure on himself where he tries to carry the club. If he doesn't do what he's supposed to do or not successful at a time at bat, he kind of feels bad, like he's letting the club down. We don't want him to do that because he's a key to our ballclub and he's a very good player. Got great instincts. He's a winner.

JACK MCKEON: Well, we've had that happen two or three times during the season where we didn't get pitching or didn't get hitting. Then all of a sudden it turned around. As I said, each night's a different night. You never know what's gonna happen out there, but I feel like our players are very confident they can come out and do the job. We've been in a situation where we lost two games in a row a number of times this is year and always bounced back. So hopefully tonight will just be the same resilient club. We have to be able to bounce back and do a number on some of these pitchers that we've been faced with.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I think the advantage in the LCS was we've seen those guys many times. I think here, you're going to the Yankees situation where we haven't seen the Yankee pitchers that often. Sometimes it takes a while to get adjusted. Like I said earlier, you got to give these guys credit. They're outstanding pitchers, no question about it. They know how to pitch. They've done a good job year in, year out. They've got tremendous amount of experience in postseason play. That's certainly been an asset to them.

JACK MCKEON: Well, we always operated on the premise in a club we keep the game close, our pitchers can keep the game close, we'll find an opening, somebody will give us an opening and we'll jump in there. I can't explain it, but that's the way we've been going; if you give us an opening, we'll cash in. We haven't had many openings in these three games to really cash in. For example, against the Giants, someone booted a ball that enabled us to get an inning started, put us first and third. We cashed in. In the Cubs series, the shortstop makes an error there in the sixth game that opens a door for a big inning. Little things like that, we been taking advantage of. We really haven't had that many opportunities here against the Yankees to do anything like that. Our guys seem to jump on that situation when it comes up, but we haven't really had any.

JACK MCKEON: Well, the pitching coach has talked to him about his approach, but basically it was the situation where we got locked in with bases on balls and being behind hitters in these first two outings. Then he reverted. He's generally a pitcher that throws pretty good strikes. Was just one of those situations. Then you look at it, you say, "Hey, maybe it's the first time he was in the postseason, first time he got to pitch in front of a big audience. The adrenaline might have been flowing a little bit too much for these guys. Maybe he tried to overpower too many of these guys." But he's back on track. He's been a very successful pitcher for us all year long. We're very confident tomorrow night he's gonna give us a good outing.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I'd like not to put ourselves in that position again. You can get lucky once in a while but you keep doing it on a consistent basis, it's not gonna work out. But we feel even if we are down 3-1, that we have enough to carry us through. We did against the Cubs, which was a very good ballclub. Once again, we got a few breaks along the way. Hopefully, we can get a few breaks in the next day or two and we won't be in that position.