AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

September 30, 2003

Ron Gardenhire

RON GARDENHIRE: Torii Hunter in centerfield, he's as good as they get. He can run them down with anybody. Very athletic. We don't worry about him too much. We know he's going to come to the game ready to play, and one of our leaders. He's going to have a good time doing it, and he catches just about anything he has out there and this is a big outfield out there and that's important. Second part, Kenny Rogers is fine. He's pitched great for us. We picked him up when Eric Milton went down. We don't worry about Kenny, he's a veteran and knows how to get people out. He's going to come in and change some speeds, change the game up a little bit, slow it down a little bit, fields his position. We don't worry about him and I don't worry about the past. We're playing for today and that's what we're playing for and we don't worry about what guys have done in the past. He's a veteran and he knows how to get people out.

RON GARDENHIRE: No. I haven't talked to Radke about it at all. That's why I'm the manager. (Laughter.) That's exactly what I did, and I don't think Rad has a problem with that. We have a pretty good plan here. Santana is a young kid, very excitable and he's going to have some fun out there. That's what this game is all about, having some fun and enjoying yourself. We have one of our best pitchers on the mound starting today and a pretty doggone one in the next game, Radke. When it comes down to it, we had some decisions to make and we like the way we are going about it. We are excited for Santana and we know what Radke can do. So we are pretty happy with those two guys.

RON GARDENHIRE: He's a control guy, great changeup, location, in and out, knows hitters, knows how to handle the situation. He's going to make you swing the bat. He understands that we catch the ball very well, so he understands what we try to do around here, and that's what he's going to do. He's going to move the ball in and out and change speeds. He handles himself very well. He's a non-emotional guy. You just don't see him react to too much. He did very well last year in the playoffs, and the second half of the season he's been very good. He's carried us. He's our quiet leader.

RON GARDENHIRE: Let you know after the game. We just like our kid. I know these guys can hit anybody. Yankees have a great offensive team. It doesn't matter with too many of their left-handed hitters who they are facing really. Santana has great stuff. He's not a location guy really. He's got a great change-up and a breaking ball and we are not going to worry about him trying to hit his location. He's going to give them everything he has. They are great hitters; you make a bad pitch they are probably going to whack it pretty good. We are just going to go at them. That's what Santana does. He's going to go at these guys, we're going to let him try and we are going to have fun doing it, and that's what it's all about.

RON GARDENHIRE: We all know this place. This is history, baseball history, here. Loud, we know the fans are very knowledgeable here. They get into the games. They get into every pitch. They will give my guys some grief around the dugout. I understand all these things. They're very entertaining. My right fielder, Jacque Jones, I can't believe how many names he'll have by the end of the day. That's very entertaining. We've been here, we've played here, it's a blast. That's what it's all about, Yankee Stadium in the playoffs. You come home to our dome, we have some things, too. Ball gets lost in the lights, and we have some special glasses that we have not told anybody about and we are going to use them in the series. It's loud, it's crazy, people get into it. We've had a lot of fun this last month playing some pretty good baseball down the stretch and people have been coming out and our Metrodome can get really loud and you can't hear anything in there. It's exciting and it's Astroturf and we do pretty good on that stuff. We have a little advantage at home, too.

RON GARDENHIRE: He made a commitment to the team. That was huge. He was one of the stars that we had at the time, and one of our few stars. We had a lot of young guys coming up and growing and we had some young pitchers that we thought were going to be pretty good. For him to make a commitment for our team, and for the Twins to make a commitment to him, was huge; signing him with our payroll and our budget, sign him to a nice contract and keep him here and set the basis for what we are able to do now, bring some people in and build around him.

RON GARDENHIRE: No. No way he remembered that. (Laughter.) He doesn't remember two weeks ago. He's just a pitcher and he has a good time. He's a calm person, to say the least.

RON GARDENHIRE: Not really -- sure, it did. We looked at both scenarios. When you get with a three-man rotation, if you start really deeply looking into it, Santana is going to be 1 and 4 and Radke will be 2 and 5. Game 5 would be a short day's rest, and I would never do that to a young kid like Santana. Radke can do that if we go there. We are going to try to do this with our top three starters and come back with Santana, too. Game 5, flip a coin, and it's going to be a hell of a battle. We set up a good rotation, and we keep in mind that we are trying to protect our young kid, too.

RON GARDENHIRE: He knows the hitters. He knows what they can and can't do and he knows how to pitch to them. We have a catcher involved there and we have a pretty good pitch plan. He goes over everything before he pitches. Every pitcher goes over everything for that day. Radke also knows his strengths, the best way to get a hitter out. He is not always going to pitch to a hitter's weakness. He's going to pitch with his strength. He's a very smart pitcher and he's a very smart guy.

RON GARDENHIRE: We are going to let him pitch and see where we go. We're going to try to win that game when we get there in a couple of days. Try to get through today first. Radke is ready to go. We have been consistent, 100, 110 pitches for our starters. We have been consistent with that all year long. We protect our pitchers and do the best we can with them. We won't go much more than that with any of our pitchers.