AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ATHLETICS

October 2, 2003

Grady Little

GRADY LITTLE: No. I saw a left-hand right there on the mound. That created that hangover today pretty much. We had a couple of chances early in the ballgame. He settled in and did a heck of a job out there. We have to give him a lot of credit. We've come out here to Oakland, we've lost two. Now we have no choice but to come back. We've got to win now.

GRADY LITTLE: The way things have been going all season long, I don't know what degree of disruption this is. It's a little uncharacteristic of our club. And now we'll be going to Fenway and hope we can get it back on track right away, because we have no time to waste.

GRADY LITTLE: We'll check on Pedro when it's time for him to throw on the side tomorrow and make a judgment from there. The truth is right now we've got to win three games, and I'm sure he'll be ready for one of those.

GRADY LITTLE: Just a little bit with his control there to lead off that second inning. After he went out to first, he walked Guillen and then hit Dye. That started the ball rolling there. But after that he came back and pitched very well for the rest of the six innings.

GRADY LITTLE: You have to keep playing. We're still playing. That means we still have a chance. You keep playing one day at a time. And we were like this in '99 with the Red Sox when we went to Cleveland, and we lost two over there in Cleveland, we came back in Boston and got a couple there and went back to Cleveland and won another one. It can happen. You have to do it on the field and beat the other club.

GRADY LITTLE: That doesn't change us all the time. It all has to do with the pitcher on the mound for the other team. Today they had a good one out there and he did a heck of a job.

GRADY LITTLE: That's not a factor right now. We talked at Spring Training and said we would wait until the end of this year to talk about it again, and that's what we'll do.