AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

October 3, 2003

Ron Gardenhire

RON GARDENHIRE: It was everything you thought it would be. Playing a day game and a night game, we got to enjoy both parts of it. A lot of people. Very exciting. The crowd was into it. Last night they were really into it, they were into every pitch more so than the first game. It was great. Our guys were getting after it, very competitive games last night. A little disappointing; we had our shot but we really didn't hit the ball very well. Pettitte controlled us. It was fun. A very good experience. Now we'll get to come home to our Dome which is really exciting, also. We've been here before and this ought to be a lot of fun.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, it's a fast surface; they are a veteran team for the most part. Their players have played here for a while in this dome. They know the field, they know the surface, I don't think they will have too many problems. There are some teams that come in, sure, they have to make adjustments with some younger players. It's a fast surface. A baseball can go through the infield as just a normal base hit and go all the way to the wall because that's how fast it is. A lot of high choppers, a lot of funny things up with the roof. There's some things people have to worry about and adjust to. I don't think the Yankees have too many problems here. They play pretty well here. So we'll have to be at our best.

RON GARDENHIRE: In the Dome there's all kind of things we've seen happen: Cristian Guzman drops down a bunt, they throw the ball to the first base and didn't get him and throw to the right field corner and scored on a bunt because the ball just keeps rolling, goes around the corners. We've seen a lot of things; fly balls up in the air where nobody sees it, the ball lands and you have six guys watching it land between them. It's just the Dome. When people start waving those homer hankies, it gets pretty exciting. This place can be really loud. Foul balls, the ball goes up, hits off a speaker, we've seen Eddie dive and get it off a speaker. I guess that's why it can be entertaining at times.

RON GARDENHIRE: No. We are going to run our same lineup out there. Those guys are fine. I thought Pettitte just did a great job last night, but that's our lineup. Those guys, coming back into the Dome, we'll be fine. We'll get after it and try to bang the ball around a little better and see what happened. We know Roger is a great pitcher. It ought to be real exciting.

RON GARDENHIRE: I don't know; they are great pitchers. Great pitchers change speeds and move the ball around. So far, we've faced Mussina and Pettitte; that's two pretty good pitchers. Playoff time is a little different than the regular season. When guys are trying to take good at-bats, there's times where you say, sure, he's got to swing and get after it. But the pitchers dictate that. They make great quality pitches. You saw it last night too; pitchers were making a lot of quality pitches. It just happens this time of year, that's why both teams are here because they have pitched very well, so it's going to be a little different this time of year.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, the good thing is, he's not going to have to face Roger Clemens. That's probably good for us that he did not have to bat off him. Kyle last year on this ballclub pitched very, very well. We had four veteran starters that we put in the rotation. Kyle sat out, was able to watch it and take it all in. This year he stepped up and became our No. 3 starter, had a great start, went through a struggle in the middle and made some great adjustments and pitched very well down the stretch. I think that qualifies him to get a chance to start in the playoffs. He's a great young kid with good composure. Sure, he's going to be excited tomorrow. That's expected. He's got a great arm and he's pitched very well for us. He deserves this opportunity.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, you know, the goal is to try to score some runs and get a lead and see what happens. We know Roger's tough. He's going to be game-on. He's going to be going at it as hard as he can. We have to put the ball in play, bang it around and try to use this turf to our advantage, our lefties and our righties. We have to do some fundamental things. We can't make a mistake. We saw one mistake last night that hurt us pretty big. We can't make mistakes; when you do it hurts you. You saw that in the first game with the Yankees. We have to get after him and swing the bats. It goes not just our lefties; all of them.

RON GARDENHIRE: I've heard he's in the building. Looks great. He's one of us, he's one of the guys that's been with us, on my coaching staff for two years, and when he got sick, that was a tough thing. So, of course we've had his jersey in the dugout with us every day. It's going to be nice to see his smiling face, his jokes. He's doing good. He's still not ready to come back on the field, so it's going to be very important to get him in the Dome. That will pump our guys up. That will be another one of those inspirational things we'll use. Just to see him will be enough. It makes baseball seem kind of small.

RON GARDENHIRE: I think it was location, went through maybe a little bit of a tired part, a lot of innings, going at it, but more mechanically, he was rushing a little bit and missing his spots and not using all of his pitches well. He made some adjustments with Rick Anderson, our pitching coach, and got back on track. He's got a great arm and he can do a lot of things if he wishes. When he starts trying to overthrow the ball, gets himself in a little bit of trouble. But when he pitches he's as good as anybody.

RON GARDENHIRE: I'm sure he's going to be excited. The big thing is if we can calm him down and try not to overthrow the ball early, just go right at him, throw the ball over the plate and let us catch it, keep it in the ballpark. If he does that, we'll be fine. He's pitched some big games like that already. He's thrown some big games, against the White Sox, and done well. He's a good pitcher.

RON GARDENHIRE: We've been in here, we've been through a lot of games this year, and it's been loud. Our players understand what we have to do here. Astroturf shortens your swing and bangs the ball around good. Things happen when you strike the ball. Striking out doesn't work here in the Dome because of the surface. You try to beat the ball around and you can't let the crowd get you too fired up because you'll start trying to do things you're not capable of doing. So we just try to shorten our swings and bang the ball around here and put it in play. That works out for us. When we start running around the bases here in the Dome it gets pretty exciting.

RON GARDENHIRE: He's fine. He threw in the bullpen yesterday. Did good. Still feels a little soreness here and there. He should be fine. I think he's going to be fine.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, he's part of this ball club. Everybody was doing that. We all tried to do a little bit too much. If you talk to the guys when we went through that stretch, we had a saying, "Take the 'S' off your chest; don't try to be a Superman. Just be part of the team." We all went through that part where everybody was trying to do too much. Our starters were trying to go out and throw the big game, and when you do those things, you get outside yourself. People have settled in, feel pretty comfortable with their roles now, understanding to out and do the best you can. And Lohse has done fantastic. He's been one of our best pitchers consistently all year. He went through a little bit of trouble, like I said, but he's been pretty good.

RON GARDENHIRE: It's pretty exciting. The people are fired up about this baseball team. It's a good, young team. They kind of like these players. They have kind of taken them under their wing. The fans like these kids. They are very charismatic. It's going to be as loud as anywhere. It's going to get rocking. If we can get some excitement early, it's going to be one of those things where you might have a headache before you leave. That's how loud it is.