AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ATHLETICS

October 3, 2003

Ken Macha

KEN MACHA: I can remember talking to the ESPN people, the television people before Game 1, and I said, if you keep having Manny come up here with men on base, you're going to be in trouble. And then we went out there in the first game and there were people all over bases while he was hitting. We've been fortunate, Hudson has made some pitches. In particular, after Ellis knocked down that ground ball and bases loaded, two outs, Manny up there, he made a nice pitch on the outside corner and got a nice ground ball to second. When you play tight games and it's been that way all year, you try to keep both Ortiz and Manny from hurting you. And it's been huge.

KEN MACHA: I haven't personally done that. I think the mood with all the players after we came off the field the other day was we've had two wins before in a playoff series, every time we've been here, really, the last three years. I think everybody is pretty reserved and they know they've got to continue to play good baseball. We've played two solid games. And if we continue that, we've got a pretty good chance. Here again, the Red Sox are a very powerful team, like the first question said, we've held those two guys down in the lineup. In order to beat them, we have to be able to pitch against those guys and play solid defense, all those things needed to win.

KEN MACHA: He's had a huge transition. We got him last year. I remember his first game against Tampa, he was 84, 85 (mph). Our pitching coach, Rick Peterson, has done tremendous work with him starting at Spring Training. Lengthened his stride a little bit, worked on his fast ball. He pitched the beginning of the year using all four pitches, and Rick felt he didn't have a really consistent release point. He would have the tendency to give up a lot of home runs early in the year, his velocity was there, he was missing location, he eliminated the curveball for a little while. He felt if he could get the pitcher out in front with a release on all his pitches, slider, fastball and change-up, all that there, compared to having the curveball come out in this area, it would improve his command. So we took the curveball away for a few starts and his command has improved dramatically, and now he's got his curveball back in there. It's been a big transition. A lot of different things have been done. You have to give Rick and Ted credit for the things they've tried. (Ted) was a main factor in us getting to the playoffs.

KEN MACHA: When you have good hitters, you have to make good pitches, stay away from making mistakes. Another thing, you can't pitch a guy a certain way. Manny and David have complete plate coverage. What you need to do is utilize all the things, changing speeds on them, back and forth, in and out, up and down, all those types of things. When you get the good hitters up there, it's a game within a game. It's the way you pitch to them in the past compared to how they might be looking for pitches today. And we kind of shuffled around a little bit. A lot of guys in the league, those two guys probably in particular, can't just stay in one pattern. So our guys -- you have to credit (catcher) Ramon (Hernandez), too. He's back there calling the game. He has a good feel for how they're standing in the box and what they're looking for and how they're swinging the bat. And all that comes into play.

KEN MACHA: It's part of the workout today. We'll go out there and our guys will play catch and everything. We'll see how Hudson is doing. If he's doing okay, he's got a chance of being our Game 4 starter.

KEN MACHA: I've said all along, even when I came over as a coach, it's a pleasure to watch the guys that I've been associated here with the Red Sox, get out on the field. It's nice to see them do well. Now you're on the other side of the fence, it would probably be nice to see them not do so well. Those guys over there, I know how they play, I know what their focus is, or how their focus is during the game, and their intensity. We still have our work cut out for us.

KEN MACHA: Not really. We had him in the bullpen and actually he won Game 1. If it was the last game of the playoffs, maybe that's more of a pressure situation. He came in and walked the first hitter and threw the next pitch to the screen and rebounded nicely, so he got us out of that inning. And, actually, he pitched to the main guys in their order. I believe he struck out Ortiz and got Kevin Millar to pop-up and there was then a great play by (Eric) Chavez to get (Gabe) Kapler, three tough outs for him. And we ended up scoring the next inning.