AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ATHLETICS

October 4, 2003

Grady Little

GRADY LITTLE: I think I would have to say it's turned 100 percent out there tonight. I'm very pleased with the way our boys kept battling and were able to get it done there in the last inning. It was great.

GRADY LITTLE: He did that. He was outstanding. He pitched very well, and we couldn't ask any more of him after coming back from the two innings that he threw the other night. He was outstanding.

GRADY LITTLE: We've done a lot of talking about that bullpen since opening day this year. Tonight we were awfully proud of what they did. Timlin did great, and then Williamson did a great job in the last inning. It was outstanding.

GRADY LITTLE: Well, we'll have to wait until the morning to check and make sure. When I took him out of the game, I told him to get in the Whirlpool and stay there until tomorrow's game. When you get to our age, mine and Mike's, it takes a little more.

GRADY LITTLE: Tonight was a different situation. We were playing at home, the game is tied, and he was getting out of those innings with a very short number of pitches. He never labored in the entire three innings he was out there. There is no doubt in my mind he'll be able to take the ball tomorrow. Pedro Martinez, a normal day for pitchers to throw on the side if they so choose. This guy, we talked about it yesterday afternoon when he came out to throw in the outfield in one case was he going to pitch in this game tonight, that was if we had a lead in the top of the 9th and no more and no less that we had the lead. So he was ready to go down there if we were able to get that run across there in the 8th inning.

GRADY LITTLE: Yes, he was going to be in the game regardless in that inning.

GRADY LITTLE: That was a big play in the game by him blocking him off the plate and going to get the ball and coming back and tagging the guy out. I guess the interference called there around the bag at third base is creating a lot of conversation around the ballpark and around the world of baseball tonight. I think the whole key to the play was that kid quit running on the way to the plate. He's got to continue on and make a play of it at the plate. By the time he stopped between third and home, I think that created the right call.

GRADY LITTLE: For a couple of reasons. Because the matchup of Nixon against the guy earlier in the game wasn't going to happen. It was going to be Nixon against Rincon. And once we got a runner to first base, we decided we would bunt the guy over to second base. That didn't happen, but that was our intention.

GRADY LITTLE: Anything I may say may understate his feelings about the way things transpired in the last inning. It certainly looks like he's comfortable enough at the plate to be in there tomorrow, and he'll be in there tomorrow and hopefully he'll be alright.

GRADY LITTLE: I hope so. There were key at-bats in the ballgame tonight that we weren't getting anything done. Hopefully they can get something going tomorrow and hopefully this home run by Trot will do just that.