AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ATHLETICS

October 5, 2003

Grady Little

GRADY LITTLE: I can't think of any better time to do that than when he just did. He's been in slumps before this year. He's come out with some big hits at the right time for the Boston Red Sox. That's what makes him so special.

GRADY LITTLE: Last night when BK got up to warm up, he had stiffness in his shoulder, and today it continued on. So that's the reason.

GRADY LITTLE: Scotty was outstanding, as he has been the last four or five outings. He joined our ball club at the trade deadline. He had his struggles, but he got comfortable, got familiar with the setting here, and he's been outstanding for us. He is surely capable of that.

GRADY LITTLE: Personally, I think it's good pitching. The other ball club had a good plan coming into this series. I'm sure they said the same things in their meetings as we did in ours. They had a couple of guys on our ball club they didn't want to beat them, and they've done a good job of that not taking place until this evening.

GRADY LITTLE: I couldn't think of a better time for that to happen because the clock was running out on the Sox there, and that was a good time for them to bust loose.

GRADY LITTLE: Check with my wife. I make a lot of statements, and some I feel good about later on and some of them I don't. It's good to see this ball club. They deserve everything they get. This ball club, the fans of Boston, they just keep grinding all the way to the last out. And we've had some players come through for us this year, day after day, and they continue to do that. And we feel we have a chance. As long as we have a uniform on and they have a schedule for us telling us there is another game, we feel like we have a chance.

GRADY LITTLE: It should be a good game. We like the guy we have got on the mound. Like I said before the game, we had one team in one clubhouse that was kind of dreading the trip across the country, and people in our clubhouse looking forward to it. So here we go.