AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v TWINS

October 13, 2002

Ron Gardenhire

RON GARDENHIRE: Where the hell's everybody at? Must be watching the celebration. Couldn't stop them today. Just got down to that. They're on a roll. We threw everything we had at them. We took a lead and feel pretty good about it. Those guys are, they just keep playing. And they keep swinging, and goodness gracious, I don't know I've ever seen an inning like that. We couldn't get anybody out. They were hitting balls through holes, over, bullets. You tip your hat to those guys. They were playing the game. They were really getting after it. We played pretty hard and we did it all year long like that. But they're playing the game over there. That's a great baseball team. I tip my hat to Mike and his staff. Great job.

RON GARDENHIRE: Well, I said a long time ago, when the Oakland A's ran off 20 games in a row and when they got finished with their 20-game streak and these guys were, what, two games out, that these guys were for real. They could play the game. They've chased them all year long, never gave up. That's a great baseball team right there. You compare them to all the other lions and tigers in this game, they've got big hearts, never stop playing. They've got some great players over there, big clutch hitters and they've got some big-game pitchers and they've got a bullpen second to none.

RON GARDENHIRE: We were pretty fired up. We said we wanted to get this thing back to the Metrodome. We put on a good burst against that Rodriguez kid out there throwing darts, we got some runs and we got a lead. Unfortunately for us, we just couldn't hold them. We couldn't stop them, no matter who we put out there, we could not stop them. Everybody that went in there gave up hits and runs, that's just not been us all year. We pitched pretty good out of the bullpen but we couldn't stop these guys.

RON GARDENHIRE: Johan, 1-2 pitch, really a hanging slider. He whacked it. He whacked the ball all day. You tip your hat to a guy that had a great day. That's what it's all about, guys having great days. He had a great day against us. We made some bad pitches, he did what you're supposed to with them.

RON GARDENHIRE: It was tough, it was a tough moment. We just took a lead and then, boom, they came right back and got it. We couldn't stop them after that either. They whacked everything we threw up there. That was a long inning. Long inning, you couldn't do anything. You just had to sit there and watch.