AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

October 1, 2002

Art Howe

ART HOWE: I just thought he wasn't as sharp as he could be, a couple of home runs, that's not healthy and I wanted to get him a win, and we had our left-handers ready to come in, and it just didn't work out the way we wanted it to. They bunched a few hits together right after he left the game and that was it. Their bullpen did a heck of a job keeping us from getting on the board. We scored in the first two innings and didn't get anything after that.

ART HOWE: Because it was only the sixth inning.

ART HOWE: Not against a left hander, no.

ART HOWE: Well, you know, last year we won the first game and ended up losing; the year before we won the first game and ended up losing; so hopefully we can bounce back together and get that one, and hopefully we can go in tomorrow in Minnesota (Inaudible) but tomorrow is a big game.

ART HOWE: Well, it obviously limits our right-handed bats, so it's a shame, too, a foul ball on top of it. But, you know, he was hustling down the line, he said he felt something pop and it was his achilles.

ART HOWE: I said it was going to be a good series, tough series. They have got a good club, as they showed today, so we have to bounce back tomorrow.

ART HOWE: Yeah, I mean, actually, what we have gone through the last two years should show us that this isn't the end of the road, so you obviously want to get the first game of any series, and we didn't get it today, but we battled and we will be back tomorrow.

ART HOWE: Well, I think ESPN picked the Twins, so I don't know if that's true or not.

ART HOWE: That's very important. We call those momentum innings where you can go out and get runs on the board. We always want our pitcher to be able to go out and put a 0 out and keep the momentum on our dugout, but they came back and got the two-run homer by Koskie, and that gave them some momentum, and they kept taking a bite here and there until they got the lead and they made it stand up.

ART HOWE: It's unusual for him to give up homeruns so obviously getting the ball up a little bit more than he usually does. But he battled, he came out of the game with a lead.

ART HOWE: Who knows?

ART HOWE: No, I don't think so. The fans that were here were very supportive and that's what counts.

ART HOWE: They are teed off.

ART HOWE: Well, I could see that it was going to come into play. I don't know how much it really affected the hitters because -- but I could see the eight and ninth innings were going to be affected by the shadows, and I was hoping we could get some runs before that took place.

ART HOWE: No, I mean, we lost a game that we had the lead, and normally we do a pretty good job of holding leads, and just have to get the momentum back over our way.