AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

October 1, 2002

A.J. Pierzynski

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: I don't really have a hitting style. You watched me all year. I try to battle and put the bat on the ball, and Hudson threw me some nasty pitches to me, and he was throwing me splits and cutters, and I got one over (Inaudible) head and actually got one over Cuddyer's head, but that's the way I hit. And people laugh about it all the time, and that's just me, I don't have the prettiest hit, I can't hit the ball like Torii 500 feet or Koskie, and these guys, I got to battle and get them any way I can. Oh, yeah. It was funny, we were talking about the grass before the game last night at the workout, how fast it is. It's like playing on concrete. It's incredible how fast it is, and it's almost faster than the turf in the Metrodome, and I hit that ball hard up the middle and (Inaudible) was -- he was shaded over, and hit it right in the perfect spot, him and Jermaine couldn't get to it with the way the grass is and it ended up being a big run in the game.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: Chaos?

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: Yes.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: We didn't really talk about it, we just said, 'Let's keep playing.' We have been behind before. It's one of those things where we don't really quit ever, and we didn't think -- we couldn't play any worse than what we did in the first two innings, it was really ugly, the pop-ups dropping and the throws going anywhere, and that's not the way we play. We play hard, we battle, and shoot, I mean, we got hits when we needed them today. We got a chance to score. Give the A's some credit, they got out of some jams. We had chances to hit some big runs. Hudson got a double play, struck some guys out, and we don't quit, and that's been our story for the last couple years here.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: I wouldn't say I was surprised, I was more disappointed than anything. That's not our game at all, and everyone knows we play defense and that's what we are built on, and I will take credit, I messed up a couple plays. It was just -- I think we were too excited, everyone was trying to do too much, and I tried to make a tag when I should have just caught the ball, the pop-up in the inning, (Inaudible) single that scored a run, we all looked at each other, no one wanted to catch it, or we all wanted to catch it, it's just not the way we play, we are very fundamentally sound, and after that I think we were pretty good, made some very good defensive plays.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: I was surprised, first of all, they took him out of the game. I thought he was throwing well, and I hadn't exactly hit the cover off the ball the first two at-bats, but it was one of those decisions where Lilly is their guy. We haven't hit anything off Lilly this year. I know he pitched against us in New York a couple times, and beat us up pretty good, and I never faced him, I went up there, and he threw me a slider first pitch, and I took it, and I just happened to hit left field for a base hit, and Jacque got the double off the left-field wall. I was basically laughing. There was a couple hecklers behind me, and they were telling me how bad I was, so I was kind of thinking about that, I wasn't really thinking about too much.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: I don't know whose ball that was. Gardy (Ron Gardenhire) maybe can explain a little better, but Doug was playing back with two outs, Koskie was back, it was one of those things where it's almost that you don't want to have Brad catch a pop-up, but it's almost his ball because the wind was blowing the ball away from me, and those two guys couldn't get it, and it just fell in the perfect spot. Looking back, I maybe could have let it bounce, but it bounced right into my chest so I couldn't go anywhere, and it was just meant to be a base hit. I mean, I have had a couple of those this year in the dome so I am sure we are disappointed in that, but at the same time, we are happy that we won.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: It was just one of those things where we wanted Eddie to try to get some rhythm, he was kind of walking around and throwing the ball into his glove, and he was frustrated a little bit, and they sent it to us more than one time, a couple times off Eddie, our guy, and my heart was pounding, I am sure Eddie's was, and I know Mike Herman came up to me after the game and said "My heart was jumping out of my chest." It was nerve wracking, dead quiet, two outs and nobody on, too, pretty loud in that place, everybody on their feet, especially 3 and 2, but Eddie made the pitch like he has done all year.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: It was funny. The wind was kind of playing with the ball a little bit. He had a nasty cutter today, and he was getting in on some of the left-handed hitters, and I know a couple of them, that's what it was, and he does a good change-up, and these new maple bats, they shatter. I know with the best of them, if you don't hit them square they break pretty good, and I know Terrence Long, I think, had four broken bats today, so I don't know. I don't know why.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: I think so, it's tough to see here in the day anyway, and when the shadow gets between home plate and the pitchers mound, especially like a guy like (inaudible), the ball sinks really hard, (Inaudible) slider that a lot of times he will hit and hit it a long way, but I don't think he saw it too well, and he struck him out, and give credit to our guys, they got Chavez out a couple times, they are two big guns, and luckily we got them out at the right time today.

A. J. PIERZYNSKI: First of all, when we were down 3 to nothing, the biggest hit of the game was Torii Hunter leading off with a double, that was huge, gave us some light, they go down 5 to 1, I think Koskie hit a homerun, two-run homer, after Guzy got an infield hit, he ran the ball out and Koskie hit the home run, and that really gave us life and got us back in the game, and it was one of those things where we didn't want to quit, and Gardy was all over us, don't quit, play the game hard, things will work out and we relaxed. When Koskie hit the homerun it calmed us down and got us where we wanted to be, and Doug hit the big homerun and I couldn't be happier for Doug to see him run the bases.