AL DIVISION SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEES

October 2, 2002

Mike Scioscia

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Before we get started, who would have brought Percival in last night (laughter)? Give me a show of hands. Everybody's hands got to go up! Okay, what do we got now?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, actually, I think we talked about it last night. I think, you know, eight hours last night tossing and turning, finally came to the conclusion, would have done the same thing. We're not a one-man bullpen, we're a bullpen that definitely has roles. I felt very comfortable about where we were at the game and who we had in the game and it didn't work. But, you know what, I've got a lot of confidence in those guys. We'll get it done.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think that, you know, you have to -- you have to do a lot of the same things that got you here, obviously. With each game being magnified because of -- it's a five-game season, there are going to be things you might consider doing that you might not have done in the regular season. And just referring to last night, obviously we considered bringing Troy in in the eighth inning. That's something we had only done four times during the season. We considered it, but after the matchups we thought we could get, that we thought we could have success with, we decided to go that route. But I do think that everything is magnified. You want to stay with the things that have gotten you here. But there are going to be times where, sure, you're going to have to step outside of what you might consider a comfort zone because of the playoffs or the situation.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: We're going to put as much emphasis on each game, one at a time, like we did during the season. We poured our hearts into last night's game, I thought we definitely played well enough to win. Didn't happen. But we brought our style of game to the field. We're focused on tonight. We're going to let you guys add them up at the end of the series and we'll go from there. That's been our philosophy all year and I don't think that's something we want to change. We're going to focus on tonight and we'll go from there.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think the more games, the better. I think you definitely -- you definitely, if you're the better team, have an advantage the more games you play. I think you should be rewarded if you're a fine team and you've played well through the whole season, which, virtually every team in a playoff is, obviously, a good team. A seven-game series is definitely probably a truer test of moving forward.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I think that would be part of the challenge, to see if there's enough pitching. That would be part of the challenge of getting through playoffs, is definitely pitching. I think it would definitely test the depth of a club more than a short series does. As you know, sometimes you can take out a couple weak links, not necessarily weak links, but you can put your best foot forward in a short series, definitely. In a longer series, it would be a truer test of the whole depth of a club and for playing as many games as you can.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, for the two times you were in Anaheim this year, after games that you came in, you probably noticed the same composure that we had (laughter). I'm not shocked at all with really the way our club responds. You know, every game at this time is a tough loss, you know. In the playoffs, you know, you're, you know -- there's no such thing as a loss that's easy. These are all tough losses. I think it's how you respond to them that's important. Our club will respond and play a good game. Last night, naturally it stung a little bit. Our club we're fine after the game, we're fine today. We'll be okay. I was just kidding, Bill (laughter). I see you writing a lot down there.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think the confidence is fine. It would have been nice to get an expanded win last night, as far as the way we were concerned about it. I think our confidence level is high. We're going to play our style of game. We feel it's good enough to win. Last night I don't think there's any moral victories in this, you know, in this quest. Although we played well and played well enough to win, the bottom line is we lost. The Yankees, they got it done when they had to. Moving forward to tonight, our confidence will be just as high and hopefully we're going to be able to even the series up this evening.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: On Friday.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, I think Ramon is a pitcher who is fearless on the mound and will challenge hitters. When you challenge hitters and hitters that can drive the ball out of the park, it's going to happen more often than a pitcher that might nibble a little bit. I don't think there's any need to change. He's been pitching terrific baseball, particularly the last five or six starts. So, no, he's gonna pitch his game and I'm confident he's going to put the ball where he needs to and give us a chance to win.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: That's big. I think that if you look at the defensive club that the Yankees put on the field, I think the way Bernie will come up and challenge and definitely, you know, Mondesi in rightfield, there's not a rightfield better at being able to deter a running game. We talk about running game, the best way to manufacture runs is going first to third on a base hit, undoubtedly. Or scoring on a double that is maybe, you know, down the line that is questionable, a player could score. We've been outstanding at that this year. With Mondesi in rightfield, it's definitely a challenge. He can -- he puts another thought in your mind. He's been tremendous at it his whole career, and he hasn't lost anything.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Not at all. If it is, that's fine. I think when you're making decisions and you're making decisions that could affect a club who wins -- if it wins or not, that's part of this position. I'll talk about this all winter if you guys want to keep calling my home; I don't care. I'm satisfied with the decision-making process we went through. I'm, you know, although the results weren't what we looked at, if you guys want to talk about this for as long as you want to, I'm available. I have no problem with it. I think that if we had made decisions last night without considering some of the options that you had talked about, then I think that we would have been short in what we were doing. But there was some reasoning behind what we did, a lot of you in this room don't agree with it. That's baseball and it's beautiful. I have no problem with that at all. I don't think there's anything that's going to take the focus off of how hard our club has played and the way they go about their business. I think that if you guys really have seen our club and know how hard we played, that these players have played too hard for the focus to be on anything else but what a tremendous effort they've given.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: That's instinctive. Obviously, you're going to give your best opportunity to get some wood on the ball on a hit and run. The tough thing is, on a pitch-out, you have to really balance stepping across the plate where you're out and trying to distract the catcher any way you can or try to get wood on the ball. He did it all. He managed to foul off a pitch-out that I don't know if -- I haven't seen the replay of it. Maybe it wasn't far enough out, obviously, if he got a chance to get it. But that's all Eck, that's instinctive. That's one of the little things that guys that have seen him play day in and day out understand he does. He's an incredible player, and he, you know, that's just an indication of the little things that he does that helps you win a game, or keeps your offense going. Because a couple pitches later, we have first and third, where it could have been a runner thrown out at second and Eck's up there with two strikes.