AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

October 6, 2002

A.J. Pierzynski

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: Tejada is one of those guys that gets the ball down, he will crush it, and Hawk came in, I don't know, they don't have the the radar gun here when Mulder pitches, I don't know why but (Inaudible) vouch for this, it was pretty hard, he was throwing probably 95, 96, and when he struck him out, I was pretty excited, I rolled the ball into center field, so that was a huge out at the time, the MVP, probably MVP up there, Hawk got him and, wow, what a finish. I mean, it was incredible.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: You are the man, Rosie. You know.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: I knew it was big because it gave us some cushion. We had been 2 to 1 for five, six innings, Eddie come in the game in a place where he he hasn't had a lot of success, I hate to say that, but we have been walked off the field here a couple times off these guys, and the biggest thing ended up being Ortiz with two out that scored, I think, Guzy, and that led to -- we both scored three in the ninth, and we just happened to be up by four, and I mean, wow, to have Denny Hocking catch the great out, what a great feeling for him, and guys on the mound, guys that have been here a long time and been through some bad seasons.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: Anaheim is a great team, they just beat the Yankees, the dragon, they slayed the big dragon, and they are on a roll. We haven't played them in a long time, since right after the break, they have Anderson, the guy who killed us the whole season. We have to find a way to pitch and play our game. We have to find a way -- I know they are going to probably throw Washburns [ph] at us pretty quick, we have to find a way to beat him, and it's going to be a real challenge. We get to go see the rally monkey; I love that thing.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: Contraction, as far as this team was concerned, it was a dead issue in spring training. First meeting of the year Ron Gardenhire said, "We are not going anywhere. There is no contraction. Let's play." In the off-season it was a big factor. The day Doug Mientkiewicz got his Golden Glove, Torii Hunter got his Golden Glove, we called both of them. I was with Doug that day, we went out for dinner to celebrate, called Torii, and he was like "I am going to win a Gold Glove and I am going to have to find a new team because we were not going to be here." But we are here, we have until 2006, I think that is what the bargaining agreement said, so we are not going anywhere for a few more years, at least.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: I mentioned to Rick Anderson, our pitching coach, it was disappointing to see. I don't know what the number was today, 31, 32,000.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: It was disappointing, especially in game 5 on a Sunday afternoon. I know the Raiders were playing, the 9ers were playing, and the Giants were playing, but you would think that they could hack it out, but they had those -- I don't know what they call them, those noisemaker things, they got pretty loud. It was crazy. It wasn't as loud as the dome. I don't think -- I have been to the Swamp, I have been to Knoxville, Tennessee, and watched football games, and I have never heard anything that was as loud as it was in the Metrodome. 56,000 strong. Hopefully, they will be there on Tuesday night.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: This whole team is a hero. This is the shirt that Jacque Jones made up for everyone about the beginning of September, gave them out to everybody, and it was just one of those things that we always talk about each day, someone stepping up and being the man, and today it was my turn to hit a homerun. It's been Jacque -- in game 1 it was Jacque who got the big hit, Doug yesterday, whoever it needed to be, Torii. Brad threw a great game twice, and it was just a different guy on this team a different night.

A.J. PIERZYNSKI: Everyone that's seen Brad pitch, you can see he doesn't show a lot of emotion. In the dugout he was like "Let's go, let's go, keep piling it on." Brad is a competitor, he will fight you, and he wants to win. I know he was nervous, he will never tell me he was nervous, but I was nervous. This was a game we had to win to keep playing and stay around. He threw incredible. He made one mistake and Ray Durham hit out of the park. Other than that, he was lights out. He didn't miss too many spots. He was keeping the ball down, and when they hit it, guys made great plays. The ball Guzy made on J.C.'s glove, that's one of the best plays I have ever seen.