AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 18, 2001

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: We're going to be back here to play Game 6, okay. I told the people outside the same thing. We are going to be back here to play Game 6. Now you can ask any questions you want.

LOU PINIELLA: I've got confidence in my baseball club. We've gone to New York and beat this baseball team five out of six times and we're going to do it again.

LOU PINIELLA: He's been pesky in this series, but he's a pro. But they are all pros over there. He has not been playing all that much and all of a sudden he gets in the lineup here in the post-season and he's been getting the job done, to his credit.

LOU PINIELLA: This looks like this guy makes his own rules. Call the guy into the ballgame, you throw one pitch and you come in. You don't throw four or five more pitches. But that didn't cost us the ballgame. Just gave me something to argue about.

LOU PINIELLA: Great play. Great play. He's been doing that all year.

LOU PINIELLA: You know, I could not tell if it was planned or not, but give the umpire credit. He was out in right centerfield where he should be, and I don't know if he made the right call or not, but he was in position to call it. And these guys have done a good job on this crew, so we've got no complaints.

LOU PINIELLA: Suzuki has hit over .400 with men in scoring position. I think that he made the right choice. Sometimes you've got to take chances, and he's been in these type of situations before and he's been victorious, so how can you question anything he does.

LOU PINIELLA: I wish we knew. I wish we knew. They have done it all year for us. But you know what, there's still time. We've got another five games to play.

LOU PINIELLA: Our pitchers are doing a good job. We've held this team to, what, seven runs in two ballgames, and that's pretty darned good. We just haven't put runs on the board. But, again, that can change. I've played on a championship team in New York -- or on a good ballclub in New York that won 103 games and we beat the Dodgers the first two ballgames, and they came back and beat us four in a row, so it can happen. You can start swinging the bat and get on a roll. It only takes one game.