AL DIVISION SERIES: INDIANS v MARINERS

October 12, 2001

Charlie Manuel

CHARLIE MANUEL: Yes, I think it can. They have not seen him. I think the type of pitcher that C.C. is, with his fastball, and I think his command is going to be the biggest thing. If he's getting his fastball over the plate and he can change speeds, I think that they have not seen him, he might be a little different to them. He's big, different, a big tall guy, looks big on the mound and he's deceptive. This may help him.

CHARLIE MANUEL: No, it was not intentional. It was just based on the way that our rotation fell.

CHARLIE MANUEL: Yes, if the sun is out and we've got shadows, without a doubt. You remember, '97 we played Baltimore, or '96. We had real bad shadows around home plate. Charles Nagy both had a lot of strikeouts and hitting in the game, it was minimum. There was not too many hits in the game. If we have shadows and sunshine, we have shadows across the field, that's kind of hard to see at times.

CHARLIE MANUEL: These guys are good hitters, sometimes when you run into good pitching, pitching will dominate for a while. But I look at it as each day is different and each game is different. It's just a matter of time until these guys hit. Hopefully, they will all start hitting at one time. Lofton, Vizquel, a lot of times. If Kenny is having a good game, Vizquel will have a good game. Gonzalez, any time someone is in scoring position he becomes a better hitter. Right now Jim Thome is struggling a little bit. I think you have to give the pitching some credit, but I think it's a matter of time before we get going and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

CHARLIE MANUEL: If you look at strikeout totals, especially yesterday when the bullpen came in and threw mostly fastballs, I look at the fact -- Moyer pitched three times against us this year and basically pitched the same kind of game so I can't say that the shadows had anything to do with him. But at the same time, I feel like both of those games it did play a part.

CHARLIE MANUEL: His composure, it's been a little bit better than I thought it was going to be, but I started noticing it in spring training and that's one reason why I fought to keep him on the team. I think the middle of the lineup was up and the bases were loaded and he got out of it and he kept his cool and I thought that was a big -- to me I thought that was real big for a kid this young. I felt like watching him during the season, he only gets better and he's a professional and he stays focused on what he's doing. He does keep his composure real well. I think that's a big part of his success is the fact that he doesn't let things bother him on the mound. He'll give up a home run and bounce right back and make some good pitches.

CHARLIE MANUEL: I think if we did not have Juan Gonzalez I don't think I would be sitting here talking to you today. He knocked in 140 runs this year and was a consistent hitter. From day one of the season he started hitting .350, ended up hitting .325. I think he got beat by Brett Boone by one RBI for the title and he played a big part in our success this year. He was everything that we thought he was going to be. He was everything he was in Texas. When I saw him in Texas, he did nothing but hit against us, and he's a better player than actually what I thought he was, as far as defensively, knowing how to play the game.