AL DIVISION SERIES: INDIANS v MARINERS

October 14, 2001

Charlie Manuel

CHARLIE MANUEL: I think it depends on -- if the game starts, how far Colon would go in the game. If I had to use Burba as my long man today that, would definitely set me back for tomorrow.

CHARLIE MANUEL: We were planning on sending him there and we still might, but at the same time, we talked about it, but at the same time when you look at the scheduling of the games, like one time we had three different scenarios on the game, 1 o'clock, 4:05 and night, so right now, Finley is still here. Basically if something happened and we had to go to Seattle, he would probably go with us tonight on the plane.

CHARLIE MANUEL: I manage every day like there's no tomorrow. So it makes no difference. I manage every day to win the game and I'm going to manage today to win a game and hopefully I'm not even going to try to think about going to Seattle tomorrow. When we go out there to play, whether it's any time, I want to just concentrate on winning the game.

CHARLIE MANUEL: I think he's done very good against us. I think at the same time, somewhere along the line, we're due to hit him. He's going to pitch the same game. Moyer, he's definitely a pro at what he does. He can change his speeds on his ball real good and he keeps us off balance and he's had some good success against us this year. Our right-handed hitters try to hit the ball to right field. We try to stay back, but he still throws a good ballgame. If it were for us to beat Moyer, we have to score some runs against him and that's been hard for us. But somewhere down the line, we've got a good lineup and hopefully if we face him again, we'll hit him.

CHARLIE MANUEL: Yeah, I think we could. I think sometimes when you score a lot of runs it carries over the following day or it will carry over for three or four days. I think we've had some great offensive teams around here and I think sometimes we overlook the fact that like when you get six or seven guys hitting in your lineup, usually you are going to win the game. Usually that's kind of hard to do. A lot of the times the bottom of the lineup will knock runs in or sometimes the top of the order. But when you get everybody hitting, then you're looking. So hopefully if we can keep people hitting like we did yesterday, I think we can win a few more games, yes.

CHARLIE MANUEL: Again, Moyer is the kind of guy, that like I put him in Jimmy Key's class; he's been out of the game a while. He's a unique kind of left-handed pitcher as far as his stuff. His highest fastball in the game might go 86 or 88, and a lot of times he's around 81 or 83, but he changes the speeds of his pitches, throws outside of the plate and he's very gutty. Compared to somebody whose faced us before, that's hard because he's different from anybody we faced this year. A lot of times when a pitcher -- we have trouble at times when it's the first time a guy will throw against us, but outside of that, Moyer he's kind of in a class by himself when it comes to his style.

CHARLIE MANUEL: You've got to really wait and you can't try to swing hard at him and pull off the ball. At the same time, like he'll set you up, like if he throws you a fastball at 83, he'll come back at 85, 81, if he doubled up on a pitch; he never throws the same speed on his breaking ball. And his changeup; he throws to both sides of the plate and he has tremendous control. If you start swinging at him, he'll start expanding the zone and he'll start taking you in and out. That will really get you in trouble. You've got to have patience, but at the same time to me you've got to try to hit him in the middle of the field or basically the other way.

CHARLIE MANUEL: The only two guys I could take out would be Lofton and Thome. And I think Thome, definitely he can hit Moyer. He's a threat every time he goes to the plate. I think Mr. Moyer threw him some fastballs and struck him out a couple times but at the same time that's about the only two guys I could change in my lineup.

CHARLIE MANUEL: If you notice, Kenny, he's been hurting the ball. He's been going more the other way. He's a line drive hitter when he hits the ball to left-center, right-center, stays in the middle of the field; that's the kind of hitter he is and sometimes he'll overswing and hit a lot of fly balls and as long as he thinks line drive or hits the ball through the middle of the diamond, he becomes a big factor and any time he gets on base -- and he's probably walked less than he has in the past but at times been a tremendous lead-off hitter. Whether he gets on base for us, whether by a walk or a hit, it's a great asset. He hits some balls -- first pitch of the game was fouled by a foot, would have been a double, just kind of the way his season has gone for him. Hit a couple balls to left field the last couple days, line drives right at the left fielder. I looked at Buhner yesterday and I thought sooner or the later in the game, Kenny would hit the ball over his head and he ended up hitting a line drive to him and that's the way his season has been going. But when he gets on base we can definitely score some runs.

CHARLIE MANUEL: I think today's game, I think it's very important that we get a couple runs ahead; I'd like Bartolo to work with a lead. I think if we can do that, I think he'll throw a good game for us. As a matter of fact, I think Garcia will be the same way. Today's game, whoever breaks out on top, especially if you can get a two- or three-run lead early, I think the starting pitching, either one of them will settle in and pitch a big game. If we can get some runs early, I think Colon will throw a heck of a game.

CHARLIE MANUEL: When the game starts, he's got to have command of his pitches. Only thing the other day that got Finley in trouble was he fell behind and he threw a lot of fastballs early, but he made mistakes with them he got them on the plate. Like the one to Cameron, instead of getting inside, the ball got on the big part of the plate. And the ball to Martinez was kind of a fastball that looked like it was about just -- just about thigh-high and like in the middle of the plate, and he just -- his command has got to be sharp. His command has got to be better than that. He made some mistakes early and that hurt him.

CHARLIE MANUEL: I've known Lou a long time. Matter of fact, Lou and I started -- we broke in probably the same time. We played instructional ball in 1964. He's a tremendous baseball guy, I have a lot of respect for Lou, and really I love managing against Lou. But at the same time, we don't want to make the trip to Seattle.