AL DIVISION SERIES: INDIANS v MARINERS

October 14, 2001

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: Well, he's hit close to .450 all year with men in scoring position. You know he's going to make good contact. You've got 244 hits during the regular season -- he's had, what, I think ten in the playoffs now. So, the answer is yes.

LOU PINIELLA: We hit some balls off him early and Cleveland made some fine defensive plays, and at the same time he made some good pitches when he had to. But we finally put the game in motion there in the seventh inning, and got a rally going, and then he threw a ball away in centerfield, and then the base on balls and then we got some good hitting afterwards. But, you know, he's tough. He's pitched well against us all year. He's pitched against our team four times this year, and every time, he's been tough.

LOU PINIELLA: Pitched very well. We were expecting a good game from him. This young man over the past few years has developed into a top-notch Major League starter. Today, he went out and he gave up that solo home run to Gonzalez early in the ballgame, and just settled down and pitched an outstanding six-plus innings for us.

LOU PINIELLA: You know, it's a good matchup tomorrow, really. Two good, solid, Major League veteran pitchers, both left-handers. You know, after we got to Finley early in the ballgame, he settled down and pitched well. You know, we are expecting a good ballgame, but we are very happy to be going back to Seattle, obviously, and have a chance to advance to the second round in front of our home crowd. We're going to have to hit a little bit, and at the same time, Moyer is going to have to pitch well for us.

LOU PINIELLA: No. I was asking the umpire who made the call that he had swung. The catcher didn't know to throw the ball to first base, and that was my argument, and evidently, Eddie over at first base had called the swing and I had not seen it. But I was just looking at Rick Reed behind the plate; I wasn't looking at the first base umpire.

LOU PINIELLA: That's what I said after the ballgame yesterday. The silver lining on yesterday's game was the fact that our bullpen, our short people were really rested and ready to go. If we were going to lose yesterday, the way we did was better than losing 4-3 in 13 innings and having to use all your short people. So, tomorrow, basically, Nelson pitched a few hitters, Rhodes pitched an inning and a third, and Sasaki, so everybody is available, plus we've got Charlton. So our bullpen will be in good shape tomorrow.

LOU PINIELLA: Our club has been relaxed all year. It's a veteran ballclub. You know, we bounced back from adversity this summer many times, losing the first game of a series and come out and play. We're not going to tense up. We are not going to lose because of the pressure. If we lose, it's because the other team just outplayed us, and that's been our philosophy all year. We go out there, we play hard, we play aggressive, we play loose, we take some chances from time to time, and let it go. Tomorrow, we'll play the same. But our objective, certainly was to take it back to Seattle. Now, we have, and hopefully, we can get the job done at home tomorrow. We'll have our crowd into the game. It will be a raucous crowd in Seattle, it will be loud. Let's just hope we can score some runs early in the ballgame and get the crowd behind us.

LOU PINIELLA: We've had some good two-out hitting many times during the course of this year. Today really was no exception. Yeah, you've got to be patient. In a short series, boy, when they don't come, you get behind the eight ball really quick. They have come all year at opportune times, and today they did, also.

LOU PINIELLA: It's not do-or-die, no. I said yesterday that we had to win today; if not, we go home. For certain, one of the two teams is going home tomorrow and hopefully we are the one that stays out on top and continues forward. But, it's not do-or-die. It's a game. It really is. And both teams are going to go out there and play their hearts out. But it's not a do-or-die situation.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, he knows how to play. He's got great instincts. He's very disciplined. He goes through the same routine. He's got really good instincts running the bases, good instincts on the outfield. I told his manager when I saw him in Seattle that they had done an outstanding job with this young man on fundamentals, on instincts. A lot of it is innate, but certainly, some of it had to have been taught. They teach the game well in Japan from a fundamental standpoint.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, you look up there and know that from the fifth inning on, you've got 12 outs and then nine outs and then six outs. Yeah, you're hoping that they are pushing runs across. I guess as a manager, you pace a little more. But, listen, our guys will go out there and play hard every day. And all you can do is when they give you their best, that's all you can expect. But, yeah, when you know that you need to score and if not, you've got some problems. I don't know about tension. I think it's fun. I really do. I mean, that's what you play for all year long. That's what you work for in spring training, to get to these type of situations. The sad part about it is that only one of the two teams can win. But that's the way it's going to be until everybody is eliminated except for one team that wins the world championship.

LOU PINIELLA: We had confidence. We had confidence that we would come out here and play a good ballgame; that Freddy would give us a chance to win. We felt good about our chances, we really did. But, you never know. You can talk about it. You've still got to get it done on the field, and that's what we did, which is more important.