AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v YANKEES

October 8, 1999

Johny Oates

JOHNNY OATES: Yes: Yes. McLemore. The only decision would be I would expect -- well, McLemore, Pudge, Greer, Gonzalez, Palmeiro, and it would be tomorrow afternoon's decision to see whether Palmeiro plays first. DH, Palmeiro, Zeile, Clayton.

JOHNNY OATES: Certainly we know our back's to the wall. I think what we have to do is we have to focus on tomorrow's game only. We can't be thinking about trying to win three ball games. We have enough trouble winning one. That's all we're playing tomorrow, and we're going to be focused on winning one tomorrow. Certainly, the more you get beat, the more your confidence gets shattered. As long as I have been in this game I've come to learn that eventually the worm turns. May not turn on the day you want it to, but it does turn.

JOHNNY OATES: I tell you, I thought Andy threw as well as I've seen him throw in a long time the other night. We had him on the ropes a couple times, especially one time, and he was able to make all the pitches he wanted to make and get out of it. When you realize we've scored almost 950 runs this year, you know you've scored some runs against -- somewhere along the way you scored runs against good pitching. That's the disappointing thing. We feel we can score runs against anyone. We've pretty well been shut down now two or three years.

JOHNNY OATES: Well, he was certainly one of the two premiere starting pitchers that Doug and I talked at length about, trying to interest in coming here. And I think one day in New York, we were talking about players with presence. Roger Clemens has a presence about him when he walks on the field. Not only from a physical standpoint, but just Roger Clemens. There's a presence about him.

JOHNNY OATES: Not in New York. That's the only place we have been able to play postseason. We played like that there all summer. Got to find a way to get somewhere else.

JOHNNY OATES: Well, again, I'm sure John would do anything we asked him to do, and certainly, the last thing I'm going to do is ask John for 50 pitches when he hasn't thrown but about 30 all year. And certainly we've got no room for error tomorrow. And I don't know -- I try to use good common sense. No use to risk hurting him. It just comes down to common sense; how much do you want him to throw.

JOHNNY OATES: I don't know if that makes a difference tomorrow night. It's a different season. Again, any time Roger takes the mound, there's that possibility of that outstanding game; so we're going to have to be prepared and be ready.

JOHNNY OATES: I'm not sure Roger was 100 percent healthy that last time, first of all. And it was much like the ballgame I saw him pitch in Baltimore a few days ago. He struggled with his command. We got a couple hits early, a couple baserunners. We're drawing a fine line between our ballclub on patience and being tentative. I think we've got to -- we're the type club that does not go to taking pitches too many times. We get very tentative. That's the fine line we're trying to deal with right now. We chased some balls the other night out of the zone, counts that hurt us, but we were aggressive to get those guys on ways to begin with. We didn't get too many guys on that night when we tried to walk.

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