AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 10, 1998

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: I thought that he was very good. I don't know that he missed any spots all night long. It looked like he got a little tired in the 8th inning and Joe didn't mess around, got him out. He threw the ball well, made the pitches when he had to make them. Made some tough 3-2 pitches to get some of our big hitters out in some key situations. I thought he was very good tonight.

MIKE HARGROVE: The first one and the last one he faced had him 3-2, threw a change up, just missed it, hit it off the end of the bat, just missed it. He made his pitch then at the beginning of the 6th inning, I think it was a 3-1 -- got him up on a 3-2, change. Thrown a lot of fast balls on the same spot and came back threw a 3-2, change up. The ball was down and it was a good pitch.

MIKE HARGROVE: Sandy -- his back stiffened up on him tonight, had trouble swinging the bat. We'll know more tonight. I just got through talking to him and he sounded like he felt better, that's good. Wait until tomorrow.

MIKE HARGROVE: No, I didn't think that they were trying to hit everything out. I think it's a game -- as the game went along, we were less patient as far as the pitchers throwing strikes, getting the ball down in the strike zone. We swung at some bad pitches out in the zone. I didn't think that we were trying to hit everything out of the ballpark because of yesterday. We have some strong hitters and if they hit them in the air, they've got a chance to go. I just felt at times -- not the whole game, but I thought as the game went along and we got deeper into the ball game, we had some of our guys swing at pitches out of the zone and helped the pitcher out.

MIKE HARGROVE: When he first hit it, yeah, I did and then -- but it didn't take very long for me to, you know, realize that he hadn't hit it well.

MIKE HARGROVE: I thought Doc threw the ball well. I thought that he was around the strike zone, I felt that he pitched well enough to win. He held a very good line, 3 runs on 3 hits. So I thought Doc threw well. I've seen him better, I've seen Doc better, but Doc certainly threw well enough to win tonight. We just didn't get any offense started at all.

MIKE HARGROVE: He threw a lot of pitches early in the game and yes, it did. Had this been regular season, I might have gone with him a little longer tonight. But we had Dave Burba fresh and ready to go. I didn't want O'Neill facing Doc, a little tired, and we had Poole ready and did that and then brought Burba back. Accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, to keep the game at the score that it was at that time and Burba did an outstanding job as did Poole.

MIKE HARGROVE: I don't know that there's anything special about our team than the Yankees, two very good ball clubs that I think have a lot of tradition behind them right now and, you know, we come -- we come to play every day. That's -- we show up and we have an ability as do most people in baseball to be able to forget what happened yesterday and concentrate on what you're trying to get done today.

MIKE HARGROVE: He said that Kenny did not catch the ball, he said the ball hit his glove and went straight to the ground from his glove and I disagreed, but that's what he said he saw.

MIKE HARGROVE: No. I mean, we've -- everybody's got different mannerisms. Everybody has their own flair. We've got guys on our side that have a little bit of flair about them. That doesn't enter into anything. We look at him as a very good pitcher on a very good ball club that we have to -- tend to our business against and he -- I think the last time he threw, we got him. This time he got us. I thought both ball clubs had outstanding pitches. We had eight hits between two clubs. So I thought the pitching was very good tonight.