AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v INDIANS

October 10, 1999

Trot Nixon

TROT NIXON: Not that I can recall. It's exciting to be in this position. You know, this team has been through a lot this year. And we've gone out, played great baseball, won 94 games this year. It has been a roller coaster ride this year. It's been exciting. Here we are, we've battled back from two games down against a great team in Cleveland. Both teams are going to go out there and go to war in Game 5.

TROT NIXON: Well, you know, you get -- you build your confidence up a lot at the plate and so forth. We swung the bat really well tonight against a great pitching staff. You know, they have missed a few spots here and there, you know. That kind of stuff happens, and we just were able to put the bat on the ball and hit it hard, find the holes out there. Some days you face great pitching; some days, you know, they make a few mistakes and you're able to capitalize on it. So, you know, I'm sure Nagy's not going to make many mistakes tomorrow. It would be nice if he would a few times, but we know we're going to have to go to war against him because he's going to come with his best stuff.

TROT NIXON: Well, I thought he had his good stuff. He's throwing 95 to 100 miles an hour. Usually when a pitcher comes out throwing like that, he's got some good stuff. I think he missed a few spots here and there early in the game, got behind a few counts and had to throw strikes. When he was throwing strikes, he was getting the ball over the plate a little too much. That's what he did against me. I let him supply the power tonight, just put the bat on the ball with a guy like Bartolo. He's such an overpowering pitcher. You just let his power generate where the ball's going to go.

TROT NIXON: Yeah, you will. It's such a great team the Indians have over there, such a great pitching staff. It's one of those things, we came out swinging the bat, and, you know, they made some good pitches tonight. They made a few mistakes. We were able to hit both mistakes and good pitches, and Val had a great night tonight. I was just happy to be able to help the team score a few runs here and there. Everybody else, it seemed like it was a snowball effect. The hitting was contagious.

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