MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 22, 1997

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: No. We came out and played great tonight. And the thing that we did tonight is we maintained it from the first pitch on. Last night we had a little bit of a lull and allowed the Marlins back in the ballgame and it cost us. You don't do that with good ball clubs.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, the one think that Matt did from day one consistently well all year long is played defense. And I think that if you go back and look at the early part of the season, maybe the first half of the season when Matt was struggling offensively or he was very inconsistent offensively, the one thing he did, he caught the ball and saved a lot of runs. For every run that he drove in I guarantee that he saved two with his glove. And that meant a lot to our ball club, it meant a lot to our pitching staff.

MIKE HARGROVE: I'd have to give him an A. He was behind a lot of hitters, he walked a lot of hitters than we're used to seeing him walk. His change up was not a good pitch, Daulton hit the double, and hung a 2-seam fastball for the two-run homerun that he hit. But other than that he did his job, and kept us in the game. I think he had 102, 103 pitches, somewhere in there, which was good and he did his job, he got us through the 6th inning.

MIKE HARGROVE: I think being able to -- I think the biggest boost to this whole thing was the game he pitched against the Yankees in New York, obviously. That was the make or break game for him and us. We took a gamble and ran him out there and believed in his stuff and his ability to command his stuff in tough situations, and he proved us right. The learning curve, you find kids that have been around the game all their life like he has with his fear, Clyde, and you add to that the talent he has, and the good ones, they learn very quickly. And they're not intimidated or awestruck by the Big League game. And I think that's what we're seeing in Jaret right now.

MIKE HARGROVE: Jaret has pitched four times in the postseason ALCS, and has only had one rough outing and that was last night -- I said Jaret, I meant Brian. We've been having a little inconsistency trying to get to Assenmacher and Jackson. Brian has helped us bridge that gap, and that means a lot. You saw tonight, we were able to really, in effect, save our bullpen tonight because Brian was able to come in and pitch well for us. He's been a valuable addition to it and we're glad he's on our side.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, anytime you take two bats out of the line-up like Omar and you said Jimmy Thome, right?

MIKE HARGROVE: Your team is going to struggle a little bit. And Jimmy really the last probably four or five games has started to come around, his swing has gotten more firm, shorter, more exact, he's been attacking the ball, and I think we've seen him hit a couple of homeruns and drive the ball better than he has. Omar has just got to stay off certain pitches, if he does that and gets ahead in the count, then Omar is a very good hitter. He's like a lot of hitters, you get anxious sometimes and try to do a little more than you're capable of doing, and it cost him, and you get back to where you want to be.

MIKE HARGROVE: No, I didn't see any signs of nerves, other than mine. (Laughter.) And I have not seen Jaret act, as I said, intimidated or awestruck, afraid of any situation. Jaret is one of those special kind of people that can mask their emotions and the commercial that Dan Reeves did, don't let them see you sweat, he could do that, he's very good at that.