MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 23, 1997

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: No, he had gotten Alou out the last time he faced him, he was pitching well there. In the 6th inning, there's no reason to believe that he was going to hit the wall and lose his stuff. He gave no indication, still throwing the ball well, had a relatively easy 4th and 5th inning, and really pitched well into the 6th, just hung a slider to Alou.

MIKE HARGROVE: I think that he just -- he hung a slider to Alou, and hit the ball out. And after that I think it just took a little bit out of him.

MIKE HARGROVE: No, you are disappointed, but we still have baseball to play. I think it gave a boost to Hershiser. He started throwing a lot more strikes after that than he had up to that point.

MIKE HARGROVE: He started throwing more breaking balls as the night went on, and started throwing them more for strikes, and when Alou hit the homerun, he really found himself. I thought it gave him a boost.

MIKE HARGROVE: Alou is susceptible, from what our reports have said to breaking balls. He's not as good a breaking-ball hitter as he is a fastball hitter. Everybody we've talked to has told us that Moises Alou is a very good fastball hitter, so obviously you try to stay away from throwing fast balls to him. And in both cases in Florida we hit the homerun. He hit a decent pitch there, it looked like, but tonight he hit a hanger and hit it about 580 feet. It was not cheap, and you run the risk with people like that. That's where they make their bread and butter, you hang something and they'll cripple shoe you and that's what he did.

MIKE HARGROVE: We've certainly been in this position before this one. And this year. And so we -- this team has faced a lot of adversity throughout the year and in the postseason has come out playing hard when we have. So I expect nothing less from our ball club. We'll go to Florida and hopefully win Game 6 and take it to Game 7 and see what happens.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, it is frustrating in that you lose the game. It makes you feel very good about your ball club that they don't quit, they don't turn over and die. And I think it also makes you feel very confident in your ability to be able to come back. It's something we really had not done all year long, we really started doing that the last part of September and in the postseason. It's frustrating that you lose. It's not ever frustrating by how much you lose.