MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 25, 1997

Jim Leyland

JIM LEYLAND: Ogea hurt him offensively. He wasn't great, but it was kind of a freak game for him, really. They just -- I think tonight's game I thought Cleveland played almost a perfect ballgame, in fact they probably did. They got some contributions from down there low, like Ogea getting a big hit, but I thought they moved their runner, they hit the sack fly, Vizquel made a great play on CJ, it was really a good ballgame. We had our chances, we didn't capitalize, but we hit quite a few balls good, I thought, in the ballgame. It's one of those freak games where Brown certainly wasn't bad, but when you're down 4-0 in the 5th, in this League, as you know, you've got to pinch-hit, that's one of the differences in this and the American League. If we're under the DH rules in this game, I would have left Brown in the ballgame.

JIM LEYLAND: I think we talked about that a couple of games that were tough in the weather. Renteria made a great play, Vizquel made a great play. He's been impressive, I haven't seen much of him, but it was a great play. That's also one of those where the one guy that hit it is the one guy that couldn't beat it out.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't think so. I think his leg, it's there, but I think if you saw that one play he made tonight, he made a great play, and I don't think he showed any signs of the leg bothering him.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, he got some hits in Cleveland, he got some pitches. That just depends on how they feel in a particular game, and there have been a lot of games this year, that you could tell the other team made up their mind that he was a guy they weren't going to give anything to hit or let him hurt you. And he's the guy in our line-up, he got some up in Cleveland and hit them pretty good, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I feel good, we're going to seven games in the World Series. And there's nothing wrong with that, in fact that's probably the way it should be. So we need a good performance for Al. I have confidence. He won, I think, 16 ballgames for us last year, hasn't been obviously quite as good this year, but he's a veteran guy and I feel fine.

JIM LEYLAND: That's a good question, and to be honest with you I didn't talk about him tonight, and I'd like to talk about him. I thought we'd have a better chance this time, and he was very impressive. He changed speeds with his pitches, it looked like he got a little tired, obviously, and Mike knew that and made a good move because we felt like we were close, but Mike was on top of that and got him out of there. But I thought he spotted the ball well and he changed speeds, and I was very impressed with him in Game 1 and I was a little concerned about it tonight, to be honest with you, not just because he got the hits, but when you see him swing the bat, it looks like he's had a bat in his hand for a while, not whether he's going to get a hit or not, but he's aggressive, diving out over the plate, like a regular hitter, even though he's not a classical regular hitter, he's an athlete, I was very impressed.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think that's possible, but I think guys on both teams are tired this year. I don't know, it's the 208th game we played. I think everyone is a little tired, but you've got pretty good adrenaline flowing now. The bad part was Brown had good stuff about it. That's the sad part about it. It was one of those freak games, if we were under the DH rules in this particular game he'd have still been out there. Like I told you before, 4-0 down, I've got to hit for him.

JIM LEYLAND: I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow that I do all year, I'm going to do whatever I think it takes to win the game. So whatever the situation dictates that's what I'm going to do. I thought our bullpen did a great job tonight, nobody got overworked, although I'm a little concerned about Felix, because he had the adrenaline flowing, to bring him back tomorrow, which I will, that bothers me a little bit, he was pumped up and did a fantastic job, as did the whole bullpen. We've still got Alfonseca and Cook totally fresh and Nen, and any of those could pitch an inning or so. At this point I think everybody will be ready.

JIM LEYLAND: I doubt it very much, you know possibly an inning in a total emergency, but I doubt it. He threw a lot of pitches over there. We'll see, but I'll have to sleep on that one.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't think anybody was really pressing. I think Bobby hit the ball hard his first time up, and he got under a couple of balls. I don't know that if he was trying to lift them or not, which is what usually happens when you are trying to hit. I'll have to look at the tape. But it didn't appear to me anybody was pressing. Like I said, this is one of those ballgames where you just tip your hat to the other team. I think they played a flawless game. They did an excellent job of situational hitting, no problem with that game. And that's one of those games to me where you tip your hat to the other team.