	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AL DIVISION SERIES: ATHLETICS v TWINS

October 4, 2006

Ron Gardenhire

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game Two

Q. Gardy, were you surprised to see Torii take that angle on that ball and make the play?
RON GARDENHIRE: Torii is just trying to make a play. He has played that way all year, and he is a Gold Glover, and when he goes after a baseball, I don't second-guess him, ever.
He is trying to make a play. It didn't work out. Seen a lot of funny things happen out there, inside the park, we haven't seen that, and like I said, Torii Hunter, he is a Gold Glover, he is just trying to make a play, second-guess, whatever you want to do. He is our leader and he just tried to make a play. That's the way I look at it.

Q. One of the trademarks in your offense is getting guys on base, moving them over, wreaking havoc that way, and that hasn't happened in the first few games. Do you want to talk about that?
RON GARDENHIRE: Well, they are pitching normally. I think if you have looked at it, their pitching is probably as good as anybody's. Loaiza is pretty good. He ended up giving up a couple homers to our big guys, I don't know, 6th, 7th inning, or something like that, but he was pretty effective and he is cutting the ball and sinking the ball away, and I think you have to look at their pitching staff more than anything else.
We have missed some opportunities. I think we are 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but this is a good pitching staff, and we are having a hard time right now driving in runs, and when we do hit it hard, so it's just not going our way, we have been backed into a corner, we know that, these guys won't quit, we are going to Oakland, we will have a day workout, and we will go back out there Friday and see what we can do.

Q. Is a tough to see your team losing post-season here at home -- seven straight playoff losses right now?
RON GARDENHIRE: Crazy, because we played so well at home during the course of the year, and like I said, right now we are just not making enough contact and driving in enough runs. Our pitcher is throwing the ball good, Boof threw the ball good, other than getting drilled in the calf, and that was pretty sore on him. He battled through it, gave us six solid innings. Our bullpen has been solid, they haven't given up anything.
They have given up a couple of runs here over the last couple ball games, that has not happened, so you are facing a very good baseball team. It's playoff baseball, anything can happen, and right now we have got to find a way to drive in some of these runs that we are missing these opportunities.

Q. Can you just describe your feelings and maybe the attitude of the ball club before the back-to-back homers in the 6th?
RON GARDENHIRE: We've been through this enough that we know we don't give up, we play nine innings, just like you saw, we had the men out there in the ninth inning, we had Joe Mauer on deck, always battling, never give up, that's the way it was today (inaudible), and the more he follows it up, and we feel like we are back into the ball game, and now we need a couple more things to happen, but we couldn't stop them.
They got a couple of hits when they had to, and in the playoffs, teams are here because they are resilient and they figure out ways to win.
Right now the Oakland A's have figured out a couple of ways to win. Now we have to try to do something a little better out there in Oakland.

Q. What do you expect Brad Radke's mood to be during Game 3?
RON GARDENHIRE: You are not going to get too much conversation out of him, but that's never changed in the 12 years that I have known him, throwing the baseball, he will be pretty stonefaced, focused and hopefully his arm and everything will be fine.
It is fine right now, and hopefully he will go out there and be able to get through this thing because if he throws it like last time, he will give us a good opportunity to win a baseball game, and that's what we are after.

Q. Just a comment on the team. Do you expect its demeanor to change at all now that you are in a must-win situation?
RON GARDENHIRE: Well, I think, like I said, we have been backed up before. We have been told "You are done" before. That's not something that this team takes too lightly. We will come out and battle. We will give them everything we can. And we got a lot left in this tank, and we will see what happens when we get to Oakland.
Our fans deserve that, and they expect that from this ball club, and that's what you will get, everything we have. If it's good enough, it's good enough. If it's not, then we will pack it up, but you are not going to see us pack it up until they get the final out, and we are hoping that doesn't come for three more days, and we get the final out.
The ball club is depressed a little bit, they are down a little bit, but we will find a way to get back up, we always do.

End of FastScripts...

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297