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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: TIGERS v ATHLETICS

October 11, 2006

Jim Leyland

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

JIM LEYLAND: Before any questions, if I may, on behalf of the entire Tigers organization and this particular team, we would like to send our deepest sympathy to the wife and the son of Cory Lidle, to the Yankee family. Three days ago Cory Lidle was an opponent. But all of us in baseball lost a good teammate. So we send our deepest sympathy out to the family.
Thank you.

Q. This looks like one of the situations where you're getting contributions from people you have to get contributions from. Gomez comes in at DH, hits the homerun; Zumaya, Fernando Rodney strikes out the side. Is that what's going on here?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, you just do what you think -- you make up a lineup that you think gives you the best chance to win a particular game, and you use the guys when you think it's necessary. Before we even get into it, Joel Zumaya's forearm was a little tight and I chose not to use him tonight, and that's why you didn't see him.

Q. Gomez, you guys designated him twice. Can you just talk about how he got to this point and also your decision to put him in the lineup tonight?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I just thought that it might be a decent match-up. He's got big-time power. Unfortunately, he showed most of it in batting practice (laughter). But in fact, I guess I can kid about it now. I told him that it's a 5:00 game and that's when you hit your most homeruns normally, so I'm going to play you tonight (laughter). He came through pretty big.

Q. Your lineup and pitching changes, were they distinctly based or gut feeling?
JIM LEYLAND: Not really. Like I say, with the absence of Zumaya tonight it turns things around. It's amazing if one guy is not available at a time like this what it can do. So I just tried to mix and match a little bit.
I probably should have got Ledezma and had Grilli face Bradley but he got two quick outs and we were a little short to start with, so I had to try to milk some outs. Like I say, you just do what you have to do.

Q. You don't like the momentum concept, but would you go as far as saying your team is on a roll here?
JIM LEYLAND: Not really. I think that we've won two games. That means there's potentially obviously five games left. Oakland is an outstanding road team. You know, I guess you find things to say when you're 0 and 2 and you find things to say when you're 2 and 0.
But to me, the reality is we play on Friday night in Detroit and it'll be a whole new chapter, because the playoffs are a whole new chapter each and every game. That's the way it is.

Q. This was an example tonight of Verlander not having command but having good enough stuff to get him through five innings, but was it because of Zumaya that you didn't pull him after five?
JIM LEYLAND: I didn't pull him because I thought he had good stuff, and it's hard to take somebody out that has that kind of stuff. It's always easy to say, Put somebody in, but one of the keys in baseball is the guy you're putting in better than the guy you're taking out, and that's what managing is a lot of times.
I felt that he was real good, and I thought he did a good job. He left a couple pitches in bad zones, but hey, that's just part of the game. I think we have a tendency to focus only on when somebody hits a homerun or something was a bad pitch.
There was a lot of pitches thrown down the middle of the plate each and every night if you watch the television. Guys pop up or they ground out to short. I don't really worry too much about that stuff.

Q. You got the six straight strikeouts from your bullpen and then they load the bases out with singles. Can you just describe your thoughts with Jones against Thomas there at the end?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, it wasn't a very good feeling, I can tell you that. It was a real bad feeling. This is what the Oakland A's are all about. They're going to play hard. They're a meat and potatoes team, and that's what we are.
Kendall battled and put one in there and Kotsay battled and put one in there, then Bradley actually got jammed, I think, but he was battling. He had a great night.
We were fortunate that we just got the ball up in the air and we kept it up in the park, because we were obviously very nervous about Frank Thomas at all times, particularly in that situation.
To be honest with you, there's a dramatic grand slam that goes through your mind when you're sitting there, and I'm not going to lie about that. It certainly went through my mind.

Q. Your decisions with Kenny Rogers, not pitching him tonight and then going with Gomez, is there a point where managers -- you've been in the game quite a while -- stop worrying about being second-guessed?
JIM LEYLAND: I think it's healthy for people to be talking about baseball, and I think it's healthy for people to be questioning managers' decisions and stuff. When fans call into talk shows and stuff, most of them don't know what they're talking about.
But to be honest with you, I don't really mind it, because it's better that they're doing that than not talking baseball. This is the national past time, and I can live with that. I'm going to make my decisions. I've always said I manage for the fans, I don't manage with them. When you take a position like that, you're always subject to second-guessing, that type of thing.
But if the guy in section 207 knows more about my team than I do, then he should be managing and I should be sitting in 207 (laughter).

End of FastScripts...

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