AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v ANGELS

October 10, 2005

Joe Torre

JOE TORRE: The result wasn't as bad as the pitching, I didn't think. Garret hit the hell out of the hall for the home run, but a lot of balls were not hit very hard. Certainly not crying about it. That's all about baseball. But I thought he made some good pitches and I just thought that, you know, they toughed it out. That's the thing about their ballclub, you know, pitches that you may have guys who are trying to hit home runs swing and miss at, they put in play. I didn't think Moose was bad. I thought he made good pitches and just the results weren't very good. The ball in right centerfield, you know, looked like both guys were there and there's not much that you can do about that. I'd rather have them both go there than look at each other. It's tough to hear anything, obviously, with the fans and everything.

JOE TORRE: You know, we're capable. The thing is, when you talk about our ballclub, it's always talking about the thumpers and all of the big things that we can do. I thought it was a good series. I thought both clubs played well for the most part. You know, obviously we needed to do that to keep them from going off somewhere because they are certainly capable of generating some offense when both Guerrero, for sure, and then Figgins could make so many things happen. But I'm not surprised we did it. I'm pleased we did it, I'm just not happy with the result.

JOE TORRE: I'm just terribly disappointed. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in the final score. I mean, I'm proud of the way our ballclub, and I've said this many times, especially over the last three or four weeks, how they have come together and put all egos aside and just played their asses off and played hard and never quit right to the end. Very unselfish, nobody looked for the spotlight. Everybody just played hard. It wasn't supposed to happen, evidently, but my feelings are deep disappointment. I don't remember being this disappointed because I wanted this very badly. I guess that's why you're in the game. You know, it's just, it's tough, it's tough. The emotions of the game and the reason you play it, I think were evident in this series, you just want to win badly, you're like a bunch of little boys out there playing the game and when you have to go home, it's tough to take.

JOE TORRE: We had some chances. I can't say I'm surprised. We know he has ability and he's inexperienced. You know, we had opportunities and he made pitches to get us out. You know, the play where Cano was hit or was on the baseline, I didn't see a replay of that, but you hate to have those things called unless they are really obvious. As I say I didn't see a replay so I don't know one way or the other. Santana made pitches when he had to and Mike trusted him right down to the 7th inning, which, you know, I thought losing Colón was a bad break for them and a good one for us. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't cash in on some opportunities that we had.

JOE TORRE: You know, I don't know. I don't know if it's a disadvantage. I really don't. I remember in '96, we didn't play for eight days, waiting for the World Series to start, and we lost the first two games. All-Star Break, you're only off three days, so you're used to playing every day. Right now, you're going on emotion. Sure you may be a little tired, but I think the emotion of everything off-sets that. You know, the White Sox are a very good ballclub, but these Angels, they don't take a back seat to anybody. The tough part is that they don't have an off-day going there. That certainly is unfortunate that it has to be that way. But, you know, the schedule is the schedule, I guess.

JOE TORRE: Yeah, last year was one of those gradual things. I was disappointed after Games 4 and 5 because we had it in the palm of our hands and then Bellhorn hit a home run in Game 6; that that was the difference in that ballgame. So that was a gradual thing. There are a lot of highs and lows, but nobody on either club packed it in. You know, we beat them in the first game here, they would bounce back and came from behind to beat us the second game and then they got the big lead on Friday and then we came back and got a lead on them. So it was a street fight. So, yeah, I am more disappointed in last year only because, you know, I just felt deep down that we were going to find a way to get it done. But we've been doing it for about four weeks now.