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AL DIVISION SERIES: ANGELS v RED SOX

October 3, 2007

David Ortiz

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game One

Q. So you got a couple of hits off Lackey, but you already had the one run then you get up. Can you tell us about that at-bat and how important you thought it was to put some runs on the board, not just hits on the board?
DAVID ORTIZ: Well, everybody knows that Lackey, he's a good pitcher. He's coming from a good year. He has good stuff. And when you're facing pitching like that, you've got to make sure that whenever you got a pitch you got to do something with it, otherwise you may not get to see it again.

Q. How about Beckett, man? What did you think?
DAVID ORTIZ: Man, let me tell you, you know like some of the innings I watched it on TV on the screen that we had downstairs. Even on TV he looked filthy. You know, even on TV you would be like, oh, he could have hit that. No, I don't think so. I mean, he was right on. That is the Beckett everybody knows that is capable to do things in the game.

Q. How big was it for Youkilis, his home run, to put you guys up on top quickly?
DAVID ORTIZ: Great, great. I mean, everybody knows that Youkilis has been doing a great job for this ballclub through the season. Everybody knows that. When he went on DL, not on DL, when he was injured, and everything, he kept it together for this team in this regular season.

Q. You've come through so often in clutch situations, do you concentrate more? Do you feel differently in big games or key at-bats? Or is it always the same?
DAVID ORTIZ: I don't know. I think I get prepared to play the game, and I'm the kind of guy that I try to give everything I have. I know this team counts on myself a lot, and a lot of guys count with me and watch how I do things. I take a lot of responsibility for whatever is happening around here.
Like I say, you know, this is a game that you play in the short series, and you've got to make sure that whatever you can get, you get it. Otherwise sometimes it turns to be kind of late.

Q. Guys in the clubhouse were saying they could tell you're feeling better because you're more animated and that you wear your emotions on your sleeve. Can you talk a little about that, gauging your temperature as you walk in every day, right?
DAVID ORTIZ: Yeah, definitely. Like you guys know I have the cortisone shot the other day, and it's make a big difference. I mean, my knee has been feeling way better than what it was. I was really sore before I got it, and I was a little afraid because that big old needle is coming through your knee, it's not fun to see. But the pain has been going, thanks God. And it's not easy to play through pain.

Q. Youkilis was in here and he said that he feels like people have been very tough on you this season. That they haven't really appreciated some of the things that you've done. Do you feel like people have been tough on you? How do you feel about that assessment?
DAVID ORTIZ: I won't call it tough. It's since like you know, people are just kind of used to seeing you coming through every at-bat, coming and doing some damage. And the same people that watch the game every day, they never sit down and analyze that this is not an easy game to play. This is not like a Nintendo game that you can sit down and hit a home run or hit a double or get a hit whenever. There are guys out there pitching and trying to make a living out of it. So it's not like they're going to make it easy on you.
I think the pitchers this year they were very careful, especially with my history. And I mean, that's how the games go. And everybody just thinks about oh, Papi should hit a homer right here. Papi should do this. Papi should do that. Papi's not the only player here. He's just one of the players that want to have good things happen. And I put myself together to get it done, and people should understand that sometimes.

Q. Who that you faced has anything like the same equipment that Josh has? The fastball, the curve, the change, the degree that he had it tonight? Anybody that you've faced that reminded you of that tonight?
DAVID ORTIZ: In the league?

Q. Yeah.
DAVID ORTIZ: This year?

Q. Or ever.
DAVID ORTIZ: Oh, I tell you I think Hernandez for Seattle. He can get to be that good, you know, through the years. Because he's like the young Josh Beckett, but he don't have the experience that Josh has right now. He had the arm, he had the stuff.
I would say A.J. Burnett for the Bluejays, same thing. Power pitcher, good breaking ball and good stuff. But they don't, like, they don't have the focus that Josh have right now. Whenever those guys -- I think A.J. Burnett, he and Josh are kind of right there. You know, there's games that he comes in and he blows everybody off. But you know he's been having a lot of injuries, and I guess that's why he's on and off a lot. But they're pretty much the same kind of pitcher.
And Hernandez, whatever he learned through the years he would be just like that.

Q. So Josh did great pitch today, and next game Daisuke's going to pitch. So what do you expect of him?
DAVID ORTIZ: Well, Daisuke's it's like at one point in the season he got a little tired. You know, everybody knows what his program is. But later on during the season he came up again. He did a great job for us through the whole year, anyway. And I think the way he came up later during the season, I think he's going to be the guy that we expect him to be. Like everybody expects around here.

Q. Are you the man in Boston?
DAVID ORTIZ: I want to hit the Ted Williams seat. Not yet, not yet.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)
DAVID ORTIZ: I was telling my man right here that people here in Boston, they kind of watch everything you do pretty close. And everybody, there's a lot of young people watching you, following you around. Lot of people come to me and they tell me how good, you know, I try to do things, how much fun they have watching me on and off the field, and that kind of gets you thinking, you know, nobody's perfect. We're all human and we make mistakes.
But at the same time when you know there's a lot of people watching you, you want to make sure whatever you do is good for whoever is watching you and they can take it as an example.

Q. What about the Ted Williams seats?
DAVID ORTIZ: Am I on TV?
THE MODERATOR: Yes, you are. You're live.
DAVID ORTIZ: (Laughing) Pesky said he hit it.

Q. Are you seeing the ball right now as well as you've ever seen it here? I mean you've been on some good runs here, but you seem to be on the ball as well as you've been this season specifically?
DAVID ORTIZ: Well, like I said, what was bothering me, a lot of things through the season. Lot of injuries. Every hitter has their good time, their bad time. Seems like at this point during the season I kind of picked a lot of things up, put a lot of things together. And I just hit whatever I see. If I didn't see things, I wouldn't swing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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