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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v INDIANS

October 6, 2007

Andy Pettitte

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day

Q. Give us your thoughts on last night's game, the way it all went down, the whole bug situation, and you know, your performance, tell us. You know, you left, you had a great night. Give us your thoughts on last night.
ANDY PETTITTE: Well, I mean, obviously I was happy I was able to give a good performance. You hate it that we weren't able to hang on and win that game. And it's extremely unfortunate that the situation that happened there, I believe it was the 8th inning with the ants that came in. It was just crazy.
It was obviously, and again, like I said last night, Joba's not going to use that as an excuse. And their guys had to go out and pitch with the same situation. But it was obviously distracting.
I know as a pitcher, it looked like we sprayed him down, sprayed his arms down, and it was extremely hot last night. And I can't imagine having Off spray with his sweat mixed. I mean, the way I was sweating, I know he had to be sweating the same way running down his arms and hand. It would be extremely difficult to throw the ball. So that was just a very unfortunate situation.
You know, them guys battled. They played a great game. Knew it was going to be tough at their ballpark. It always is to win a game on the road. But, you know, we need to win a game tomorrow night. And hopefully we can do that.

Q. Psychologically, what's that like to go from, you know, you're on the verge of evening up the series at 1-1, then to suddenly be down 2-0?
ANDY PETTITTE: Well, there's no doubt, it hurts, you know. And it will sting you a little bit. But that's it, the game's over, you know. We're down two and we need to win three games to move on. But first we've got a real important one tomorrow night. We've had to come back this whole season and fight, and again I talked about it last night a little bit. We were down, but during the course of the season we played each game one game at a time, and that's how we're going to have to do it here.
I love our team. I've been saying that all year. I love our guys. Their mentality, and I think we'll come out tomorrow swinging and have a real good game. I think Roger will give us a great performance, and hopefully we can get us a win under our belt tomorrow night.

Q. No matter what happens tomorrow or the rest of the series, how much will the Yankees' decision whether to bring Joe back affect your decision whether you want to come back?
ANDY PETTITTE: Well, I mean, man, I'm just not real sure. Like I've said, I just need to get through this year, and I need to get home. You know, like I've said, pray about it, and talk to my family about it. I'd have to say that, you know, because I guess trying to answer your question a little bit, I would have to say that I would factor in everything. That would definitely be something that would factor into it.

Q. How much do you draw on the experience of 2001 being down 2-0 and coming back to win the series? I know not a lot of guys were here, but is that something you can share with the younger players and draw off of now?
ANDY PETTITTE: Well, that is the first thing that we've looked to last night in the clubhouse, and the first thing that goes through your mind is, you know, we've done this. We can do this. We can pull this off.
You know, again, I can't judge how everybody's state of mind is in that clubhouse. It was pretty quiet flight home last night, got in late and everybody was tired. But I can't fathom in my mind or bring it in my mind to think that we're not going to pull this off, and I hope everybody else feels that way.
We've been there before. I've been on teams that have done it. So you can draw from that if you've been able to do that before. Just like I've looked back in previous games, I know I've struggled in the postseason, but I'm always able to look back and say hey, you pitched good in big games before. You can do it again if you have to, you know. Where I know I've struggled in games also, but still.
So we've done it before. So I mean I feel like we can do it. My mind will not allow me to go there and say that we're not going to pull this series off.

Q. You certainly expect to get more than three hits of support, especially with this lineup leading the majors in runs scored. What do you see or how frustrating is it to put up zeros then have your lineup struggle the way they are, particularly A-Rod?
ANDY PETTITTE: Well, it's the postseason, and like I've said before, really there's always, to me it's close games. It's going to be one-run games. Rarely are there blowouts, and the blowouts have always been on my side when I've given up a lot of runs in the postseason. So you just expect to be in a battle like that. Do you expect their offense to get shut down like that? No. But I've got to give that other guy a lot of credit. He threw the ball unbelievable. And I mean, y'all saw the game. His ball was moving all over the place. And you know, he's tough. We knew he was going to be tough coming into this series.
And as far as Alex, I mean, Alex has had a wonderful year. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him and for him to have the year that he's had. That guy was tough last night. He made some great pitches. You know, I believe with all my heart that Alex is going to be fine. He's not the only person on this team. We need some other guys to do some damage. We've had guys all year driving in a lot of runs and doing a lot of damage besides him. So we're a team, and we're all in this together. So hopefully we can all get it going.

Q. Have they told you anything about whether it looks like Wang's going to pitch Game 4, and that you should be prepared for Game 5?
ANDY PETTITTE: We hadn't talked about that. I told them I'd pitch whenever they want me to pitch. I feel good. Like I told you, I'm so thankful that my elbow's feeling good, and I told Skipper that if he needs me anytime, anywhere, I'll throw whenever he needs me to.

Q. You know Roger as well as anybody. Is his situation tomorrow kind of tailor made for him, even though he's had a layoff? What do you expect out of him tomorrow?
ANDY PETTITTE: I think anybody else besides him, you'd be kind of concerned because he hasn't pitched much. But he showed like I said before in Boston, that he could take a pretty significant layoff and come back and throw extremely well. That's extremely difficult to do. I know that I would have a hard time doing that. But Roger's been here. He's been in these situations. You wouldn't want anybody else throwing game for us.
I expect he'll get locked in, and I expect he'll throw a good game for us. It's going to be exciting. He's going to feed off the crowd, I think. And you know, this place is going to be exciting. Hopefully we can get the fans into it early, and give them something to cheer about.

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