AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

October 4, 2002

Jermaine Dye

JERMAINE DYE: It was a whacky day today, but fortunately, we came out on top. You know, lead off the game, Durham with the homerun and then Hatteberg follow up, we gained some momentum, kind of took the crowd out of it a little bit, the crowd was awesome today, it was loud in there, and, you know, with the whacky plays at first base, I mean, we hung in there, but it was tough. We knew it was going to be tough coming in, and I am just glad we went out there and battled, fought hard, and came up with the win today.

JERMAINE DYE: No, I don't think so. It was a tough atmosphere out there today. The crowd was loud. I mean, and the roof was as tough as it always is, and, you know, fortunately for us, those plays didn't hurt us. And we were able to go out and score some runs and come up with some key hits, Twins battled back, and then with me leading off the inning, I mean, all I knew is I just had to get on anyway, and I stayed with my game plan of hoping that he would make a mistake, and I was able to drop the head of the bat on it and hit it out of the park.

JERMAINE DYE: Barry did a heck of a job. He gave up some hits, battled back with the bases loaded, got out of the inning, and, you know, even when they tied the game up, he still hung in there and did his job. He hung in there for one more inning, I think, and we were fortunate enough to take that go-ahead, that lead, and he got out of the inning and then our bullpen came in, Rincon did a heck of a job and then Koch to follow up, and then also Randy Velarde up with a big hit for us to give us a little cushion.

JERMAINE DYE: No, not at all. I mean, you know, tomorrow is going to be a big day for us, for both teams. We are not used to playing a 12 o'clock game early. I don't know if the Twins had games like that before, but we don't have time to think about what we did today, we got to put it behind us and get a good night's rest and then come out early in the ballpark and try and do the same thing we did, score some runs early and try and make the Twins battle back and, hopefully, we can do that, and Hud even come out tomorrow and give us a great performance.

JERMAINE DYE: Of course. I mean, we want to be able to come out tomorrow and win, but we know it's going to be tough. I mean, the Twins are a great team. I mean, they are not here for no good reason. They played well, they played hard. This is their home turf. I mean, we just are fortunate enough we got great pitching from Barry and our bullpen came in and did their job, and tomorrow is not going to be easy at all. We got to still continue to go out tomorrow and work hard and try and manufacture some runs and get a great performance out of our pitchers.