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AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX v RAYSOctober 5, 2008Joe MaddonAndy SonnanstineCHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Game Three THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joe or Andy. Q. Joe, can you say something about Matt's performance tonight. He seemed pretty hot the first couple innings but that fourth got away a little bit? MANAGER MADDON: They got that three-run fourth and the hit down the left-field s line obviously a very big hit. Overall I thought he threw the ball very well. He was on his A game. The last one they got was very big. Everyone knows this is big this time of year. Overall I thought he threw the ball well. He had good stuff. He gave us a chance to win. I thought there guy was very good tonight, Danks, I am a big fan of his. He pitched well and gave the them a chance to win and they did. Q. Joe, on Ozzie's made a big deal about once you see lefties as much as you possibly can. Does that concern you at this point? MANAGER MADDON: No, I mean, I understand why. I think we're doing a lot better. Their lefty tonight is exceptional. Danks is very good. I think we made some nice adjustments in our line-up over the course of the year that we do do better against lefties now. But I can understand why he would do that. Q. As much as Danks was good and et cetera can you talk about the chances you had early. I mean, four runners left in the first two innings. You had them on the ropes? MANAGER MADDON: We came out well. I liked the way we came out. It doesn't always happen. The quality of the at-bats were good he just got out of some difficult moments right there. Again, this guy's a good pitcher. He is very good. And I thought when I first saw him from that point until the latter part of the season I thought he's made some tremendous improvements. So he's never going to be easy, particularly with runners in scoring position. He has weapons to get righties out as well as lefties and sometimes I think he even tougher on righties than lefties. In that particular moment you always want to get the run in and it doesn't always happen. If look at the intent, the quality of at-bat. Our guys were ready to play tonight they just beat us. There is nothing to analyze it as far as I'm concerned. I liked the at-bats. Q. The inning that the White Sox got three runs when Matt came out the next inning he fiddled with the mound awhile. Was the mound bothering him at all during that three-run inning? MANAGER MADDON: I didn't notice it during the three-run inning. I did notice obviously when he went back out. There was a hole. When they came out to fill it up it became more squishy. Then they kind of argued it out with the shovel then he got better footing at that point. So I didn't notice it in that particular inning but after they fixed it up for him I thought it was fine. Q. For the people that thought this was going to be easy after the first couple games at Tropicana, what's kind of the lesson or the message of today? MANAGER MADDON: Well it's never -- I mean, to think that you are just going to waltz through this whole thing is not a good thought. It's very unreasonable. They're very good. And they're very good in this building also. Coming here you look at the pitching in advance and like I said their guy that was throwing today I knew was going to be very good here today. They have faced some difficult moments recently in this ballpark and have done well. So there's -- it's bat assumption to think you are just going to come in here and beat up on them. These guys are veterans, they're professionals, they're a very good baseball team and I have a lot of respect for them. I'm just looking at it from our side of things. I thought our guys handled themselves very well today. That's what I was most interesting in seeing. Coming out of our ballpark I think we're 40-41 on the season but we had gotten better. So I was more concerned what we looked like. I liked how we looked today. They beat us, that just happens. But they're good. They're very good here. But I also liked the way we looked today a lot. Q. Andy, going into tomorrow just from what you have seen these three games knowing the 2-1 situation how do you put this in perspective? ANDY SONNANSTINE: Very excited for the opportunity to pitch tomorrow. I'm going to try to pitch to my strengths and hopefully have a great day. Q. Joe, B.J. Upton had two very good at-bats today one in the ninth. He's come alive for you in this series. Your thoughts on him? MANAGER MADDON: B.J. has had rest. We were trying to back off in regard to his BP to get him strong again and we've done that. He is starting to get that nice click in the bat. That nice bassy sound when he hits the ball. He is feeling pretty good about himself. Said it all along, this is a wonderful young athlete who is becoming a very good baseball player. And I like everything he's doing. He is going to continue to get better. Right now we could use him at a very high level and that's where he is playing right now. Q. Joe, you mentioned the discrepancy of the record on the road and at home and how this team plays well at home. How do you explain the difference? MANAGER MADDON: For us for them? Q. Either or. MANAGER MADDON: You saw your fans today. We're starting to get your fans in the building. The difference -- what I think is this. At Tropicana Field, The Pit I think we have learned to play in that ballpark that's on turf. The sightlines et cetera. Its never been a comfortable place for other teams to play. Now that we've gotten better it's become more uncomfortable. When we get those 30,000 plus people in there we like that. I think it's combination of the building itself being different for the opposition. I think now that we're getting the fans and I think the turf, some people like to play on it, some don't. It's an athletic style. Your ballpark here, your team is built for it with your starting pitching and your power offensively. You're pretty much built for this ballpark. It's home run hitting ballpark. It jet streams out to right-central. And you got guys that can do those kind of things. I just think possibly the ballparks are tailored for the particular ball clubs and you are looking at your fan base here was very impressive tonight. They always have been. So I think it's no more deep than that. I think that's kind of what I'm seeing. And it's good for the White Sox and good for us too. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. End of FastScripts |
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