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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v RAYSOctober 10, 2008Joe MaddonST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: Game One Q. Tonight's game, was that more of a chance of missed opportunities or a pretty good opposing pitcher? JOE MADDON: He pitched really well. He made a nice adjustment, about the second inning. They got off the breaking ball a lot more with the fastball and he had command of it tonight, so he pitched really well. We had some opportunities, we didn't advantage of them. It was really a well-pitched game on both sides. Our guys did a good job. It was a clean game. It was a good game. There was not a lot of hitting, but they just got the couple runs, and we had some opportunities and were not able to take advantage of them. Q. Is it even more frustrating that he had speed Carl Crawford on third in two of those situations? JOE MADDON: Yeah, in that situation we had first and third, nobody out. The at-bats, Navi pop-up, and then of course a strikeout by Gabe and then ground out. Listen, it happens. When you're facing very good pitching at this time of the year, they can stifle you even with nobody out. We can do the same thing to them. It just takes a good at-bat. You've got to score runs with outs in these situations, also. We weren't able to do it tonight. They beat us straight up. I thought it was a well-played game, a well-pitched game. Again, we've lost games in the recent past where we've played well and lost. I'm good with that. Of course you want to win every game, but I really look at the execution overall, and we played a fine game. We just did not swing the bats well tonight. Q. Shields' performance tonight was brilliant, masterful; he looked like an ace. How tough is it to lose a game where your ace was on top of his game? JOE MADDON: It's a mortal sin to waste good pitching, always (laughing), and he pitched really well. Listen, he does that often. That's typical Shieldsy right there. He gave us every chance to win that game tonight, but their guy was a little bit better than us tonight. Again, that happens. It's playoff baseball. You're going to see very good pitching, and again, I'm not discouraged in any way. We played well, and we just have to hit better tomorrow, that's it. Q. Peña hit a grand slam off Haren this year on a 3-0 pitch. Does he have the green light? JOE MADDON: I gave him the green light right there, absolutely. I felt good about it, actually. It does not matter to him right- or left-handed pitcher. We're down by two points and there's two guys on; that's a three-run homer staring us in the face, so I was good with it. I've done that often with our guys in different situations, with certain guys. And then you have the other guy coming in behind him who's a really high ground ball guy, Masterson, and you knew he was going to pitch to Longo right there, so I thought it was a pretty good gamble. Carlos said to me he thought it was ball four. I really couldn't tell from where I was standing, but I thought it was our best chance to get a three-run homer right there. Q. We got a look at David Price tonight. Did you like what you saw? JOE MADDON: Yeah, we actually gave him a lot of time to warm up. There's like three minutes in between innings, so he has a three-minute window with everything else. But I liked the fact that he came in and threw strikes. The first pitch, it was called a ball, but it looked like a pretty good first pitch. That's the big thing when you get a young man in there like that. Primarily you don't want to see walks and you want to see him challenge hitters, which he did. Furthermore I thought it was go to get him into the flow of the game, of this whole series. You never know what's going to happen down the road. I did not want Grant to throw more than 20 pitches so we have him for tomorrow night. So we thought it was the right thing to do to get him in there at the moment, but I thought he looked fine. Q. I was just curious, I know your club has bounced back all year and people have written them off probably 100 times this season, but in a situation like this where you dominated this team in this ballpark and you had a chance in the seventh and eighth innings to really do more of your magic and it didn't happen, how do you kind of work with these guys tomorrow to -- this has got to be a disheartening loss for you. JOE MADDON: You just work the room, work the room a little bit. You talk to them, reassure them like you said. It's something that we've done already many times this year regarding coming back after difficult losses. I've been involved in a playoff series in the past where we've lost the first game of each series and eventually won a World Series. You really can't get too down about it. I often or every day preach, it is one game at a time, and that is so pertinent regarding playoff situations. So for me, we've got to file this one, lose for about 30 minutes tomorrow, come back tomorrow, and I believe our guys will. End of FastScripts |
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