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AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELSOctober 6, 2009Mike SciosciaLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Workout Day ROB DOELGER: Questions for Mike Scioscia, please. Q. The theme of this seems to be whether or not you guys can beat these Red Sox in October. I'm sure you feel like this is, every year is a brand-new challenge and all that. Do you feel like there is any sort of remains of previous series with them? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I think if you look at the series, in 1986 a lot of our guys weren't even born in our club. If you go back to '04, there's been a huge turnover. Definitely '07 we just were not -- we just were not the team that was going to go out there and bring the game on the field that we needed to. We saw that as we were going through the series. We had some guys that were banged up. Last year we played much better. That series could have swung either way a number of times. So we're very, very confident in our club. We're very confident that we have a club that's going to play better and has the potential to play better. If we can bring our game on the field, if another team steps up to beat you, you know, you can at least be at peace with that. But certainly the way we played in '04, and the way we played in '07, we probably could have been playing any team in baseball at that point, and it was going to be tough for us to get it done. So we're looking forward to the series. It's a terrific club we're playing against. We really like our ball team, and we like the way we can bring a game on to the field. That's what we're going to focus on. So I don't think there is anything really to go back and analyze as to what's happened the last couple of times we've played them. It's a whole new set of variables, whole new set of match-ups. We know what the challenge is. They're a terrific club. We really like our team also. Q. When you won the World Series, you won eight of nine at home. Since then you've lost 9 out of 11. How frustrating has that been? How big is that to get that turned around immediately? MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, since winning the World Series we've played a couple of really, really good series, and some that were very, very poor. '05, the first in the first division series against the Yankees we played the best team in baseball and beat them in five, and won Game 5 here on our field. So I don't think it's a matter of where you're playing and who you're playing, but how you're playing the game. The fact that we haven't played well at home, you know, we haven't played that well on the road either in a lot of our recent playoff series. So I know we certainly haven't rehashed what's gone on in the past outside of when it happened, looking at it, analyzing and seeing what we could do better. We're looking forward to this series. We have a team that we feel can get very deep in the playoffs. The only way to do it is to grind it out pitch by pitch and get on that field for that first game. One at bat at a time, and start to build some momentum. Q. Could you update us on the condition of Izturis and Kendrick, and which one will you be starting Thursday? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, Thursday, Howie Kendrick will start at second base. So Maicer Izturis is good to go. He'll get a lot of action in this series, most likely play on Friday. But Howie will play on Thursday. Q. Howie's problem is over? MIKE SCIOSCIA: His problem? Q. Didn't he have a slight infection or something? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Oh, yeah, that was a while ago. He's fine, yep, he's fine. Q. What about Jason Bulger's status? How likely is he to be ready to go on Thursday? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Jason played some catch today. Feels much better. Throw a light bullpen tomorrow. We'll be able to evaluate to see if he's available for Thursday. Q. After the first three games, the Red Sox have sort of left it open with their pitching where you've said you've lined up your four starters. Is that a set-in-stone thing or is there a possibility you'd go to Lackey in Game 4? MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, I think Joe Saunders will pitch Game 4. Game 5 we feel really good we got there and had to get the ball back to John Lackey. But you always have to be flexible. See where guys are. See how they come out of their starts. See how they -- see how they feel. But out of our four starters, really, any one of those four guys could have opened up this series. I think we could have moved the order around in a number of different ways. These four guys we have a lot of confidence in. You know, not to put a lot of pressure on them, but their performance is going to be the biggest impact on how our series is going to go for us, and we'd like giving them the ball and like putting a lot on them because we feel they're very talented. Q. Obviously, pitching is important. But your team's been at or near the top offensively all year. How much emphasis on or how important is it that you guys go up there and beat the ball around the yard and score a lot of runs? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, as this season started to move on, what evolved was an incredible offense that really performed above our expectations, probably up until the last month of the season where there was a little bit of a lull. But it seems like we've moved on from that, and the guys are swinging the bat a lot better in the last ten games or so. We have a lot of confidence that we're going to be able to pressure teams every inning. I think that we've beaten some terrific pitchers over the year. We need to have that pressure every inning. Too many times I think when we've been in a situation where we've stalled, we've only had maybe a couple of guys swing the bat well, and to be able to get that -- those guys on base every inning where we can get into our game. So our offense has been really it pulled us through the lion's share of the season. We wouldn't even be sitting here talking about any playoffs if it wasn't for what our offense did, especially early and through the mid season when our pitching was still trying to get its feet on the ground. So we have a lot of confidence in those guys. We're going to need them to get into their game early in the series to accomplish what we want to accomplish. Q. You've had a lit extra time since you decided that you were going to put Ervin Santana into the bullpen. That said, what role or roles do you envision him appearing in the division series? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I tell you I've already gone over that with writers, I'll revisit it for your benefit. That's an inside joke we have here (laughing). I think Ervin has a very versatile role in our bullpen. I think depending on where Jason Bulger is as we start the series will have an impact on how we can and will use Ervin. He can be anywhere from coming in early in a game if a starter would be struggling, to bridging some of the middle innings to pitching in extra innings. So I think the one thing we want to try to do with Ervin is get him a clean inning, start a fresh inning as opposed to bringing him in to clean up an inning and keep going. We'll do that as much as we can, and see where his role evolves as this thing gets set on Thursday, and moves forward from there. ROB DOELGER: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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