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AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEESOctober 8, 2009Jason KubelDenard SpanNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with Jason and Denard. First question for either Denard or Jason. Q. Jason, start with you and then go to Denard, I guess. How much did you guys need today to catch your breath? JASON KUBEL: It's been a long week. A long night the two nights ago with the early -- not early wake-up call. We got in really early and basically woke up, came to the field and played a game. Now we get a little breather now, which is well-deserved. We're all going to try to take advantage of that. DENARD SPAN: Just to reiterate what Jason said, it's been a long week for us. But it's no excuse for not saying we were tired or anything. Nobody was tired yesterday. But just to have a day off from any game, especially after last night. Just to kind of regroup and get ready for tomorrow. It's always big in this game. Q. How much does anybody in the clubhouse talk about the Yankees are 8-0 against you guys now this year? How much can one victory tomorrow night just change that? Especially going home? For both of you. JASON KUBEL: That doesn't -- we're not thinking about that at all. It doesn't matter anymore. Anything can happen any day. So -- and I feel I think we all feel we're a much better team than we were at that point last time we played them. I mean, that doesn't even matter right now. DENARD SPAN: What happened in the regular season doesn't matter anymore. Once you get into the playoffs, anything can happen. I've seen so much crazy stuff happen in the playoffs, in baseball period. We just feel like if we can win Game 2, that would be real big. Getting out of here. Q. Denard, I would like to start with you and then go to Jason. Do you feel like tomorrow is a must-win for you? DENARD SPAN: I feel like every game from here on is a must-win. Last night was a must-win. Now it turns to Game 2 as a must-win. So -- if we don't win Game 2, Game 3 is a must-win. Every game from here on out is a must-win. Especially in the playoffs. JASON KUBEL: Yes, it's the same. It's been the last couple of weeks every game we have to win. If we fall down 2-0 here, it's going to be that much tougher just to regroup and try to get anything after that. Q. Everyone has made so much of your record here. Is it -- is there something about the atmosphere here? Can it get to the point the record itself is the part that you have to get over? Is it different different here than other parks? JASON KUBEL: Some funny things have happened to us over the years. Especially this year with all the walk-offs. That stuff happens. Like we said earlier we're not really thinking about what's happened this year or our past record here. Even our past record we've still managed to split the playoffs series here those last couple of years. We're just trying to move forward and just keep playing the same baseball we've been playing the last couple of weeks. DENARD SPAN: I think we had bad luck. We got walked off three times earlier in the year here. Three games that we if we get a big hit we would have won. I think every team has a team that they maybe don't have good luck at certain places against. And unfortunately, we just haven't had good luck here. But I don't think anybody in the clubhouse believes that there's a hex or anything going on. We still believe we can win, beat the Yankees. Q. Either one can can answer or both. Win or lose tomorrow night and you guys get home on Sunday to play, how much will you feed off the energy in the Metrodome? And how much can that revitalize you? JASON KUBEL: It's definitely helped us this last home stand we had. And especially if we're down 2-0, that might be the little extra motivation that we'll get. We'll need all the help we can get and they'll be there for us. And that place has done some good things for us too. DENARD SPAN: Our fans are -- they are one of the reasons why we're here in Yankee Stadium. They stepped up big for us the last home stand. Even against Detroit. They play such a factor when visiting teams come in. It gets loud in there. The fans, you know, I think they get to the opposing team. So, you know, Game 3 going back to the Metrodome I think is going to be real fun. Q. Can both of you guys talk about the thought process when Justin went down. You're back in the standings. Is that, ok we need to all regroup here and do a little bit extra or is it hey we're really the underdogs. Nobody expects anything out of us. JASON KUBEL: That's kind of how we were all year. But no, as soon as he went down, I think we all realized we needed to step up our game just a little bit more and try to fill in that spot as best as possible. Whether it be getting on base, moving guys over, whatever. Just manufacture runs any way we can. Because that's just one dangerous hitter that we just lost that's not going to be able to drive everybody else in. DENARD SPAN: When we lost Morneau, I think everybody was kind of -- everybody was, I won't say panicking, at the same time when you lose an MVP caliber type player it's hard to replace that. There's no one person that can replace that on your team that can replace what he do. Nobody went in the clubhouse -- we didn't have a meeting and say, all right, guys we have to do this or we have to do that. Everybody just kind of sensed that everybody has to pick up their load a little bit. In the last month or so, you look at everybody's numbers, look at everybody's performance on the field, everybody stepped their games up. That's the reason why we're here. Everybody collectively as a team elevated their game. Q. Denard, you mentioned some bad luck. Has anybody done anything, tried to change the luck? DENARD SPAN: No, not really. No. We haven't done anything. Just come to the park every day and just try to play nine innings and hope that -- hope for the best. Q. Denard, you have gone from a guy getting the bat knocked out of his hands in the minors to batting .300 in the Majors. Can you talk about what was important for you to turn your offense around and become the hitter you are? DENARD SPAN: I remember it was last spring training. It was a tough spring training. Tough pill to swallow for me getting sent down. It was one of those defining moments in my life. More than my career, I would say my life. I can look back on it. I feel like that's where I grew up to become a man and take a little more responsibility. Kind of just drove me to want to be a better individual, better player, better teammate. And I took it as constructive criticism. I can get better. I took pride in that. I feel like if that didn't happen, I would maybe not be talking to you guys here, maybe hopefully not be the player, I will hopefully want to become one day. Q. This is to either of you. The fact that despite your lack of success against the Yankees this year, the fact that you guys have been playing at such a high intensity for about a month now, 17-4 in your last 21 games entering the series, how much does that play into how you guys can potentially make this into very tough series? JASON KUBEL: I think from the way we've been playing, we've been playing so well lately and just having a lot of fun. Hopefully, that will turn this into a series. Hopefully, a big series win for us. But if we kept playing like we were earlier, especially when we played the Yankees, we weren't doing so well. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this last month or so just the way we've been playing. Q. Girardi said yesterday that any sort of outs rule is off for Rivera now that it's the playoffs. You guys have had some success against him. I think you account for two of his blown saves. Jason, you faced him more than Denard. What have you learned in your at-bats against him and how do you take that into facing him now? JASON KUBEL: Just try to make contact. Hopefully it will fall in somewhere. I know I got a couple of broken-bat singles. Haven't really hit anything hard. But we keep trying to make contact off him, keep trying to make him work. Put some pressure on him by getting guys on base just running around on him. I mean, it's tough. But yeah, we've been able to get lucky every now and again against him. Q. Guys, this is for either of you. Kind of piggyback on the bullpen. How much more difficult has their bullpen become when they put Chamberlain back there and you have Hughes and Chamberlain coming right at you before Rivera? JASON KUBEL: It was pretty good without him. Now they add him in there, it's even tougher. They got a bunch of good arms in there. From both -- lefties and righties. And it's just -- it's always been tough. It's tougher now. Q. Jason, although it's pretty well-established you guys are the underdog here and everyone has respect for the organization you won 5 in 8 years with a pretty changed-over cast. Are the Twins organization starting to feel the pressure to get over the hump in the first round? JASON KUBEL: Yeah. It will be -- obviously it would be awesome if we do it this year. That is the goal. Just keep going. But, hopefully -- I mean hopefully it happens this year. I don't know why -- I don't know. DENARD SPAN: I think the ultimate goal is to win the World Series. Starts off first by winning the division. Which is -- the other night was an unbelievable feeling. I think the sense is in the clubhouse that we're not content with winning the division. We want to to win a World Series. That's what it's all about. It's not about winning the division. It was fun but we want to keep it going. THE MODERATOR: Thank you both again for coming in. That concludes this morning's interview room. About 2:15, 2:30 for the Yankees. End of FastScripts |
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