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AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEESOctober 9, 2009Mark TeixeiraNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game Two Q. Mark, in Seattle when you hit one out late in the game, you said sometimes when you go up there you're looking for that one pitch. Was this one of those occasions where you're going for one there? MARK TEIXEIRA: I didn't know -- I don't know this guy at all. I think it was the first time I ever faced him. I was just looking for a pitch, you know, up over the plate. I wanted to hit it hard. I thought I hit a double right there because of the top spin. I just wanted to hit it hard and try to start a good inning. Q. Mark, you're one of the few guys who hasn't been part of the walk-off thing here with the pie. What's it like to get that, especially in this kind of a setting? MARK TEIXEIRA: A.J. told me, "I finally got you." So if I'm going to get one this season, I'm glad I waited to the post-season. It was fun. Q. You kind of answered the question. When you first hit it, did you know it was gone? MARK TEIXEIRA: I really thought it was going to be a double because I hit it with so much top spin. I hit it hard but there was so much top spin I thought there was no chance it was going to get out. I was running hard making sure I got two. Then the crowd started going nuts. I figured it was a home run. Q. Mark, you guys are anything but strangers to walk-offs obviously. Does this still surprise you as to how you guys were able to pull this game out? MARK TEIXEIRA: No. You know, you don't have to score runs early to win games. We've proven that. Obviously we did not hit the ball well at all early in the game. You have to give Blackburn a lot of credit. He pitched a great game. And you know, we just got to Nathan. He's one of the best closers in baseball. We've gotten to some good closers all year. Q. Congratulations on that. Do you have any sense of where you put yourself in Yankee history here, in terms of walk-off home runs in the post-season? I can't remember a game like this since the 2001 World Series when Tino tied it in the 9th and Jeter won it in the 11th. It's almost the same scenario with you and A-Rod today. MARK TEIXEIRA: Those are things for after the season. Hopefully we finish the goal that we've put out for ourselves all year. Right now you can enjoy it for a couple of hours, but if you don't take care of business it kind of loses its magic, I think. Q. The ninth inning has been your guys best inning this year which defies common sense given it's usually the team's closer. How do you explain that? MARK TEIXEIRA: We kind of put the pressure on the other team in the ninth. Sometimes early in the game guys say, "Hey, we've got time, we've got time." You know, we'll just be patient. It didn't happen earlier today. In the ninth, that's it. You only get one shot. And because of our lineup, because of the big bats, sometimes pitchers may get a little tight and we take advantage of it. Q. Mark, you and A-Rod specifically had good numbers against Joe Nathan coming in. Were you guys aware of that? Is that part of your process as you're facing him down two? MARK TEIXEIRA: Yeah, but you're only as good as the pitch you swing at. We swung at two good pitches. Nathan has got great stuff. If he buries some good sliders in the dirt or throws high fastballs by us and we swing, we're back in the dugout. So I just think that we got two good pitches to hit, and that's kind of the way you have to do it in baseball against any good pitcher. Q. I wonder if you can tell me little about how much you think you help Alex hitting third and how much Alex helps you hitting fourth? And also do you think you helped each other off the field also because you knew each other from a different place in Texas? MARK TEIXEIRA: No doubt. We've had a great relationship all year. We've had a lot of fun playing together. I've played with some great three and four hitters being a part of some great combos; myself and Chipper Jones, myself and Michael Young in Texas, Vladimir Guerrero last year in Anaheim. And Alex, he's fun to hit with. Getting on base in front of him, I'm going to get a lot of pitches to hit, and he has a chance to drive me in a lot. We seem to work well together. Q. Is this the best for you? MARK TEIXEIRA: That's for you guys to decide. I had a lot of fun with Chipper. Chipper taught me a lot about hitting. I had a lot of fun hitting with Vlade. Like I said, Michael Young in Texas. There have been some good combos I've been a part of. Q. You've always talked about staying even keel. How hard is that in a game like this where the emotions are so back and forth. Take me through that bases loaded with Dave Robertson? MARK TEIXEIRA: First question, if you try to do too much, I didn't get to hit in my first three at-bats and hadn't had one-all series. But I wasn't swinging at bad pitches. I wasn't getting results. My last at-bat against Nathan and the home run at-bat, I wanted to swing at good pitches. I wanted to get a good pitch to drive and hope for good results. And I think staying consistent allows you to succeed even when you haven't had the best game or the best series so far. To answer your second question, Nate Robertson, that was incredible. Bases loaded, game on the line, maybe series on the line with how well these guys play in Minnesota, coming up with big three outs in a row, that's impressive for a young pitcher. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Mark. End of FastScripts |
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