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AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

October 11, 2009

Ron Gardenhire

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game Three

THE MODERATOR: Let's get started with questions for Ron Gardenhire. There's wireless mics so raise your hand for the mic. Over on the right.

Q. Ron, your team has been saying all along that we've got to put the last two games in New York behind us. Is that easier said than done?
RON GARDENHIRE: Well, we don't have a choice. Can't worry about it. That's in the past, and we have had to play like this for quite a while here. You have a tough game, you just have to bounce back, and it's not ever easy. But we are in a situation where we don't have a choice.
You can't worry about the last couple games, we have to worry about tonight. We got a tough guy going against us tonight and we will see what we can do.

Q. Ron, with Morales, his ability as a pitch hitter seemed like to treat every pitch hit at-bat as a regular bat. Does that maybe make him more likely in playoff games to be able to control his emotions, too?
RON GARDENHIRE: We'll see. We got some live swings yesterday. We will see how he does, try to keep a little speed on the bench and get him in the ball game. Try to find another right-handed batter. Morales has been struggling a little bit, but maybe he has gotten through that, we will see, that's all we can do.

Q. You said at Game 163 you thought JosÃ© was a little overwhelmed. How do you think that experience will go to help him today?
RON GARDENHIRE: I just don't have an answer for that, with our situation facing a lefty, you try to find a right-handed hitter out there. JosÃ©, his numbers are okay right-handed since he has been up there. We will see. I can't possibly tell you what he is going to feel like when he walks up to the plate. All I can do is put him in the lineup and hope he is relaxed and puts some good swings on the ball.

Q. Gardy, we are supposed to have plowable snow overnight. On a lighter note, do you ever think about what this would be like in future years at Target Field.
RON GARDENHIRE: We have heat underneath the grass so it's going to melt it, you don't have to worry about that. It's all covered. Okay? We took that into consideration.
It's cold out there, that's what it's going to be like. We knew that going in, when they built it, and you know what, we have had guys here, the Olivas and Carews and Killebrews, we talked it and they said it was cold out, but it's outdoor baseball, that's what we got, and during the summer it's going to be wonderful.
That is going to be our ballpark, no waiting for anybody else to play a game so we can play, no having to quit early so we can play, quit our game early to get them in, none of that. It's going to be Minnesota Twins baseball. That's what we are all after, a beautiful ballpark built for our fans. That was company line right there.

Q. Gardy, with Scott Baker, your potential Game 4 starter, do you consider him staff A? Do you have staff A's on the starting rotation there?
RON GARDENHIRE: I kind of look at it and go back to the old Tom Kelly games and listen to TK talk about it. Our ace is the guy that pitching that day, and that's where we have been. We had Santana here. He was an ace, if you want to call it that, number 1 guy and all that. Radke did that for a while.
We have had a bunch of young pitchers step in and do their thing, and right now our ace is the guy that's pitching that day. Today it's Pavano, tomorrow it will be Baker, if we can get through the night.

Q. Why do you think Kubel has had so much trouble in this series?
RON GARDENHIRE: Most of the time it's good pitching has a tendency to cause you to struggle a little bit against Sabathia. If you look at left-handed numbers against Sabathia, they are not very good, but Kubel is one of our best hitters, and I think they really didn't give him a lot to swing at in the second game, throwing him breaking balls and nothing that he could hit, but I will take my chances with Jason Kubel. I have seen it all year long. He has got great numbers and if you make a mistake on him, he has got a chance to put it in the seats, and, hopefully, he will be patient enough to have that chance tonight.

Q. Ron, to what extent do you think Mauer's hip is bothering him, despite what he told you yesterday? Did you give any consideration to DH'ing him?
RON GARDENHIRE: No, no consideration whatsoever. I can't tell you how it's feeling and how much it hurts. You would have to ask him, and he is going to tell you the same thing he told me on the plane, "I have been playing with it for a few days here and I will continue to play with it. Will it hinder him? Only time will tell.
I don't think he ran the bases as good as he can, but he ran the bases, and he does have to run the bases because he keeps getting hits, but he will be out there, he is a gamer, and everybody is playing with a little bit of something this time of year.

Q. Gardy, with all the these must-win elimination type games you guys have played in the last weeks, how has your blood pressure been?
RON GARDENHIRE: I haven't checked it, I refuse to have it checked. I see our doctors and give them high 5's and walk away. I think I am fine. Your insides are turning all the time, but that's the time of year, and it's just the way it is. It's -- my blood pressure is holding up about as well as anybody else's this time of year?

Q. Gardy, you guys are in the postseason, you guys can look back in the past month, would you be in this position without the things Michael Cuddyer did?
RON GARDENHIRE: No, there is a few guys you can say the same thing about, Michael is one of them, stepping up to first base, moving in from the outfield, doing what he has done offensively and defensively, Michael Cuddyer has been a big part of it, but on the flip side of it, you don't take away from anybody, one individual, how well they have performed. It's been a great team effort to get here, and it had to be a lot of guys stepping up, and Michael really, really stepped up big for us.

Q. Ron, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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