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AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEESOctober 11, 2009Alex RodriguezMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game Three Yankees – 4 THE MODERATOR: Any questions for Alex Rodriguez? Q. Alex, (Spanish spoken.) Tell me about your legacy, the post-season history. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: (Spanish spoken.) Q. Alex, first of all, just the homerun, what you had seen against Pavano in your previous at-bats, and then what happened. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Pav did a fantastic job of just mixing it up. I mean, he had us, basically, dancing for six innings, through backwards the whole nine -- I mean, the whole day. Had a good change-up going, good split, good slider, and kept us off balance with a fastball that got up to 93. You know, I grinded that one at-bat out, and laid off a couple good sliders, couple good splits, fouled off a fastball, and then just got a pitch I could handle. Q. You received plenty of criticism for your previous few post-season performances, and now how good this feels, and how much you attributed to mind-set, how much of a correlation there is. ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think going back to spring training, I knew I couldn't change all the 0 for 4's and 0 for 5's, and all the guys I left on base, I knew I couldn't change that, so, you know, I am content right now, both on and off the field. And I also knew that I was 34, not 44, and I have an opportunity to do things right both on and off the field. Q. Alex, after one of the other playoff defeats a couple years ago you had said something like you thought maybe you could learn by watching guys like Jorge and Derek and see how relaxed they are in these type of situations. Is that something you kind of focused on or talked to those guys about? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: I think that's a message that we have for all our teammates, we have four or five guys in our clubhouse that have been there and done that, and have played extremely well in October, and not only me, but I think all of us can follow those guys. Those guys, especially Derek, he is our captain and our leader and he had a fantastic series, and I think, yeah, we can learn from all them. Q. Alex, you have been talking about being relaxed, being comfortable. The big at-bats in this series for you, your work counts, stretched it out, gone full, is that a sign for you when you are relaxed and comfortable in there that you're able to do that? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: There is no question. I mean, Mark Teixeira talked about that yesterday. You have to work at-bats, you have to work counts and swing at good pitches. The other night Tex got a base hit, and I hit a homerun both on strikes. And the last at-bat that I had I walked, and the homerun, I think, might have been a four, five, six pitch at-bat, whatever it was, but that's very important for us. It's been our mentality all year, and one of the things we try it do is wear pitchers out, swing at strikes, not chase, and today we did that. Q. Alex, when you win games like you did tonight, close, low-scoring games, big hits as well as homeruns, does that remind you of the Yankee teams that you have played against and is that kind of what was missing the last three or four years? ALEX RODRIGUEZ: People can say whatever they want about homeruns and big hits. I mean, if you don't pitch and you don't defend, you are not going to win. The story of this has been CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Andy Pettitte, all three of them were fantastic. You throw on some good at-bats, you throw on some big clutch hits at the end, but only because of their great performance did we have an opportunity to do well. Q. Alex, thank you for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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