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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEES

October 22, 2009

Mike Scioscia

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Five

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Mike Scioscia.

Q. I know your number one concern is, but being from Philly, I just have to ask your reaction?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: Where are our cheese steaks?

Q. I'm working on them.
MIKE SCIOSCIA: All right. We'll get them next week from you.

Q. You can come over my house next week.
MIKE SCIOSCIA: Where in Philly?

Q. Well, I live in Jersey, so?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: That's not Philly; okay, go ahead.

Q. Could I get your reaction to the Phillies repeating as National League Champions? And do you have any relationship with any members of the organization?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, just in baseball relationships, you know, from knowing guys that have been around, what they've done is an incredible feat. Not only to get there once, but to repeat and get to the World Series.
We have so much on our plate. There is not too much attention to what we can pay to what is going on over there. We have a challenge in front of us, and that's what we're going to stay focused on. Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet them.

Q. Do you have a lineup?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes.

Q. And then I have three questions. Can I hear the lineup?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: We have Figgins, Abreu, Torii Hunter, Vlad, Kendry Morales, Maicer Izturis, Juan Rivera, Jeff Mathis and Erick Aybar with John Lackey pitching.

Q. You've been in this scenario before, potential last game of the season. In terms of what you do before the game, do you read each situation individually in terms of having a meeting or speaking to the guys individually? Is it a case-by-case basis?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: No, there's no need for a meeting. I'm really impressed with our guys, and how well they turned the page. It was a bad game we played in Game 4, obviously. We're going to play better tonight, and they know that we're capable of doing what we need to do.
Our guys are ready. We'll go through our normal pregame. We'll get ready to play, and hopefully play at a higher level and have a different result, which is, obviously something that we need. Our margin of error is nil. You know, we have to get out there and play well.

Q. In the last couple of days we heard at least six or seven players talk about A-Rod being locked in, using that term. Now we're hearing players talk about Lackey as a bulldog. How do you define bulldog?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: I don't know if there is a starting pitcher in -- on a championship caliber staff that doesn't have those -- doesn't have that make-up, that internal competitiveness that just does not give into any situation and makes another team beat you. And John Lackey is certainly in that category. Sabathia's in that category. Pettitte, Burnett, you know, Jered Weaver. We can go all the way down the list, you know. Lester and, you know Beckett. These guys are championship caliber pitchers for a reason.
I think that a pitcher that does not have that make-up and that ability to compete is a pitcher that is quickly weeded out of Major League Baseball, and certainly a championship environment of Major League Baseball.
So it's an internal mechanism that just lets you compete. Never give into a situation. I don't think that any one pitcher has a trademark on it, because there's no pitcher that's pitched this far into a championship season on a championship staff that doesn't have that kind of a make-up.

Q. It's impossible to win three games in a one night. So as you approach just tonight's game, how do you go about it knowing that you're on the brink of elimination?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: Are we? We haven't lost that fourth game. So, you know, I think you approach it the same way. You know, you have to focus on the process.
Everyone knows what our goal is. Our goal hasn't changed from when we started this series. You have to focus on the process. A game like tonight, even more so than any other game you're going to play, it's pitch to pitch, it's at-bat to at-bat. There has to be a focus there to bring your level of play where it needs to be to beat a team like the Yankees. And we're capable of doing it. We know this. And that's what our guys are going to focus on.

Q. I assume every pitcher on the staff more or less will be in the bullpen and available tonight if needed?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: We have a lot of pitching available to us tonight, that's for sure.

Q. A-Rod's career success is well documented against the Angels. With that in mind, at this stage of where we are in this series, would you think to maybe do something like you did in '02 with Bonds where you walked him intentionally seven times?
MIKE SCIOSCIA: There's a huge difference in what we're doing right now in the lineup we're facing as opposed to the lineup we were facing in '02 with Barry Bonds in it. I think the Giants had a terrific club, but their offensive lineup then was nowhere near the depth that we're facing now with the Yankees. So it's not about controlling one guy. We have to make pitches and all the way through the lineup.
When we've made mistakes, these guys have hit them. We've made good pitches, we've gotten them out. I think if you look at where and how we've pitched outside of Game 4, we've done a terrific job on the mound. So we have the capabilities to do that, and it's not about controlling one guy. You have to control the whole lineup. That's what hopefully John Lackey's going to be able to go out there and do. So it's not about one player, and it's certainly a different lineup now and different dynamic that's we're facing now as opposed to when we were facing Barry in '02.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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