|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEESOctober 23, 2009Mike SciosciaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day MIKE TEEVAN: Hello, everybody. Hope everybody is doing well and traveled safe, and we want to thank the Angels for making Mike Scioscia available. He's on the line now. Q. Momentum is such a big part of this kind of a series. After last night's game, how will you know if that momentum is indeed going to carry over and you've finally kind of gotten on that roll you're looking for? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, at this point momentum is something that is important, but we know the situation. We know we have a lot of margin of error. We have to go out there and did a little bit in Game 6 that we did in Game 5. I think the early runs were important. I think they helped John to settle in and make some pitches. There's momentum you can carry, there's confidence you can carry as you win some good games against good teams, and we're going to definitely have to carry that into Game 6. You still have a challenge in front of you, it's not just momentum that's going to carry you through. We have to continue to play well and do a lot of the things in Game 6 as we did in Game 5. Q. I just want to know, I know that you have a lot of incentive in this series, but here's one more incentive, and that's the chance to get to play a World Series in your home town. I was wondering if that gives you any additional appeal to what you have to do at this point and if you've thought about that at all. MIKE SCIOSCIA: You know, getting to the World Series is obviously our focus. It would surely be something special to go back to Philly. But we have to focus on the process, and the process is we won Game 5, we're still in this, we've got a huge challenge in Game 6. We've got so much on our plate right now that you really can't let yourself slip away and think about anything outside of what our challenge is. That's what we're going to focus on is the process, and hopefully next week at this time we'll have reached our goal. Q. I'm wondering if either as a player or as a manager you felt you were on the team playing with house money or if you have less to lose due to pressure, and if you've ever used that tactic with a your players as a manager. MIKE SCIOSCIA: I think all the time you have to feel like you're playing with house money, because if you're afraid to fail or you're afraid to lose, you will never achieve. So I think you go out there and you have to play free. You have to play with nothing in your mind except making plays and winning a game and not be afraid to go out there and play the game of baseball. I think we're at our best when we're in that mode. I think last night we were in that mode, and hopefully moving through this weekend in New York we're going to be able to do that because we're certainly capable of meeting this challenge. I think all the time you have to play with the feeling like, you know, hey, you might not get it done, but if you don't feel you're going to and you don't go out there and play free and let it ride, you know, you have no chance to achieve. In that sense I think we're at our best when we're doing that, and hopefully we'll see it this weekend. Q. I know it probably seems like a lifetime ago, but certainly you have some experience with being down 3-2, the '02 World Series in particular I'm thinking of, and I'm wondering if there's anything in your current situation that you can liken to that. You guys were down 5-0 in Game 6. Does it make a big difference that these last two games are going to be in their yard as opposed to your own? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, there's certainly some advantages to playing in your home ballpark and certainly hitting in the bottom half of an inning where the game kind of unfolds a little bit more and strategy becomes a little bit more clear as to what you might or wouldn't do if you're playing in your home park. But the challenge I think is the same wherever you're playing. It's really going to be how we're playing the game. If we can bring all the things that we saw we did in Game 5, all the things in Game 3, even Game 2 I think we played good baseball, if we can bring those onto the field and maybe try to dictate some of the terms of the game a little more than the Yankees have when they've won, we like our chances. So therefore I don't know if it really has a huge impact if we're coming back home for 6 and 7 or doing it on the road for 6 and 7. The challenge is very real, and it's a challenge that we can meet. We just have to keep perspective on, like I said, that process of getting through this pitch by pitch and inning by inning. You know, we're confident that we're going to move forward and play well and get this done. Q. Just to follow up, in those first couple games people said you weren't playing Angels baseball. You kind of just suggested at that. Do you guys feel like you're playing your kind of game now or at least did last night certainly? MIKE SCIOSCIA: I don't know if you'd call it Angels baseball or you'd call it Yankee baseball or you'd call it any kind of baseball. It's really good, fundamental baseball that you have to bring onto the field and bring all the things that are important to winning a game onto the field, whether you're a team that works counts or whether you're a team that runs the bases aggressively or you're a pitch and defense type team. You have to bring those aspects onto the field to give yourself the best chance to win. I think we definitely saw some important things happen on the field both last night and -- like I said, Game 2 I thought we played well and Game 3 we played well. You know, that's the type of game we have to bring onto the field and play, everything from the good situational hitting to being able to get key outs at the end. There's a lot that goes into that, and I think we're doing some things on the field that we need to do, and when we haven't, it's not always our failings; you have to look at the team you're playing, and the Yankees have done a terrific job of I think dictating some terms of the game, and early runs; they've really jumped out on us in most of these games. We have to try to contain that a little bit, and we did last night. Q. There's a bad forecast for tomorrow. If there would be a rain-out and you would push a Game 7 until Monday night, would you think about using Lackey? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yes, we talked about a lot of different scenarios. I think we're going to let this thing unfold a little bit and see how the weekend goes. If there is an opportunity to look at bringing a guy like John back, it's something we would certainly consider. We've talked about a bunch of different things. Q. The big comeback in Boston was amazing. Did that tell you something about your team, and do some teams have more of that never-say-die kind of ability than others? MIKE SCIOSCIA: Well, I don't think there's a team in baseball that really quits, but you have to have the talent, and you have to have a team that's capable of coming back against some real tough competition you face in Major League Baseball and certainly the playoffs. I think the one thing that made us all feel good was under the circumstances we did it on the road against one of the top closers in baseball, and our ability to stay in that game and keep moving forward, you know, definitely gives you -- especially under the circumstances of being a playoff game and being able to clinch in an environment like that. It certainly gave us, I think, a good feeling and a lot of momentum. Now, trying to rebuild that momentum in a new series is something that we've had a little bit of a -- it's been a little bit of a challenge so far, but I think we're playing better baseball now, and I think the confidence to play well and play well on the road in the playoffs is very, very important because it's obvious we don't have home-field advantage, and you're going to have to go in there and you're going to have to win. Like I said, the process is where our focus is right now. We know what our goal is. We've really got to put everything into that step-by-step approach to reach that goal, and that's where our focus is going to be. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|