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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEES

October 24, 2009

Joe Girardi

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game Six (Postponed)

THE MODERATOR: Tonight's game has been called. They'll play first pitch at 8:20 tomorrow. Game 7, if necessary, on Monday. First pitch at 7:57.

Q. Joe, I know you guys were willing to play through anything. Is this a good decision as far as the integrity of the game going goes without having to stop and start and affect the pitching in that way?
JOE GIRARDI: The one thing is you don't want to stop and start. I don't think any of us are exactly sure when the rain is going to get out of here, how late it's going to be. So I respect the decision that they made. I'm sure both clubs would have loved to have played. The weather is not permitting.

Q. Just making sure, are you still going with Andy Game 6?
JOE GIRARDI: Andy will pitch tomorrow night.

Q. Did you have any consideration at all to pitch CC?
JOE GIRARDI: We like the guy going tomorrow. CC has been great. But Andy will pitch tomorrow.

Q. You've had all kinds of games already, extra-inning games, goofy games, rainouts, travel dates. Have your four old guys who have played 10,000 games in postseason, do you see how they help? Do they steady things down? Mariano and Derek?
JOE GIRARDI: Yeah, they've been through this. I remember the first World Series I was involved in here, we didn't play for a week. We won quickly the ALCS. We were all an anxious to get started on Saturday I believe it was, and we had a nor'easter come through. But our guys know how to handle it.
The interesting thing is we've had a lot of rain in New York this year. So we've been through this a lot.

Q. Joe, in any way does this in your mind give them an advantage if they want to use Lackey?
JOE GIRARDI: You worry about Game 6 for us. Our focus is completely on Game 6. Does it give one team an advantage or not? I don't know. Maybe the extra day helps us more. I'm not really sure. I'm sure there will be a lot written about it. Depending on what happens tomorrow night. But I don't know.

Q. Joe, I know you've said you're going to stay with Andy the whole way for Game 6. The fact that CC pitched on that extra day the whole way down the stretch, does that make you not even hesitate about taking him off of his regular schedule if he were to pitch Game 7, it would be on an extra day?
JOE GIRARDI: The extra day we think could physically help him. He was on short day the last time. He's been good on extra day, too. So I don't really worry about him going on an extra day. We're going to stick with Andy.

Q. Joe, one more: Andy the last two years has had pitched decently against the Angels but they have had a ton of people on base and the stats aren't pretty. What's been the reason for it? Why do they do decently against him and what did he do better last time?
JOE GIRARDI: The one thing that Andy is always capable of is getting double-play balls. That is very good hitting ballclub. They get runners on against everybody. It's just not against Andy Pettitte. But Andy threw a good game against them the last game and we feel very good about him on the mound.

Q. Joe, I know you don't want to put a cart before a horse here, but as you're making decisions, do you see how it formulates into a potential World Series matchup, also? Especially as far as your starting pitching?
JOE GIRARDI: We're just trying to focus on this series. Obviously to play in the next round you have to get through this series. And that's our focus.
Andy has pitched in a ton of big, big games in his career. We just like him in this spot. We're not looking ahead. I don't think you can afford to look ahead. You have to worry about this series, and then if you're fortunate enough to get through this series, then you try to set up for next series.
But we're going to stick with Andy and give CC an extra day.

Q. I don't think you guys have played more than two days in a row this whole time. For guys like Swisher in particular and everybody else in this series who is struggling, how does that affect a hitter who is trying to get out of a slump?
JOE GIRARDI: Each guy is different. It could be helpful, it could be hurtful. You are really not going to know. One thing you know is certain guys react different to different circumstances. And that's the one thing that as a manager -- and there's a lot of things as a manager that you can't really predict. I don't know if it helps our guys, hurts our guys. Only time will tell.
We had talked about playing every day against Minnesota, would that help us or hurt us, or having the extra day, would that help us or hurt us. We played very well in that series.

Q. Do you anticipate the same lineup for tomorrow night?
JOE GIRARDI: Yeah. Unless they were to change pitchers.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Joe.

End of FastScripts

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