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MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES v YANKEES

October 31, 2009

Charlie Manuel

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Three

New York Yankees 8
Philadelphia Phillies 5

Q. It seems like this season any time Cole faces some sort of adversity, he doesn't rise to that occasion. Tonight with the Teixeira walk and the A-Rod double turned home run, it seemed like that happened again. Do you worry about his mental toughness?
CHARLIE MANUEL: I would never question his mental toughness. I think at times he gets a little upset with himself, but as far as his mental toughness, this guy, he's mentally tough. He's definitely mentally tough. I mean, he's just -- tonight for three innings there he was real good, and that's kind of been the pattern he's pitched this year. After A-Rod, I thought he made -- go ask him, he'll probably tell you, he made a bad pitch to A-Rod, and he hit out of the yard. Then he came back in the following inning and made a bad pitch to Swisher, and he got a ball in the middle of the plate looked like on Damon, and he made a couple of bloops and he was starting to struggle, and then he walked Teixeira. That's kind of how I see his outing. But for three innings there, he was real good.

Q. What was your impression of the video review? Did you agree with the call, and do you think it changed the momentum for you guys?
CHARLIE MANUEL: I went down there, and I seen it looked like it hit the camera. But it looked like the camera was out over the fence, and the guy told me, the umpire told me, that before the game that they talked about that, and if it hit the camera that it was going to be a home run.

Q. They talked about that among themselves or --
CHARLIE MANUEL: They must have talked about it among themselves. They did not talk to me about it. But Pete Mackanin takes our card, and he said they didn't say anything about it to him. But at the same time, that's what they said.
It looked like the ball struck the camera from what I saw.

Q. The first four innings Cole was really using his fastball effectively, and then to start the fifth, he really threw them a steady stream of off-speed pitches and started throwing that curveball a lot. Was that something he and Chooch decided to start doing, or did you feel like that was something you guys wanted to see him doing, preparing for --
CHARLIE MANUEL: We did not tell him what to throw. I mean, that was -- basically that's Chooch's call. Him and Chooch -- Chooch is calling the game at that point. You'd have to talk to him about that.
But at the same time, we want him to use his curveball. But tonight actually I thought the pitch to A-Rod, like I said, I thought he made a bad pitch, and he'll probably tell you the same thing, and he got the ball out over the plate it looked like, or up. After that it looked like things kind of started to snowball on him.

Q. Game 7 would be on Hamels' scheduled day. Would you have any hesitancy to start him in a Game 7 after what you saw tonight?
CHARLIE MANUEL: You know something, I wouldn't be hesitant to start him, but at the same time we'll see how the series goes. But I wouldn't be -- I wouldn't hesitate to start him. I think, like I said, he has a good game, and he showed you for three innings that he can pitch. I look at that, if he can do it for three innings, why can't he keep going. That's kind of how I look at it.

Q. How much did the weather play -- I know that the Commissioner had meetings with you guys before the game, and there was obviously concern they did not want a repeat of what happened last year.
CHARLIE MANUEL: Yeah, when the weather is like it is tonight, for me particularly, I like to see us play in good weather. But there again, both teams are playing, even field. Hey, we've got to play, they've got to play. That's no excuse. I'm not saying -- we've got to play. That's the bottom line. The field was playable, so we had to play.

Q. Do you feel you guys had Pettitte on the ropes there in the second inning and maybe let him off the hook a little bit without coming up with that big hit?
CHARLIE MANUEL: I felt like we put a three spot on him, but what happened, we couldn't -- it seemed like he shut us down. Basically the biggest thing for Pettitte was he closed off our left-handed hitters. He got our left-handed hitters out.

Q. I know there's always some things that we don't see that you see as a manager. A few decisions, pinch-hitting Bruntlett instead of Francisco, not pinch-hitting Dobbs for Feliz in the ninth and then not using Park at all?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Yeah, first of all, when Bruntlett him in the sixth, still a lot of game left. And we talked about that with two outs, you know, we said we wanted to hit Bruntlett. But we were thinking about hitting Francisco, especially with two guys on we would have hit him and probably less than two outs we would have hit him. But we had a lot of game left and a couple left-handed pitcher in their pen, and we still might use him, like, late in the game. But the way the pitching ran, we didn't get to use him. That's kind of a chance that you take.
And using Dobbs, Feliz has been playing. Dobbs, it's been a while since he hit. And I felt like that he was -- Feliz could handle it a little bit better than Dobbs could, and I hit Stairs. It's not that I would hesitate to hit Dobbs, but he hasn't hit in a while. He's been sick.

Q. Jimmy has obviously been struggling a little bit, Ryan is, I think, 2 for 13 with nine strikeouts. What do you see from their at-bats right now and how much do you get them going going forward?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Well, we've played three games. At the most we've got four games to play. If we're going to get going, it's time for us to do it. That's how I look at it. But that's baseball, and that's the way it goes. And good pitching stops good hitting. Like I said tonight, Pettitte closed down our left-handed hitters completely, and as far as the guys in a short series, you'll see a lot of your lineup not hit good, especially if we're not scoring runs. We could come out tomorrow night and score runs. We're definitely capable of putting runs on the board. It's just a matter of time that we do. We've got to come out with the idea that we're going to get them tomorrow. That's how we've been playing all year, and that's how we'll continue on playing.

Q. You guys haven't trailed in a series since 2007. How does the mentality change for you guys now?
CHARLIE MANUEL: It don't change. That don't change. We'll come out tomorrow and we'll try to even play better and harder. We're that kind of team.

End of FastScripts

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