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MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES v YANKEES

October 31, 2009

Joe Girardi

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Three

New York Yankees 8
Philadelphia Phillies 5

Q. On A-Rod's home run, after the ball was hit and bounced onto the field again, you came out. Did you know that it hit the screen or the camera?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, I wasn't 100 percent sure, but our coaches started yelling they thought it hit the camera. My eyes aren't great, so it was hard for me to see. When the ball gets that far away from you, you know it's really close, and with replay, you're going to go out there, and that's what we did.

Q. What did Andy struggle with those first couple innings and what did he do to get better?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, he struggled a little bit with his command early. You know, he got behind Werth and Werth hit the home run, and then he got IbaÃ±ez out, and then he got a pitch up to Feliz. His fastball was up a little bit. To me the big play in that inning was we didn't execute getting the out with the bunt, because they got second and third with two outs, and if you walk Rollins, it's not such a big deal, and then you get Victorino. That was the reason to me they got the three runs. We didn't execute the defensive part of it.

Q. Could you walk us through your bullpen decisions once Pettitte leaves after six.
JOE GIRARDI: Well, Joba for -- we had Marte up if Joba got in trouble. We knew that the pitcher was the third spot there, so we let Joba finish the inning. Then with Howard and IbaÃ±ez, two lefties out of the next three hitters, we went to Marte who's throwing the ball very well, and then we went to Hughesie and Mo. Is that enough?

Q. Was it a matter if there was one runner on there?
JOE GIRARDI: We were going to give Mo some wiggle room for the save and we were trying to get Hughesie to give us a full inning. Ruiz hit us a home run and he's hurt us most of the year, so we thought we'd give Mo a chance to finish it out.

Q. With Nick's struggles all season how good was it for you to see him come out?
JOE GIRARDI: It's really good. The thing about hitting this time of year, you're going to struggle at times because you're facing the best pitching. And you don't really always get in a great rhythm because you don't play every day, there's a lot of off-days. He went to work hard, we sat him down the second game and he came out and swung the bat very well right-handed for us tonight.
Swish has been doing it for us all year. He's been a really good player for us. You don't think that you're going to keep him down every game. But he's battled, and he's had some big hits at times for us during these playoffs.

Q. The deliberations on the weather before the game, how intense was that? And how close did this come to being called off?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, I thought Mr. Selig and Major League Baseball did a good job of keeping us informed and telling us what could possibly happen. We knew that we were going to play tonight, we just didn't know when we met at 7:00 if we were going to start on time. We felt that we had a really good chance, but that rain that came at 7:30 was harder than we expected, so it delayed the game. But when I left that room, I knew we were going to play tonight, I just didn't know exactly what time we were going to start.

Q. Could you talk a little about A-Rod. So much attention has been focused on his long career, this is his first World Series, finally gets a hit and a --
JOE GIRARDI: A big hit for us. A big hit for us because it really got us going. He has been so good for us in the playoffs. I mean, Alex has been a great player for a long time. He's one of the reasons -- he's a big reason we're at this point, what he did in the first two series. He has been patient, and he has not tried to do too much. I mean, he hit a home run to right field, down the right-field line. To me that tells you you're not over swinging, and he stayed in his game plan. He's been huge for us.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Pettitte's ability to shut down their left-handed hitters. I think they were 1 for 10 against him tonight with six strikeouts.
JOE GIRARDI: I thought he had a good breaking ball tonight. He had a good slider tonight. And their left-handers, as we know, they're very, very dangerous. Then you've got a couple of switch-hitters, too, that turn around. You start talking about Utley and Howard and IbaÃ±ez, you're talking about three dangerous hitters, and we know that. I got to see it really first hand in 2006 when I was managing in the National League.
But I thought Andy located well, I thought he used his fastball well, he came inside well. He just did a lot of things to get three really good hitters out.

Q. What did you think about Andy Pettitte the hitter?
JOE GIRARDI: Well, we saw him get a hit in Interleague, and that is now his third World Series hit. He let me know that he had one off of Kevin Brown and one off of Randy Johnson, and now he has one off of Cole Hamels. Andy works very hard, and I think playing in the National League for those few years probably helped his swing a little bit.

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