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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v TWINS

October 6, 2010

Curtis Granderson

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game One

New York Yankees 6
Minnesota Twins 4

THE MODERATOR: Curtis Granderson is here.

Q. Curtis, what goes through your mind? You guys have come back a lot of times this year, but you fall behind 3-0 tonight, what is going through your mind at that point?
CURTIS GRANDERSON: Continue to put pressure on. We had runners on through the course of the game, and I had an at-bat early in the game runners at first and second and hit the ball hard, but Cuddyer at first base made a great play to get themselves out of the inning. We know we continue to put guys on base, hopefully we can go and get one to come across, a couple more to come across and we know CC will keep us in the ballgame.
That's pretty much the mentality throughout the start of the game, when we fall behind, get the lead, lose it again, continue to stay confident and understand we will get opportunities as the game goes on.

Q. Curtis, your career numbers against Liriano were not great, but in light of your recent surge, how much more confident did you feel going against him?
CURTIS GRANDERSON: I always felt confident against him, but is he arguably one of the best guys. And I think if he hadn't got hurt over the course of his year, he would be arguably be the best lefty in baseball. But he is still way up there at the top right now. And it was just a matter of being in the position to hit the baseball and getting a pitch to hit.
It seems like all the times before he did a great job of not giving me too much to hit. Then when I did, I wasn't able to do much with it. So a mixture of all of those things working in the reverse this time and able to go ahead and put the ball a little out of reach of Denard Span in center field, and allow us to run around the base as little bit.

Q. Curtis, was there any moment through about mid-August where you said, thought to yourself this season just isn't going to go the way I want? Can you talk a little bit about what your motivations were for trying to tinker with your swing that late in the season.
CURTIS GRANDERSON: I always looked at it as the season is definitely not over until we finish game 162, or in the past I played 163. Everything will go ahead and work itself out. Knowing that I was getting consistent balls at-bat after at-bat and not able to do something with that caused the change. It wasn't a confidence thing, it wasn't even the matter of not getting hits, it was the fact I wasn't allowing myself to be able to put the ball in play to give myself the best chance possible to get a hit. That's when Kevin Long and myself decided to sit down a little bit and discuss a slight change, which has been made a great deal of right now, but it is very minute. It is to consistently put me in a position to attack the baseball from pitch to pitch, pitcher to pitcher, from game to game.

Q. Curtis, was there a moment as much as you kept confidence against left-handers specifically, was there a moment where you locked onto something that made you feel even more confident in those situations?
CURTIS GRANDERSON: Not necessarily. It has been a situation over the course of my career where I've watched guys who had success against different pitchers and what they have been able to do, and not necessarily be a guess hitter but understand the situation. And this is what a guy is going to do to get you out. And I have finally been able to go ahead and use that a little bit and say okay, this is what a guy's going to do. This is what he has been able to do in the past. Let me go ahead and see if I can do some of these things and just be ready for it, not be surprised. And it is starting to pay off a little bit.
Again, it's still a situation of trusting myself with it because I hadn't done that before. Just been more, hey, get myself in a position to hit, react to it. If it is there in the zone, we hit it; if it is not, you let it go. But if you're able to go ahead and recognize a situation, sometimes it can help you out. And I think that's happened over the course of the last month and a half. Not all the time, but from some at-bats to some other at-bats as well.

Q. Curtis, have you a lot of history against the Twins and you know what they're all about. Just how important was it for you guys to get up early and get this first win and get out to a good start?
CURTIS GRANDERSON: I think Game 1 is the most important no matter what. It sets the tone at least for a few hours because we come back tomorrow and get a chance to do this all over again. But anytime you can go ahead and pick the first game up in a series, you're able to go ahead and hopefully carry that momentum over to the next day. And it is a very hostile environment. My first time coming here this season and I remember how the Metrodome was and how loud it could be, and all the different elements that it added to them. I didn't expect it to be as loud as it was tonight, and they did a great job from the fan base here in Minnesota of being just as loud as they were with the Dome as they were tonight without it. And credit to them and they are going to be just as loud tomorrow. I have to be ready for it. The Twins are going to be looking to even this thing out again tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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