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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v RAYSOctober 12, 2010Ron WashingtonTAMPA, FLORIDA: Game Five Q. Because of the expectations now and the 38 years of baggage from the past failures of this organization, does that make the job harder for you or the players in any way? RON WASHINGTON: No, it doesn't. Right now our focus is totally on tonight. If we accomplish what we set out to accomplish and are able to win this series, then history will take care of itself. But as you said, we have enough problems right now to try to take on 39 years of baggage. We'll just let that baggage stay where it is, and we'll go out there and take care of the night, and then we'll add some more baggage to the baggage that's already sitting there, but tonight is it. Q. Will you just talk about the decision to start Mitch at first base. RON WASHINGTON: The reason I started Mitch is because he's had the most repetition. I hadn't been able to get Cantu any at-bats since he was last year, and I just didn't feel like it would be fair to him to put him out there with Price and his power, and he hasn't had repetition. Mitch has played, and we'll take our chances. And if it presents itself during the course of the ballgame that we have runners on second and third and we have an opportunity right there to blow the game open and Choate is on the mound and there isn't anyone else warming up, I might shoot Cantu. Q. Can you explain how the road team has won every game in this series so far, and if you do win it you'll be the first team to win a series by winning every game on the road? RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think the way it's set up in the four games that we've played, we've pitched here, they've pitched in Texas. So now we're back here in Tampa and two of the best pitchers in baseball are going at it, and I couldn't be more excited. My guys couldn't be more ready, and now we've just got to go out there and do what we do for a living and play baseball and play the best possible game that we can. Q. Joe had talked about how he thinks his club is very, very loose and relaxed right now. Is there anything you have told the guys today to try to calm down things? RON WASHINGTON: No, they walked in the clubhouse today and at 5:00 they called a meeting, and I walked in and they fired me up. I didn't have to fire them up. Q. Were you part of the meeting? RON WASHINGTON: Yes, I was. I walked in and they fired me up. I didn't have to say much. Q. As a follow-up, I was going to ask you about if there was anything at this point to say to them. Is this what you've talked about all year long, a guy like Michael Young in the clubhouse, Vlad Guerrero in the clubhouse, is this their game now? RON WASHINGTON: It is. It's really been their game since we started at Spring Training. We got here because of 25 guys, and everyone else that had anything to do with the Texas Rangers from the front office all the way through the Minor League system. It's everybody's time. We just want to go out there and play our game, and if we can put our game together tonight, I'll take it, and I don't care what anyone else does. Q. Yesterday you were asked about the Oakland teams that you were third base coach with, that they had had 2-0 leads and you were very sound about the idea that this Texas team, that's not what's going on with you guys. Can you explain why this Texas team has something very different going on than what was going on in those two series? RON WASHINGTON: Well, when I was in Oakland, we had some superior pitching. We've got good pitching in Texas. It's not superior. And that superior pitching went out there, but we had an inferior offense. And when I mean "inferior," we didn't have the type of offense that we have now where power did it. Those times in Oakland, we were a team that could pitch, catch the ball, and we'll get one base hit in the eighth inning, one base hit in the seventh inning, and we'll win that ballgame. Well, this team can win a ballgame from the opening pitch. We don't have the same defense here that we had in Oakland, but we have some superior athletes out there that can play defense. And with each year that comes and goes and each ground ball that they get, they get better, and they will be at that point. Again, we tried to do it against the Yankees and the Red Sox. Now we're trying to do it against the Tampa Bay Rays, who are totally different in the way they go about their business, than the Boston team which could power you to death at that time and against that New York team which could power you to death. This team is good in different ways, where they can beat you with speed, they can beat you with a single, they can beat you with a home run. They have an excellent starting rotation. They have a very good -- very good depth in the bullpen. But we believe, we have attitude. We committed ourselves to be here, and a lot of times teams will commit themselves to do things, and it never comes to fruition. Well, it came to fruition for this 2010 Texas Rangers team. And those guys are very confident right now, they're very relaxed. I can't sit here and say what's going to happen, but I can't wait to get started. Q. I realize you're probably not going to answer this but I have to ask and maybe you'll at least let me in a little bit on your thought process. If it's going into the 9th inning, Cliff's got 115 pitches, he got out of a jam in the 8th, and it's a 2-1 game, what's the thought process you go through as far as what you do in the ninth inning? RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think it will depend on who's coming to the plate, what options that we may have. It may be a point where we have all these arms in the bullpen. You might see four or five guys. We've got to do what we have to do to get it done. I think a lot of it is going to do with Cliff, with that pitch count, how effective he still is and how he got to it. If it was stress getting to it, you probably won't see him. But if it was breezing getting to it, he can take it to the finish line. We'll see. But you're right, it's not anything I can answer now. Just got to wait, and I hope we get to that point. Q. Two things: From the standpoint of one last lap around the track, per se, does it make it easier because you can concentrate on one thing? And two, what's the confidence of your closer? RON WASHINGTON: It does make it easier because you concentrate on one thing. And I need to hear the second part of it again. Q. How confident is your closer after the two tough outings that he's had in this post-season? RON WASHINGTON: Well, Nefi is a very confident young man. Adversity is a part of baseball. He understands that. You know, in the job that he has, you get knocked off the horse, you've got to get back on. That's where his mind is. He can't wait until we put him in a position where he can get the ball again, and we're very confident that he will do the job. To be a 22-year-old kid, he's very cool, he's calm. You cannot teach experience; you have to experience experience, and he experienced it. He's ready to go. Q. How did it come about that you guys ended up having a team meeting? RON WASHINGTON: It was a hitters' meeting; it wasn't a team meeting. We always meet to go over today's pitcher, and that's what that was, and they invited me in, and I went in. But it wasn't a meeting where we called -- of the whole group. End of FastScripts |
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