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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v GIANTS

October 28, 2010

Bruce Bochy

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Q. Everyone talks about the Ballpark in Arlington as a hitters' park. Is it mostly the way the ball travels through the air? What about the park makes it so ideal for hitting?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I haven't spent a lot of time there, but the little bit of time I've spent there, it just carries well, especially in that left-center, right-center area. That's what I remember about it. But being in the National League I just don't see a lot of it, so I can't give you a great answer on that.

Q. The designated hitter, have you narrowed that down at all?
BRUCE BOCHY: No, we'll talk about it tomorrow. We leave tomorrow for Texas, and we'll discuss it on the plane. I told you my options yesterday, but no, I have not come up with a lineup. I'm just focused on the game tonight.

Q. During the season there were a couple times where you guys scored a ton of runs in one game and then the offense struggled the next couple games. How do you go into this game keeping the bats hot and avoiding that?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, you hope that the guys build on what they did last night. We're facing a tough pitcher, very similar type pitcher, left-hander with great stuff. You go out there and you compete. You don't expect to score the runs that we scored last night. We know that. That's probably not going to happen as we well know. But you just try to figure a way to score enough runs to win a ballgame, and what I do like from what I saw last night, I saw the guys went out there and competed against a very good pitcher and had some quality at-bats, and that's what you need to do when you're facing a good pitcher.

Q. You've always had a lot of faith in Jonathan Sanchez. You always talked about his potential. Could you talk about him coming together, the momentum that he had to help you guys get into the World Series?
BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, Jonathan has done a great job for us, especially down the stretch. He really has grown as a pitcher as the year has gone on. He had the one hiccup there in Philly but he was the guy that was on the mound when we clinched this division. Had a great game against Atlanta and really has done a much better job of keeping his poise out there. He had the one tough game, and all pitchers are going to have it. We saw last night, two great pitchers that weren't quite on top of their game. You gotta wash that off and be ready to go to the next start, and we have all the confidence in Jonathan that he'll do that.

Q. What's enabled AndrÃ©s Torres to emerge at a relatively late stage of his career?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, that's a good question. The only thing I can say is some players arrive a little bit later with experience, confidence. He's always had the tools, but probably has never gotten quite the opportunity that he got here when Aaron Rowand got hurt. He got some playing time, and he took advantage of it, and he didn't stop with his defense or his hitting, running the bases, stealing bases. You're excited for a kid like this who later on in his career finally gets a chance and takes advantage of it. He's a big reason why we're here. He's our lead-off hitter, and I think he's emerged as one of the better lead-off hitters in the game with the numbers that you look at, stolen bases, extra base hits, on-base, things like that.

Q. Pat Burrell has said he didn't like DHing or wasn't that comfortable doing it in Tampa. Do you go take that into consideration or do you go with what you think is the best lineup?
BRUCE BOCHY: No, I think you have to take that into consideration, which I have, and when we do have a DH it doesn't mean that he won't do it. He has done it and has experience at it. But if a guy is not comfortable doing something, you don't want him in that position. That's part of our job putting a player in that position where he's comfortable and can succeed.

Q. You've had a new hitting coach this year in Bam-Bam Meulens, and your team's hitting stats weren't great, but you did have a terrific approach against Cliff Lee yesterday. I was wondering if you could tell us what impact he's had.
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, Hensley really has done a great job of having these guys prepared, staying positive. He's here early every day doing his homework, helping the guys with the pitchers that we're facing, what he thinks is the best game plan against them, and he gets the players together and they also talk about the pitcher that we're facing or the bullpen guys. But Bam-Bam has got a great way about working with all the players and keeping them positive and believing, and I think he's done a great job. He doesn't let these guys get down, and that's probably as important a part of his job as anything is to get them to believe, and he has them believing.

Q. You have a lot of Latin players on your roster. This World Series probably has more Latins between both teams. You played in Latin America yourself. Could you talk about what Latin players bring to baseball and the contribution of so many Latin players on your team?
BRUCE BOCHY: Well, there's so many tremendous Latin players in our game today. I played five years of winter ball, and I loved it. It was a great experience for me and really helped me stay in the game. Being a role player, I had to go down there and continue to work on my skills. But I think what you see when you go to Venezuela or Puerto Rico or Dominican, I haven't played in Mexico, but they play the game the way we did probably 40 or 50 years ago; they go to the park, they play all day, and that's their passion, and that's the sport that they love to play. That's why I think we have so many great players here, because that's what they do. A big part of their day is play baseball, and they love it. They certainly have changed our game with the talent that they have brought.

End of FastScripts

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