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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v GIANTS

October 28, 2010

Ron Washington

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Q. Can you talk about your decision with Vlad, and was it totally your decision or did he say something about it?
RON WASHINGTON: Totally my decision. There was no way I was going to come into San Francisco with two games to play and not have Vlad up in there to give me as many at-bats as he possibly can. I did it the first day, so tonight I decided to go with Murphy. It had nothing to do with anything that happened out there because Vlad didn't do anything out there that I have never seen another baseball player do in right field, so it had nothing to do with it.

Q. Was part of the reason to get another left-handed hitter in the lineup?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, part of the reason was to make sure that I get Murphy continuously engaged. He's been a big part of our success, and just as I didn't want to sit Vlad for two days, I certainly don't want to sit Murph for two days.

Q. What's the quality of your club that's allowed it to come back from bad situations?
RON WASHINGTON: A day at a time, staying in the moment, but trusting each other, knowing there's more than one game to be played. It's a seven-game series. If you put too much emphasis on what happened the day before and not learn from it, then it can confuse you the next day. We're not confused. We know we got beat yesterday. We got beat solidly. We just have to tighten up our game, and we will go out there tonight and try to perform the way we know we can perform, and when it's over hope we've got more runs than them.

Q. Not to belabor this but you were fair adamant last night that Vlad would be in the lineup and something has changed evidently. Can you walk us through what your thinking was last night when you said he would still be in there?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, once again, me being the manager, I have the right to change my mind (laughter). I decided today that I wanted to go with Murph. If we come back here for Games 6 and 7, if it happens, you will see Vlad up in there one of those games and you'll see Murph there for the other one. I really don't have more of an explanation than that.

Q. Josh Hamilton was talking at length the other day about the changes in his life and his personal journey. I was wondering if you could talk personally about the growth you've seen in him the last few years.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, the growth has really been tremendous. You know, he's matured. I think he's learning a lot more about Josh Hamilton and he's learning a lot more about the game of baseball. I think he's beginning to learn exactly what his presence in our lineup means. His ability to show up every day and go on the field, even if he's not feeling at his best, I think he's grown a lot in that area.
You know, he believes in his teammates. He knows how much they believe in him, and he certainly wants to be able to show up every day and just be a part of what we are trying to do.
You know, with that, he ended up putting together a tremendous year, and it certainly isn't anything that he's not capable of doing. He's capable of doing this for many, many years into the future, and I think the more he plays, the more he begins to understand, and the better he will be. But he's a tremendous athlete. He certainly is one of those five-tool guys in the game of baseball today. I know we talk about it, but he is certainly one of them because he can do everything. He makes our lineup go.

Q. For many of us who won't be able to talk to you before the next game, can you talk about what it's going to mean to your area, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area to have a first World Series there.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think it will mean everything. It's been 50 years. Our fans are starving for a championship, and they showed up, and they proved it. Once they come to the ballpark, they're about as loud from the first pitch until the last pitch. You know, it's all been football in that area, and it's nice to take a little spotlight away from the football team. That means that we're doing a good thing because we're playing baseball deep into October, hopefully into November. The people are excited. The fans are grasping to a lot of things that the players are doing to make the game fun, and it's nice to see that they can associate with that.
It's going to be tremendous, but I want to keep our focus on today.

Q. How did you develop that Treanor catches C.J. Wilson?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, Matt and Molina during the summer, they're two veteran guys, and during the summer one caught three, one caught two. Once we reached the playoffs, I decided to go with Molina's experience. Matt has certainly been a big part of us being where we are, and I believe in keeping all my guys engaged. He's a tremendous receiver, a tremendous blocker, a tremendous game caller, and I've got to keep him engaged, so he gets one game. And the one game he gets is C.J. Now, why C.J., because they've worked well together, and I just wanted to keep them like that.

Q. Josh talked about his tendency when he was younger to maybe obsess over bad at-bats or bad games. When you talk about his maturity, is that part of what you see his growth in that area?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think what growth in that area he has accomplished is he's not now concerned about results. I think he's more concerned about trying to take what the pitcher gives to him and more concerned with trusting his teammates, that if a pitcher decides that he don't want to pitch to him, that he's willing to pass the baton.
You know, a competitor thinks that a lot of times that it's all him, and it shows a lot of maturity when you begin to start trusting everyone else that's around you, and I think that's what Josh has gotten.

Q. As a shortstop Michael Young gave you another Gold Glove. Where is he as a third baseman defensively?
RON WASHINGTON: Still growing. He's still understanding. You know, at shortstop you have a lot of time to look and react. At third base it's a do-or-you-don't, you-will-or-you-won't type situation. Usually the first thing that hits your mind is what you should do, and I think sometimes he's still fighting with that.
But he's gotten better since the first time we put him there. You know, you're sort of blind at third base with the ball coming off the bat, so it's going to take a lot of reaction. And he's still developing that reaction. I think as we continue to move forward and as each year comes and goes that he gets an opportunity to be over there through the years, it's only his second year, he will be better. I think he'll figure out the guys that bunt a lot more. He'll be able to figure out who's the guys that pull the ball, who's the guys he can play off the line on. And these are things that it takes time and it takes experience to develop, and he's developing it.
He's a professional, and I think as this year winds down and we get into next year, into Spring Training, I think he'll come out a better third baseman.

Q. Speaking of maturity, have you ever seen a kid at Andrus' age as advanced as he is at that position?
RON WASHINGTON: I've never had a kid as advanced as he is at his age. I never have. And when I speak of Elvis, I always say, the people that touched him have done a tremendous job. I'm talking about the Atlanta Braves, the Texas Rangers. He has an awareness that you don't see in young kids. He has a feel for the game. And I think a lot of this he's gained by being able to play winter ball at a young age.
You find a lot of players today, once the baseball season is over, baseball is over. But being from Venezuela and they play baseball over there and he's able to play all year-round, the thing about the game of baseball, the more you play it, the more you begin to learn about it. And I think at a young age he had that opportunity, and it's showing right now. It's showing right now.

Q. Last night a lot of your players just talked about the game not being clean baseball, and that's how they lost it. What do you attribute that to? And then also can you take me through the last 24 hours and what you and your players have been doing to put this game behind them?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, first time in a World Series. There probably was nerves going on out there. I don't think any player would ever say that that happened, but there probably was. It wasn't the type of game that we can play. We're a very good team defensively, and we believe in playing defense. We just didn't do it last night.
But I don't think the defense beat us last night. I think the San Francisco offense beat us. We made some mistakes, but the six runs that they put up on the board in that fifth inning, they were all clean. They smacked the baseball around.
After the game, you know, we do what we always do. We battled, we fought, we didn't die. We got punched hard in that fifth inning but all it was was a hard punch because we kept fighting and we ended up putting seven runs on the board. So right there we knew that we can score runs, it's just a matter of us making sure that the plays that are to be made, we make them. Execute our pitches as we have been doing, and everything else falls into place.
The last 24 hours, just went home, got something to eat, slept, came to the ballpark and got prepared. Learned from yesterday, go work out today, play the game tonight.

End of FastScripts

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