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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v GIANTSOctober 31, 2010Aubrey HuffAndres TorresARLINGTON, TEXAS: Game Four San Francisco Giants 4 Q. Aubrey, being from here, growing up here, you've got so much Texas history. What did it mean to you to go deep in this game? AUBREY HUFF: It's certainly special. Haven't played these guys, normally we would play these guys before the Series started. It's in the back of your mind you'd like to hit a big homer to put you ahead. It's pretty surreal right now. Again, we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow. But definitely that was a big turning point of the game with Colby Lewis the way he threw yesterday just getting ahead, and Hunter is the same type of pitcher. To be able to get the lead, we can be a little bit more aggressive. Certainly special for me no doubt. Q. Aubrey, can you talk about the emotions. You are one game away. I know it's not over and you're not going to say it's over, but how confident are you and how good does it feel to be up three games to one? AUBREY HUFF: It's a good spot to be in, no doubt. But we had a 3-1 lead against the Phillies and they came back and beat us a tough game at our place and we had to go back and really grind out a Game 6, and didn't really want to go to Game 7. 3-1 is great, but this is the playoffs, and teams are certainly capable of winning three straight. We've got to go out there tomorrow and get back to work, act like we're down 1-3. Q. You guys were able to run Hunter out of there after three innings even though it was just two runs. Talk about your approach to him tonight. AUBREY HUFF: Well, I think the key, the last two guys you've got to get ahead because they're such strike throwers. They got a big lead early yesterday and we were forced to kind of sit back and try and get on and make some things and just kept pounding the zone. To be able to get those guys early and get us on the side where they're having to be a little bit more patient. When I hit the homer you don't know if it's going to hold up in this park, but certainly the way Bumgarner was pitching tonight it looked like it was going to be pretty good by the fifth inning. Q. What has this trip back to Texas been like? Has there been anything away from the field? Have you reconnected with anybody or had friends or ticket requests, any of that? AUBREY HUFF: Not really, man. There's requests, no doubt. It just can't happen. There's way too many people and way too many things. You only get so many. I'm not going to spend 100 grand on tickets. I haven't even really had a chance to enjoy it, to be honest with you. A lot of people in the hotel and a lot of fans, a lot of friends calling, emails. Looking forward to getting back home to be honest with you. Q. Andrés, you had been struggling, even taken out of the lineup. What's turned it around for you now that you're back in the groove? ANDRÉS TORRES: Trying to be patient, trying to calm myself down, just see the ball and hit it. Q. Aubrey, playing off the last answer, who has been here for these games among family? AUBREY HUFF: My wife's side of the family is here. My side of the family is here. I have some really good buddies here. I know a lot of guys from high school, they've bought their own tickets. They've been around but I haven't seen them. I had a lunch planned with them today but my two kids and my wife got a little sick this morning, so I wasn't going to be able to connect with those guys. But it's definitely special. You see so many faces you recognize in the stands during stretching and stuff. But once the game starts, you don't even really realize how many people are out there probably that I went to high school with or what have you. But it's certainly special as a kid growing up, watching all these games, and the old ballpark and now here, and to be able to come back and do something special like that, it's surreal. Q. And also just the process of you being on the Giants, I guess you signed in January and kind of a bargain from the team's perspective. What was that like? What did you see of this opportunity? And how long did it take to kind of present itself to you? AUBREY HUFF: Well, I had no offers at all in the off-season. There's so many good names out there on the market, and when the Giants called, you had to jump on it. Certainly being a left-handed hitter didn't sound really appealing hitting in that yard. But with the starting pitching we've had and the surrounding cast, this guy has got it going all year long. When this guy goes, we all go. You saw it tonight. That guy is our fourth starter, Bumgarner. Q. You just mentioned Bumgarner, when you see him 21 years old and up that kind of performance in the World Series what do you think? AUBREY HUFF: He's fearless, man. He came to the yard today and you could see he was just chilling. Nothing really bothers him. Put on some David Allen Coe on the playlist and let him go to town. He's just a big 21-year-old kid out there with a funky delivery and attacks the zone. With the young pitching this team has and Buster behind the plate, this team has a chance to do something special for quite some time. ANDRÉS TORRES: His ball moves. Everything he throws, he moves a lot. It's unbelievable to watch the way he throws, like everything -- he attacks the zone and he moves everything. That's why he's so good. He's mentally prepared, and he pitched a great game. Q. Aubrey, are you rocking the good luck charm thing? AUBREY HUFF: Yeah, it hasn't left my body since we started playing, since 30 games in the regular season. It's something you get quite used to after a while. I always wonder how women do it, but it's really not a big deal anymore. Q. Andrés, just looking forward to tomorrow, in a hostile environment, is there anyone you'd rather have on the mound than Tim Lincecum? ANDRÉS TORRES: Tomorrow is a big game for us. We're going to go out there and play hard, and let's see what we can do there. We're going to do our best. We're a team that always plays hard and give everything we've got in there. Q. Andrés, how tough is it to steal off Lee? ANDRÉS TORRES: He's a great pitcher. We're going to go out there, be aggressive and try to go do our best. Just try to get good pitches and see what happens. Q. Aubrey, Barry Bonds used to have a way of keeping his hands inside the ball and he'd hit home runs down the right-field line and they wouldn't slide and stay fair. That's exactly what your home run looked like tonight. Is there a way to do that? AUBREY HUFF: I think you let the ball travel. Tonight I let the ball travel and get deep, and when you allow that to happen, your top hand takes over and it allows you to get some back spin and keep everything fair. When you're jumpy, you're flying open, everything hooks. As soon as I hit that one tonight I knew I had it. Sometimes you get a pitch inner half like that when you're going bad, too pull happy, it falls off. But stay inside it nice, let it travel and took a good pass at it. Q. Can you talk a little bit more about growing up here? Were you a fan of the Rangers and go to a lot of the games and that type of thing? AUBREY HUFF: I mean, obviously I've probably been to, I'd say, 100 games in the old park and the new park. I grew up watching Nolan Ryan pitch. He's a childhood idol of mine. I wanted to be a pitcher because of him. Turns out I didn't throw very hard. I started watching Juan González, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, in the days of Steve Buechele, Ruben Sierra, Julio Franco. I grew up watching those guys and told my mom one day I wanted to be a professional baseball player, and probably, what, eight years old, nine years old, and she bought me a batting cage on a Winn-Dixie salary. Single mother raising two kids, to buy me a batting cage, I think she did it more to keep me out of trouble more than anything, and I don't think she realized how much I worked hard in that thing every day. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her making that decision. Q. Andrés, with all the years you spent in the Minor Leagues, did you ever think this time would come where you would get a chance to not only play in a World Series but make a difference? ANDRÉS TORRES: Honestly, like I said, I've been more of my career in the minors, trying to figure out how to hit and things like that, but being here, being with the Giants and the group of guys has been a blessing, and everything has been amazing. Q. You had two ex-presidents, 50,000 Rangers fans, did you feel that or did you hear those Giants fans that were chanting a lot? AUBREY HUFF: This place probably holds more fans than you can see around the league, and they're definitely hungry and they want this, and they're very, very loud. But to this day I don't think I can ever, ever hear a crowd louder than our fans in San Fran, man. They've been great. They've really root us on and we have a whole bunch of them up in the upper deck you can hear throughout the whole game. I've never been in an organization where you have fans that travel on the road like this. We have so many Giants fans, and the support this city has showed this team and kind of embraced this group of guys as far as the offense goes -- everybody knows what we're getting pitching-wise, but we've got a lot of old guys that came together and really had career years, starting with this guy. If it's not for this guy going to the top of the order and doing what he's done all year, Willie Mac Award winner, he's been our spark plug all year. When he goes, we go, and he did that tonight. You can see why we win so many games when this guy is getting on. To me he's one of our team MVPs. And a lot of old guys that the people in San Francisco can relate to. ANDRÉS TORRES: When we play we just try to focus seeing the ball because fans start yelling and all those kind of things. I just try to calm myself down and just try to see the ball and don't think about anything, just try to get on and do our best. End of FastScripts |
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