	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS v YANKEES

September 30, 2011

Joe Girardi

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game One

TIGERS: 1
YANKEES Â– 1 (2^nd INNING, SUSPENDED)

JOE GIRARDI: Nova will pitch for us tomorrow, and Freddy will go on Sunday. After that I can't tell you how we'll do it.

Q. Joe, you joked the other day you may be the first team ever to have a double-header in the playoffs. Is this appropriate for your team now?
JOE GIRARDI: It's perfect. The weather is not great tomorrow. Double-header is not completely out of the realm.

Q. Joe, is it impossible to bring CC back on Sunday?
JOE GIRARDI: Yeah, I don't think that's the right thing to do. Just because when you're talking about a real heavy bullpen -- this is more than a bullpen. And it's not the right thing to do.

Q. Now you only get to use him once in the series.
JOE GIRARDI: One and an inning and a half.

Q. Joe, can you just talk about how disappointing it is that with your ace going, after one inning, the game is gone?
JOE GIRARDI: We've been through this all year long. It's not what either club wanted. Both clubs have to deal with it. The one thing I probably learned as much as any other, you cannot fight Mother Nature.

Q. Do you anticipate losing the travel day Monday?
JOE GIRARDI: We're playing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday now. We will not work out Sunday.

Q. Will CC be available for Monday?
JOE GIRARDI: That's something we'll continue to discuss. That's why I said Saturday and Sunday I have. Monday I do not.

Q. You kind of worked very hard with your bullpen the last week to make everyone available in every game in this series. How much does this scramble how you can and will use your relievers the rest of the way without an off day?
JOE GIRARDI: You know, it's a little bit different. Guys might be asked to go three days in a row now. That's the bottom line. You just got to play it by each game and see how guys are doing.

Q. Joe, have you already talked this over with CC about when he might go again?
JOE GIRARDI: No, I have not. I'm going to wait to see how he feels Saturday and Sunday. And then we'll go from there.

Q. Would you anticipate him fighting you on this, try to talk his way into pitching even Sunday?
JOE GIRARDI: He might. He might. But you're asking an awful lot. And the thing is, when CC goes out there, you want a rested CC in a sense and a sharp CC. It's possible for him to go out there Sunday but I can't tell you what we would get because of what he went through. You warm up, which is a normal bullpen, and now you're asking him to throw -- what did he throw today, 25 pitches? 27, and eight warmups. You're talking about a lot of pitching. It's not early in the year.

Q. How much did the rain catch you by surprise?
JOE GIRARDI: We knew it was going to rain, but we didn't think it was going to rain this hard.

Q. You thought you would be able to play through it?
JOE GIRARDI: Right.

Q. Joe, there's a pretty good chance, unless there's a sweep, that you would need a fourth starter in the series, it looks like. For your candidates that you would have, are they all equipped to do it? I know A.J. was in the bullpen the other night.
JOE GIRARDI: No, that's something we'll have to talk about. A.J. is obviously the most stretched out for us in that situation.

Q. Joe, I was just going to ask if you had any complaints or thoughts of whether this could have been avoided given that it's surprising that weather would catch people this off guard.
JOE GIRARDI: The weather is tricky around here. We had one game here, we were trying to figure out it's 7:00 when we were going to play the split double-header. There was no way we were playing. And at 7:30 everything split, and we ended up playing. The weather is hard to predict around here. It's been hard to predict all year long.
No, I have no complaints.

Q. Joe, assume that CC does pitch one full game in this series, given his importance, how much does that compromise your chances as far as what you were trying to do here?
JOE GIRARDI: I think both clubs are going to kind of have to go through the same thing. That's the bottom line. It's not what we wanted. This club has been resilient all year long and has had to overcome some obstacles. This might be another one.

Q. Joe, obviously there was the one pop-fly home run. Other than that, is it kind of discouraging? It seems like CC was especially sharp today.
JOE GIRARDI: Yeah, he did look sharp. As I said, what are you going to do? There's nothing we can do about it now. It's too late to put a roof on.

Q. Joe, obviously you had confidence in Nova to make him the No. 2 game starter. Now he's essentially the Game 1 starter. Is there more pressure in pitching that first game and how do you feel about him handling that situation?
JOE GIRARDI: I don't think there's any more pressure pitching this game or any other game. You can look at it both ways. You can say if you're up 1-0, it might take a little off. If you're down 1-0, you might put a little bit more on. Now it's 0-0.
The pressure comes from within for all these guys. They don't get to this spot if they don't feel wanting to do well inside.

Q. Joe, with the four games in a row, any concerns about Alex playing four games straight?
JOE GIRARDI: No. We have a shorter game, I think, tomorrow anyway.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Joe.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297