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AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS v YANKEES

October 1, 2011

Jim Leyland

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game One

Detroit Tigers 3
New York Yankees 9

Q. What kind of a look did you get at the play at the plate when Avila was thrown out? Did you get a look at him if he slides all the way down?
JIM LEYLAND: I think he was out. It was one of those where he hesitated a little bit. Grandy was pretty deep and over a little bit. Gene thought he could still score him, but obviously he did not.

Q. Jim, two questions about the double play Magglio hit into in the sixth. Did you send Jackson there? And when you see that play develop like that, did you figure, this just might not be our night?
JIM LEYLAND: Not really. We had him going. He just happened to hit it. Magglio hits that hole quite a bit. This one he happened to hit up the middle. He's pretty good at shooting the ball to right field in the hole between first and second. That one he happened to hit right at him, right where Robbie was going.

Q. Jim, your assessment of Nova? The Tigers didn't face him this year, except for relief. What would you say about him tonight?
JIM LEYLAND: I thought Nova was good. He was about what we expected, and he got quite a few outs in the strike zone. He also got a few outs out of the strike zone. And that probably hurt us a little bit. We didn't get him in the strike zone quite enough. Although he did get quite a few outs as well in the strike zone. He pitched well.

Q. Did you find that the Yankees adjusted very well to Fister as the game went on?
JIM LEYLAND: You know what, actually I thought Fister pitched really well. I thought Fister made one bad pitch all night. I thought that was the pitch to Gardner that he got the base hit on. I thought he pitched very, very well. The numbers won't look like that obviously because of the grand slam. But I thought he pitched very well. I thought he made a bad pitch to Gardner. I thought really that's the only bad pitch he really made.

Q. Jim, if you could talk about the Jeter hit on the hit-and-run play and just how much of a key play that ended up being. Ryan obviously has it going covering second there. Where that ball was placed --
JIM LEYLAND: It really wasn't a hit and run. It it wasn't a hit-and-run; he was stealing on the play. Derek did what he's done for a long time, he fought a ball off and snuck it through there. That turned out to be a big hit for him, obviously. We've seen him do that a lot over the years. It was not a hit-and-run.

Q. Jim, we've talked a lot over the years about how Cano hits left-handers as well as he hits right-handers. Albuquerque has been brilliant this year at stranding runners. Are those the reasons to go to Albuquerque there?
JIM LEYLAND: To me, that's one for everyone else to second-guess. To me that was a no-brainer. If Granderson would have got a hit to make it 6-2, I would have brought in Schlereth. But after he didn't, we loaded the bases. Left-handers are hitting .177 off Albuquerque, .200 off Schlereth. Cano is .320 off of left-handers, .295 off righties. Albuquerque has had a tremendous ratio of swings and misses. He had only faced him one time; he had struck him out. That wasn't the reason for it. I felt that's one of the reasons he's been so valuable for us is he gets both righties and lefties out. He's been tremendous, one of the best in all of baseball in swinging and missing. That's the reason. But obviously, that's one people could talk about. To me that was really a no-brainer. If Grandy got a hit to make it 6-2, I would have probably go Schlereth and saved Albuquerque.
I thought that was a huge out. He threw a slider and it didn't do anything. One of the best hitters in baseball hit it out.

Q. The way Justin Verlander was struggling to locate earlier and the way Sabathia was pitching, did you feel coming into today you had gotten the better of the rain delay?
JIM LEYLAND: I'm sorry?

Q. With the way Verlander was struggling to locate yesterday and the way Sabathia was pitching, did you feel that maybe you had gotten the better of the rain delay coming into today?
JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't really think about stuff like that. This is just a series where you're going to pitch your guys. Like I said last night, it was probably unfortunate for the national audience that they missed that match-up, but it looks like they'll probably get to see it again.
No, I didn't think of that. I thought Fister would be a good pitcher for us tonight, and I think he was. Like I said, I thought he really made one bad pitch, and that was to Gardner that he got the base hit on.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let you go. Thank you, Jim.

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