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AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS v YANKEESOctober 2, 2011Jim LeylandNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game Two Q. Jim, from what you've gathered so far, how is Verlander? And what do you look for to determine how he's doing? JIM LEYLAND: I think he's doing great. I talked to him. He actually would have pitched today if I wanted him to. I didn't think that made much sense. He'll be ready to go. He'll be ready to go tomorrow. I think he feels good. We'll have to wait and see. But he's fine. Q. Jim, if it goes to a Game 5, how much would he be available in an all-hands-on-deck situation? JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think you just have to play that one by ear. You certainly wouldn't take any chances. We'll have to play that by ear. We'll have to get there first. So we'll wait and see how that all plays out. I mean, is that a possibility of using him, you mean? Q. Yes. JIM LEYLAND: In a relief situation or something? Q. Yes. JIM LEYLAND: I guess that's a possibility. I probably would rather not do that. But Game 5, you'd probably do just about anything. But not at the expense of hurting any pitcher, let alone one like that. Q. Jim, does the work the other night give him a little bit shorter leash than he normally could or would you let him go 120-plus tomorrow? JIM LEYLAND: I'll watch how the game goes. Use common sense. That's what I always try to do as a manager with my pitcher. You get a feel for -- sometimes power pitchers like Verlander, there's a little more effort involved than there is with somebody else. You take a guy like the Yankees pitching today a guy like Freddy Garcia, he's very smooth and not a lot of effort and everything. It can be a little different sometimes with guys like that. When you get sometimes power pitchers, particularly if they get in trouble early in the game and they have to exert themselves a little early, sometimes that changes things later in the game. Q. Jim, Joe Girardi was in here talking before about Freddy and how he gives a different look than their other pitchers, more of a finesse guy. I'm wondering how much of a challenge do you think that is for a lineup to adjust from power to finesse from one game to the next? JIM LEYLAND: That's a great point. We've seen Freddy for a long time. He knows us and we know him. Basically, Freddy tries to get you out a little bit out of the strike zone. He's very good at teasing you. He's very good at throwing pitches that look good enough to hit but a lot of times you mis-hit the ball. So you have to be patient. I didn't think we were as patient last night as I would have liked to have seen. Obviously we know Freddy a little better. Hopefully we'll be more patient today. He's a very smart guy. He's a very good pitcher. He's very tough. We know that going in. He's not going to give in. He's not one of those guys that gets behind 2-0, going to lay a fastball, try to get a fastball for a strike. He'll use all his pitches at any time. He's a very sharp guy. Q. Jim, I remember in the '06 series, you dubbed the Yankee lineup Murderers' Row plus Cano. Now he's a little bigger part of it. What are your thoughts on his maturation as a hitter and where he stands? JIM LEYLAND: This is, I'm not going to say the best, sometimes that's a bad choice of words. My staff think he's one of the top five players in all of baseball without question. He's a great player. He's one of the best players I've ever seen. He came up on the big stage last night. He's hitting a little bit earlier in the lineup than he did then and for obvious reasons. He's just a tremendous player that came up huge last night for them in Game 1, and we have the utmost respect for him obviously, as we do the Yankee team. It's an outstanding lineup, and I thought Fister really did a good job. I really did. I thought Fister pitched a very good game. The big bomb obviously blew it open a little bit so it looks a little bit different than what it was. But I thought, as I said last night, I thought he only made one bad pitch, and that was to Gardner. I thought he did a great job with that lineup. And it's one of those lineups that there's no breathers. Some lineups you get through a certain part of it and you don't relax, but you don't have to bear down quite as much as you do. But this lineup is so good from top to bottom, and we think ours is, too. Like I said, we got out of kilter a little bit last night, but Nova pitched very well. Got us out in the strike zone. As I said last night, a lot of times out of the strike zone I thought we were a little antsy, and we're going to have to calm down a little bit. I don't know if the hype of the first game and all that went on, but we'll see. Q. Jim, have you guys in your scouting meetings at all talked about how Teixeira is trying to use more of the field from the left side? JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, but I'm not so sure I buy that at Yankee Stadium. I think he's a threat any time he walks in there. His strong suit is hitting the ball out of this ballpark, as well as a lot of other ballparks, because he can do that. But this is an ideal setting for him. And I think when he gets his shot they can say, use the whole field and all that. I kind of hope he does. I hope he goes to the opposite field all day long, to be honest with you. Q. Jim, last night Cabrera didn't get a chance to swing the bat with men on base until his last at-bat. I don't want to say it puts more pressure on your top two guys, but is it a little bit different when they're able to pitch to him without the potential for multiple-run damage? JIM LEYLAND: I think they obviously -- Joe managed the guy, everybody has the most respect for him, we have a good hitter behind him and it's a little different. When men are on base he's a different hitter obviously. They are trying to do what everybody does, trying to keep guys off base for those guys and hopefully have him hit with nobody on. That's what you try to do with a guy like that. You try to keep the damage to a minimum. That's normally by keeping other guys off the base. We got in a situation last night where Cano is a guy that we're very aware of, but when the bases are loaded, there's not much you can do. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We'll wait for Justin. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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