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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: TIGERS v RANGERS

October 13, 2011

Jim Leyland

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Five

Detroit Tigers Â– 7
Texas Rangers - 5

THE MODERATOR: Jim Leyland is here. Who has the first question tonight?

Q. How tense was it for you to have Coke in that situation, Jim, particularly when they started kicking things up there in the ninth?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, it's what we said before the game. So it gave everybody a chance to get all their second-guessing ready about it. That's just the way it had to be today. We talked about it before the game and we did exactly what we felt we had to do to give ourselves any chance to win the series.
We had to leave those guys off today. Benoit and Valverde. We did. Cokie came through for us today. A little different situation for him obviously, but he was up to the challenge.

Q. Jim, can you talk about what worked for your guys against Wilson and that hitting for the cycle in order how wild that was? What you guys did well against Wilson and four guys in a row, hit for the cycle in that wild inning?
JIM LEYLAND: I thought we did a good job. He's an excellent pitcher. He comes right at you. He has a lot of late movement on the ball. He's very good.
But we hung in there, and we did enough to get this one, and we're headed back to Texas.

Q. Jim, can you talk about Young and Avila fighting through injuries and doing what they did tonight?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, like I said, we're tough. The Texas team is tough. That's the way it's supposed to be. This is really a great series. I mean, this has been a tremendous, tremendous series in my opinion.
A couple of extra inning games where a home run looked like the score was a little lopsided. That's not true.
We've done a good job against an outstanding team, and we're still playing. And that's pretty good.

Q. Jim, you've now had two elimination games in the Yankees series and the Rangers series where you've gone in saying we're not going to use Verlander in New York, we're not going to use Benoit and Valverde. Both times it worked. How tough is that, though, to stick to that in an elimination setting?
JIM LEYLAND: You just have to be ready for the criticism and the second-guessing part of that. You have to be ready for that and know you're going to get it. I understand that totally. I don't have any problem with that.
But it's not tough. It wasn't a tough decision for me today to tell you before we ever played that Benoit and Valverde were not going to pitch. People might not like it, but it was not a tough decision. Because you know why? In our heart, in my heart, it was the right decision. No question about it, a no-brainer for me. Regardless of what people think, that's fine. They need it. They get two days off now. We go to Texas with Scherzer and Fister and both of the big guys at the tail end of the bullpen are ready to go.
You lose today, you leave yourself open, but we're used to that. And that's a good part about baseball. Second-guessing is good. Vicious is bad. Second-guessing is good.

Q. Jim, you managed a lot of years in a lot of teams. Can you describe what you're seeing out of your players the last two weeks?
JIM LEYLAND: You know, we've been good for a while now. You people forget we had to meet Cleveland head up when it was real nip and tuck. We had to meet the White Sox head up. We played Minnesota in the stretch. We won 12 straight games against Cleveland and Chicago. That's pretty good. Most people picked Chicago and Minnesota to win. That's pretty good.
Like I said, we're tough. I think -- what I like about this the most is I know that the Texas Rangers respect us and we respect the Texas Rangers. I know that they believe we're a good club or really good club. And we know that they're a really good club. That's the way it should be. The guys are going at it.
If you see the injuries and everything around the way these guys are playing, how can you not be satisfied with this? Would I rather be up 3-2, yes. But I have no problems no matter how this turns out. We're going to keep playing. I don't know how -- what the score is going to be, but we're going to keep playing. We've done that all along.

Q. Jim, just talk about Verlander 133 pitches, a career high. And how worried were you about him early on when that pitch count was climbing?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, you know, he was sailing through there where the pitch count was decent. The fifth inning was a disaster for us from the pitch count standpoint. I was concerned. I wanted 125. That was going to be the limit. We talked in the dugout, Jeff Jones and I, and we were going to 135 pitches. That was it.
He's going to rest now. Obviously, if we don't move on, he's done. And even if we were fortunate to get to the World Series, we can make an adjustment if we need to do give him an extra day.
So he's here now. He makes out the lineup and he tells me what to do anyway. I'll leave now and let you guys talk to Justin Verlander.

Q. Jim, just Cabrera's double hit off the third base bag from your eyes.
JIM LEYLAND: I know. I have that bag in my office right now. And that will be in my memorabilia room at some point in my life. I can promise you. I'm going to let you have Justin. He deserves it.

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