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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v CARDINALS

October 28, 2011

Ron Washington

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: Game Seven

Q. How can your club discard something like last night quickly enough to go out there and win tonight?
RON WASHINGTON: Because they're professionals, and they realize what's at stake, and they understand how baseball goes at times. They have nothing to be ashamed of. If they can bring the game they played last night into tonight, we have nothing to worry about, and we believe we can. And that was the message I sent.
Two champions are playing, and last night was a contest where two champions just kept going at it, and one of them got the last blow. But there's still a game to be played. It's a seven-game series. We knew that when we came into it, and it's two pretty good teams that are similar in the way they go about their business, and we'll come out tonight, we will get after it again and see what happens.

Q. La Russa was in here and told us that he was nervous for the game. Just wanted to get your feelings for this Game 7 here tonight.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, if Tony is nervous, then how can Ron Washington not be nervous? (Laughter).
You know, it's energy that you have inside of you because you don't really know what's going to happen until you get out there on the field. But he didn't say he was scared, so it was all right to be nervous. So if he's nervous, yes, I'm nervous. But I definitely trust my guys. I believe in them. They believe in each other. And we believe that it's going to be another exciting ballgame tonight, and we hope that tonight if we put ourselves in position where we need three outs, we can get them this time.

Q. Coming off last night, do you think you have to give any speech to the team before the game to make sure emotionally they're not dead after what happened last night, or do they bounce back?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, I took care of that killing the dead emotions last night after the game. Yes, I have intentions today of saying a couple of words before we go out for BP, but it's not going to be a rah-rah speech. It'll just be along the lines of this is what we came into Spring Training for, and the series is going seven games. And we'll definitely make them understand that they're champions and we're playing against champions, and tonight will decide. That's it.

Q. Do you prefer going against Carpenter on short rest compared to regular rest, and why?
RON WASHINGTON: I have no preference. If we've got Carpenter tonight on regular rest, there's nothing I can do about it. He's on three days' rest, and there still isn't anything I can do about it. All we're going to do is go out there with our game plan and go against him, and if he executes his pitches, he will be executing just as well as any other pitcher.
It doesn't matter to us. Right now it's baseball's final game of the year. I have no feeling about it one way or the other.

Q. Both Mike and Nelson seemed pretty banged up last night, in Cruz's case coming out of the game. How were they feeling today? Was there ever a question about getting those guys in for a Game 7, or is that a moot point?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, I think Mike took care of that point last night the way he stayed in the ballgame, and I think if you watched the rest of the game, he didn't show any ill effects of it. Obviously he twisted his ankle. He's in today early getting treatment, and he's a gamer. He will be in the lineup ready to play.
Cruz, he's moving much better than he did last night. We're going to take him through BP and see how he comes out of that, and then we'll make a call. But as of right now, both of them are in the lineup, and if we have to change, we will.

Q. What's the status of your bullpen, anyone who's unavailable today, particular Feliz?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, Colby Lewis is the only one that probably won't be available tonight. Everyone else is, including Holland, including C.J.

Q. Given that Carpenter is on short rest, does that enter into your game plan at all as far as trying to work up his pitch count or anything you might do a little differently?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, this guy throws the ball over the plate with movement. If our guys step in the box and his movement is taking it out of the zone, we'll leave it alone. But we certainly can't go into this game thinking about building up his pitch count and keep falling behind in the count against him. He let ball go, ball cross plate, in strike zone, we're going to hack. (Laughter).

Q. You're only human; did you spend any time last night tossing and turning going over decisions you made or didn't make, things you could have done differently?
RON WASHINGTON: No, I certainly didn't. Through everything that happened in that ballgame, I had the right people in the right place when we could have won the game. I don't second-guess myself for that. As I told you, it's the players that make you look good or it's the players that make you look bad. I'm not saying my players made me look bad last night because we didn't win it because it's in their hands. I'm in the dugout praying to the Lord to get me three outs. That's what I'm doing.
It's up to the players, players on both sides, my guys to get the outs, and the St. Louis guys are trying not to let us get the outs. It worked in their favor. I got home last night, I packed up, I got into bed, and I slept until 10:30 this morning. I got up, I feel as good as I've ever felt. This is what you play for.
Am I nervous? Yeah, I've got to be nervous. But it's anxiety just waiting to get started. I didn't toss and turn. I feel good, and my guys walked in the clubhouse today normally the way they usually do. You can barely hear yourself in there right now, the music is blasting, all types of music. They're walking around joking with each other. Nope, we're ready to go.

Q. Very late in the game last night after the Cardinals had come back for a second time, there were men on base, the crowd was going crazy and they had a shot of you in the dugout, and Joe Buck in a very sort of staccato, deliberate way said, "They. Just. Won't. Go. Away." Is that what it felt like? Is that sort of an accurate assessment?
RON WASHINGTON: Very accurate. They just would not go away, and it did not matter where they were in that lineup, whether it's the strongest part of the lineup or the part that you may consider the weakest. It ended up being the strongest last night constant. They just wouldn't go away, and that's the heart of a champion. We're champions, too.

Q. What can you share with us about that meeting that you had with your team last night? Just wondering what their mood was at that time and what the gist of your message was.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, the mood was they just took a blow to the gut. It was like -- I don't know, you play on the sandlot ballfield and you get the wind knocked out of you, and you keep calling timeout until you can catch your breath. Well, they took a blow right there. We was one pitch away from being world champions, so it took a blow. But in baseball, the bottom line is you have to get the last outs. That's why not anyone -- and you hear people say, anyone can get the last three outs. No, no, no, no. You've got to have a special, special soul, special mentality, special aggressiveness, something, to get those last outs. We didn't get them.
So yes, it was a blow to them, but I also wanted to make them understand that the prize that we're trying to get is still in front of us, and this series started off seven games. Two teams, very equal are playing, we've got seven games, so we'll bounce back tomorrow.

Q. On the subject of the last three outs, Feliz obviously gets within one pitch of getting them, doesn't get them, you get a quick lead again with Hamilton. How much thought was given to Feliz in the 10th or were you just going to go lefty-lefty in the tenth?
RON WASHINGTON: The lineup set up perfectly for lefty-lefty, two lefties and a pitcher. The Lord just didn't want this game to end in six. That's all. The matchup couldn't have been better. I give Descalso credit. It's my first time seeing this kid. He battles for his at-bat. I give Jon Jay credit. He hit a little blooper down the line, but that happens, and they ended up driving in the tying run in that inning. So you've got to give everyone else that came up there credit. But it set up perfectly.
We was destined to play seven games.

Q. You talked about how these guys are professionals, and they're going to come back and fight no matter what. At the same time do you feel like it's important to get that first run across the board to swing things perhaps back in your favor and absolutely erase what happened last night?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, we can get one run across the board early but more than one run is going to win this game, that's for sure. You always want to get out front first. You always want to do that. But you've got to understand those guys that's toeing that rubber have something to do with that, too.
We're going to put some runs on the board tonight. I don't know how many, but we're going to put some runs on the board tonight. And in reverse, they're going to put some runs on the board tonight. The bottom line is when nine innings is over, and I hope it's nine, not 11 or 12, have one run more than them.

Q. For those of us who don't know Feliz very well and don't cover him, there's a bit of a language barrier with some of us. Tell us a little bit about his confidence level after last night and after taking some lumps along the way. Where is he mentally with the possibility of being out there again tonight to win?
RON WASHINGTON: He's very stable. We certainly didn't have to put a respirator on him. We didn't have to shock his heart back. In this game there will be days when you don't have good days, and I think if you talk to Neftali last night, he didn't feel like he it was a good day.
My part, if we are in the position tonight to shut it down, I'm giving it to Neftali, and I expect him to close the ballgame down.
As far as his mental state, he never looks like he's worried to me. Last night he had a chance to save the ballgame, to take us to the World Series, and he didn't do it. Because of his competitive juices, it bothered him, and it would bother me. And I hope it bothers everybody that was in that room. But I mean, that's the only extent of that. I think after he got home last night and slept on it and came back to the ballpark today, he's begging for another opportunity. And if we give him that opportunity, I am going to give him the ball, and I'm going to sit over there and watch whichever way he decides he wants to get three and hope that he gets it tonight.

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