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AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS v ATHLETICSOctober 9, 2012Bob MelvinOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Oakland A's – 2 Q. Could you just talk about Brett Anderson and what he was able to do and did you expect him to be that effective? BOB MELVIN: Well, we did. We always feel good about when he takes the mound. We monitored him closely as far as his bullpens went. He goes very hard after his bullpen, so we felt confident that he was simulating that enough to go out there and pitch accordingly in a game. I don't know how you could expect more than we got out of him tonight. Q. A couple of times late you had an opportunity, maybe, to do a pinch‑hit, when Pennington got turned around right‑handed. Were you tempted to put in Gomes? BOB MELVIN: No, in a leadoff situation I'm not going to do that. It would be one thing if it was a tie game. Pennington is swinging it better. But if the occasion arises that somebody is on or you've got a chance to knock a run in with somebody on base, definitely we'd use them. Q. Did you have a pitch count in mind? BOB MELVIN: Right around where it was, yep. Q. Was there any argument ‑‑ discussion with him, did he ask to stay in the game? BOB MELVIN: There was a long discussion with him because he wasn't aware that there was a pitch count with him. Earlier in the game I don't think he felt as good as he did later in the game. But 19, 20 days off, we weren't looking for any more than that. And with our bullpen, with the day off we felt good about that, we didn't want to push him too far. Hopefully he gets another chance to pitch at some point. Q. Pretty huge sequence of events. Take the lead and then the huge catch by Coco. What kind of tone did that set within the dugout? BOB MELVIN: Well, it was good to get off to a nice start. Good starting pitchers, you try to get them before they get into their rhythm. We were able to do that, even though it was only one run with Sanchez, because he had good stuff tonight. Mixed his pitches well, very unpredictable. Only got one really, really good swing with Smith's home run. So it set a nice tone. Coco does that a lot for us by getting on, ends up scoring the run. Cespedes knocking in a big run like he typically does, as well. And we felt good about getting the fans involved right away, too, because they're, here recently, they've been the 10th man definitely for us, and we can feel them. It was nice to get a little momentum early in the game and carry it through. Q. A.J. Griffin, the guy wasn't even on the 40‑man roster coming into the season. Pitching tomorrow. He seems like he's been almost good oblivious to his surroundings a lot of times during the season. Do you expect him to be good oblivious tomorrow? BOB MELVIN: You always do. You look at his record and what he's done, he's had a couple of off outings, which everybody is going to have. But he really enjoys pitching. And certain guys are grinders, certain guys are kind of happy‑go‑lucky out there. He is one of those guys that really has fun with it and enjoys pitching, you could see that from the first game he pitched for us. I know he's excited about tomorrow. We're excited about watching him pitch tomorrow. Q. I know you preached the one game at a time philosophy. What does tonight do to set you up and give momentum for the next two nights? BOB MELVIN: Gets us to tomorrow. We'll go at it in the same fashion that we did tonight. And we'll go from there. Q. Everybody asks, and of course the natural: What are you thinking about when you're down 2‑0, you have to win the next game? Was there any feeling in the clubhouse about, hey, we have to do it or guys go out there and just play the same game they played? BOB MELVIN: I didn't sense any of that. We had a lot of fun earlier before we went out. The group was like they always are, that's something we encourage. And during batting practice, the same way. I think there was a good feeling about that. The first inning was great, to be able to score a run and again get the fans involved and get some excitement out there. Same atmosphere, I expect it to be the same tomorrow. Q. Seth Smith became a DH this year after years of being in the National League. How did you see him adapt to that? BOB MELVIN: You know, I think he was probably ahead of the game DHing in that he was used to pinch‑hitting quite a bit in the National League. He did play left and right field. I know from my days in the Diamondbacks, he got some big pinch hits off us. And I think that prepares that type of guy to be a designated‑hitter. And he kind of struggled with it early in the year, he preferred to play. But once he had the hamstring problem and all he could do was DH, he settled into that. I think he understands the role and understands what he has to do with keeping himself ready. Q. Go back to Anderson for a minute. Did he not know the pitch count or did you deliberately not tell him? BOB MELVIN: Yeah, we're not going to tell him about a pitch count. And as he's sitting over there right now he probably still didn't know there was a pitch count. He tends to argue some during the course of the game. He did not know there was a pitch count. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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