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AL WILD CARD GAME: RAYS v INDIANSOctober 2, 2013Joe MaddonCLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Day Ray – 4 Q. (Inaudible) said after the game that he felt a lot of anxiety coming in and he was working against it. What did you see in him and how he was able to control it? JOE MADDON: He hit it very well because I didn't see that from the sideline. Even when Hick went out there, Hick was talking to him between innings and he did not reveal that to us at all. I'm looking at him out there. The delivery was good. Maybe it was revealed in the sense that his splitter changeup was not a good pitch for him today. He left a lot of those up. Had a really good hook today. The fastball had the velocity but not the same movement. So I guess what I'm saying is he pitched pretty darned good without all of his normal weapons. But from our perspective, you couldn't see any of the anxiety. Q. Can you talk about the accomplishment of going on the road two days and‑‑ JOE MADDON: Actually you've got to count Toronto, too. That was a crazy day up there just to get to the point where we could play again on Monday. That's three different venues, three difficult venues. Toronto was packed, also. Texas in a quasi playoff game that actually is a playoff game. And then today's game. All in enemy territory. I'm so proud of our guys. You had to be in the dugout to see, they were fine. Our guys were fine from the very first pitch. There was nothing going on except focus and let's go, and a lot of life, man. It was outstanding to watch. As a manager to stand there and see your guys to react to that moment like that, you've got to be very proud. Q. Would you speak to your defense and how many plays you made tonight? JOE MADDON: Yeah, I was talking about that, the infielder defense primarily, too. Those infielders, man. James Loney can throw the baseball. I mean, that's the thing about James: Everybody always talks about fielding, which you have to be a good fielder and kind of handy around the bag. But the thing that this guys does, he throws extremely well, and he's not afraid to throw. There are some first basemen that would not make the throw that he makes. On the other side, you've got Evan and Yunel, how about that. It's outstanding what they've done all season, and of course Zo. Jay Mo, no hits today, I don't think, but caught a great game. Whenever Jay Mo walks in a game, I feel very confident we're going to win, also. So that happened, too. But the whole infield defense, what you saw today is pretty much what I've been watching all year. Q. Why did you move Longo in the middle of Santana's at‑bat or was he already supposed to be over there? JOE MADDON: No, he didn't. Santana will bunt. He'll bunt, and sometimes he'll bunt up to two strikes. So at that particular moment, we said just go ahead and move. I definitely am willing to give up a run right there for two outs, so that's all it was. Q. Second throw that Loney made, can you take us through what you saw on that play? JOE MADDON: You've got to understand, everything is happening kind of like at the speed of light out there, and the guy hits the ball well down the first baseline. Now, had he just gone to second and come back to first, then that run cannot score, and I think he might have had a chance to do that, but he's computing all that stuff. Training, the ball took him towards the bag, step on the bag. Nobody on third base is a relatively easy play, but the runner on third‑‑ again, I give him credit for processing all of that.  He had forgotten that Longo had moved. We talked about that when he came in the dugout. So what he did, I was definitely willing to give up a run right there to get two outs if we could, even if he had stepped on the bag, thrown to second, they got in a run, a run scores, that still would have been a nice play. But I cannot fault him. That shows you how quickly he thinks on his feet. The one part of it he really did not process is the fact that Longo had moved. Q. Boston again, you played 19 times against them, you lost 12 of them, but they only hit like .208 against you. Can you explain the admiration there? JOE MADDON: Yeah, I think we probably hit .207 against them. I mean, they really pitched well against us. We just did not swing the bats well, and that speaks to their pitching. They have a really good pitching staff. They have a great starting staff. They have a tremendous bullpen. I do anticipate a lot of the same in the playoffs as we continue. We feel very confident about our pitchers pitching against anybody, and we've done well. Part of that is we talked about that prior to the fact that our guys are used to pitching or playing in that venue, whether it's Yankee Stadium packed, Fenway Park packed, we kind of dig it. Look at him tonight, he loves it. We're playing here in Cleveland packed. The guys dig it. I think that's part of it, why we're able to perform relatively well there. But by the same token, so do they, and they can really pitch. Q. The Indians closed out with 10 straight wins and it seemed they couldn't do anything wrong. Were you surprised the way they struggled with men in scoring position? JOE MADDON: You know, I wasn't there to watch all of that. I really like their lineup a lot. They present a lot of challenges with the back and forth, Bourn and then the switch‑hitter, left‑hand hitter, and another switch‑hitter. That's a lot to think about prior to a game. That's the thing about having a pitcher like Alex out there who doesn't know right‑handed from left‑handed hitter. And when you get more of those neutral kind of guys, they can perform well against both sides. So I think more than they did not come through, you've got to give him credit for making big pitches when he had to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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