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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 14, 2015

John Gibbons

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame

MODERATOR: Okay, we're going to get started again. I'm going to ask you all to put your cell phones away one more time for 15 minutes. Who has a question for John today?

Q. Gibby, I heard back in the other scrum that you don't want to use David, you're not going to use David Price at all today. Are you willing to be talked out of that by David Price?
JOHN GIBBONS: Don't count on it, you know? One of the reasons we used him so long the other day knowing if he got in the game, he probably isn't going to pitch today anyway. So we're going to really ride him on Monday. We feel good with what we have right now. Hey, we'll see where it takes us. We feel pretty good winning two games there to get back to Game 5 here, so we'll see. We think we've got a good enough team to do it.

Q. Obviously the home teams have had a hard time winning at home?
JOHN GIBBONS: Yes.

Q. How much do you think momentum from the bats coming alive in Texas will help here today?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, we'll find out. What we do is we hit. That is our trademark. It made a huge difference in those games down there, we scored some runs early in must-win games and it did wonders for us so hopefully we can do it again today. Hamels is always tough, so you don't expect to put a lot up there, but I think if we get the same recipe, score early, might do wonders for us again.

Q. John, with some of your guys unavailable, when their lefty hitters come up late in the game, what's your plan of attack?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, we've got a lot of relievers that are throwing really well right now. Of course, you have Osuna there at the end, Sanchez is on a nice little roll. Lowe, look what he's done all year. One of the better relievers in baseball. Hendricks, he's been pitching well. He hasn't pitched a whole lot yet. So we feel good about the guys we have. There's no doubt Cecil going down was a big blow, but that happens, what are you going to do? It just means somebody else has got to step up. Our guys are fully capable of that.

Q. John, with having anybody available given the rest days, with the exception of maybe Price, does it change how you -- are you managing out by out almost or is it more in kind of inning, chunks of innings?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, I mean, you know, the reality is we need Stroman to be really good today. That's just a fact. We expect him to be. The starters got to be good especially in the situation we're in right now so I'm going to let him run it. If it's a struggle early, we've got some guys that can bail him out and hopefully hold down the fort until we can get back in it, one of those scenarios. But he's definitely the key guy to give us a chance to win especially early to the middle of the game, and I expect him to do that.

Q. Just out of curiosity, is it a little different with David because he is a free agent? You used that phrase the other day. He's not here to be abused, whatever. Does that enter your mind at all how you manage a guy?
JOHN GIBBONS: Well, I look at it this way: David came over here through a trade. He's a huge part of us even getting here. He relieved a little bit when he first came up with Tampa, right? He's been a starter ever since. The first game here we asked him, he was up ready to go possibly in the first game in Texas, so he was up and down a couple times. Then he got in the game on Monday, so it's not something he's used to. Now on one day's rest, he threw a lot of pitches. Maybe if this is the World Series and this is your last go, there's no holding anything back. But I have a conscience, I'm not going to abuse him, I don't think that's fair to him, I don't think that's fair to anybody else and I'll stick by that because he's done a hell of a lot for our team.

Q. When it's a one game win-or-move-on type of thing, do you worry about your guys particularly at the plate trying to do too much, trying to step up there every at-bat and try to do something spectacular as opposed to what you guys did all season, working the pitchers and that kind of thing?
JOHN GIBBONS: You hope not, but you have to go back to those two games in Texas where our backs were against the walls. We really came out -- it looked like our team all season. Good at-bats, a little more patience than we had the first two games. But I said, I think it was yesterday, Gallardo and Hamels had something to do with it, too. You can't be too patient with them because you know you're 0-2 every time you step in there. Yeah, I just think those two games in Texas really was who we are, whether that carries over, hopefully it does today. We'll find out. But you know, I think the fact that we had much better approaches the last two games in Texas put us in a good position today.

Q. A couple plays in this series and one in the other in the American League, there's been some over-slides and with instant replay. Do you guys tell your infielders and your baserunners, hold onto that bag, keep the tag on the whole time? And are you looking at that more carefully with instant replay?
JOHN GIBBONS: Yeah, definitely the infielders, they all know it now. Hold the tag, tag down. I saw that one down there in Houston the other day, I mean, if he came off, it was one of those quick ones. I'm not sure that's what they intended replay for because when a baserunner's got a head of steam going, he's in a pop-up slider, going head-first, it's sometimes tough. It might be that small second he comes off the bag. If it works in your favor, it's great, but if it doesn't it's kind of unfortunate. That's the way it goes. And I'm not so sure that's what they intended it for, but if that gets you a big out, great. But the infielders all know hold it because they've got a lot of momentum going into that bag and there's a good chance they're coming off for a split second anyway.

Q. Dickey was a little upset or shocked when you gave him the hook when you did. Have you since sat down to talk to him about why you made that move and how did that conversation go?
JOHN GIBBONS: No, I haven't had a chance to sit down with him yet. I'm not so sure how upset he was. You know, the way I view it is this, I have a good relationship with all those guys in there. And there's times during the season you make tough decisions. In a normal setting, in a normal regular season game that doesn't happen, and if it's not Price coming in the other day, it's not happening, right? But the team's trying to win a game, that's the most important thing regardless of who gets the credit for the win, this or that, that's the way I view it. But there's a soft side of me, too, that would love to see everybody get a win, a save or all that, but I think there's more important things than that right at the moment.

Q. Could Dickey be a guy against a lefty out of the bullpen just because the knuckleball is as unpredictable as it is to hitters from either side of the plate?
JOHN GIBBONS: It's always a possibility. It's really hard to say.

Q. Gibby, the sentiment I'm getting from people across Canada right now is that most of them are nervous, they're edgy, they don't know what to do with themselves. How's the manager feel?
JOHN GIBBONS: I thought everybody, they wanted to kill Harold Reynolds. (Laughs.) I'm glad they're focused on the team. I feel good, I feel confident. Somebody's going home today. But we felt terrible going down to Dallas but the fact that we got it back here, we're feeling good, as we should. We're probably as confident as we can be, so we've still got to go out and play it.

Q. You've done this every day for a great part of your life. Have you got the butterflies?
JOHN GIBBONS: Oh, yeah. I generally get butterflies before a regular season game, too. I think that's human nature in a lot of ways. But it's definitely different. But we feel good, we got to this point, 2-2, I'm not sure anybody expected that, so why not feel good.

Q. The Giants, obviously when they won the World Series those few times, they had a lineup of a lot of guys who put the ball in play to keep rallies going. You guys can hit the ball out of the park but have a higher contact rate now that Revere's here. How important is that in the Postseason to have guys that are just keeping the ball in play to make things happen?
JOHN GIBBONS: I do think that's big because generally what happens, I think, in Postseason speaking from watching it over the years is you run into the top pitchers, they make less mistakes, they don't give up as many homers and things like that. I'm talking about your top dog. So generally it's going to be a low-scoring game. And what wins that is putting the ball in play maybe, a ball sneaks through, somebody boots a ball or a contact play scores a guy from third base. That's generally what happens so that's always a concern when you're basically a long-ball type team. But you know what, when you can hit the long ball, you never really feel out of a game, you always think you can come back, but who knows for sure how on that particular day it stacks up.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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