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AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS YANKEES

October 4, 2019

Rocco Baldelli

New York, New York - postgame 1

Yankees - 10, Twins -4

Q. Could you talk about the Game 2 plans at this point?
ROCCO BALDELLI: Pitching-wise? Dobnak is going to start for us tomorrow. And I can announce Odo is going to start Game 3, as well. Again, I wanted to make sure we got through tonight and we were set to name these guys anyway. So that's what our plan was originally, too.

Q. (No microphone)?
ROCCO BALDELLI: A fine line. It was not an obvious move in any way. I think in this ballpark, the guy that throws the ball, keeps it on the ground pretty well was a good guy to look to. Dob's been throwing the ball great for us, so I thought it made sense.

Q. Do you expect a lot of the games in this series to go like tonight and the difference will be with the home runs, who hits them when runners are on base, and there will be a lot of strikeouts? Just the timing of the home runs with the offense will be the key?
ROCCO BALDELLI: I would expect it to be a decent part of it. When you step out on the field and watch our team, the Yankees, there's a lot of big strong guys out there. I would expect at least a few balls to be hit over the fence at some point. We had some good swings. We had our moments. Just by chance, there was no one on base when we popped a few balls over the fence.

But, again, that's probably going to be at least part of the story line on a regular basis this series.

Q. Rocco, how much did those extra outs in the third inning that the defense kind of gave them affect the way you had to manage Jose?
ROCCO BALDELLI: Overall, I thought Jose threw the ball pretty well. I think he pitched with his fastball pretty well. His breaking ball kind of came and went, but I think he was able to work through a few situations and do it pretty well.

We didn't make all the plays behind him. It did make it tough. We had to get some extra outs. We had to throw a lot more pitches. So he did have to work because of it and probably shortened the outing a little bit, which caused us to have to go to the pen and have to cover some more innings. So it's all related.

But overall, again, I think he competed well, kept us in the game, and certainly gave us a chance. Having to pitch through those instances that you mentioned, I think he did it reasonably well.

Q. Zack had a lot of problems with his control. Stashak centered a couple of pitches. They're rookies that are new to this. How much of that would you attribute to a big stage and their first time on it?
ROCCO BALDELLI: There's no way to know that. These are guys we have leaned on heavily throughout the year. We're going to continue to lean on them heavily. We're going to see them back out there and throwing in important situations. Because of the way the game played out, one or both of those guys was going to end up in this game pitching in probably an important spot at some point.

We tried to grab those outs early from Littell in the fifth, and it played out the way it played out. But our guys are resilient. Our guys have had outings here and there over the course of the year that didn't go as planned, and they come right back, and they're ready to go.

Q. Rocco, you're well aware of how patient and methodical the Yankees can be, but does seeing it happen on the stage in a playoff game difficult to prepare for experience-wise?
ROCCO BALDELLI: I mean, it looks like the same Yankee team that we've played against a handful of times already this year. They have a good offense, so they're a team that you know is going to have good at-bats. You know that they're going to generally lay off pitches out of the zone, and they're impactful. You know what, I think they resemble our team a lot, too.

Tonight overall, they played well and got the win, but our team, as a whole -- I mentioned our bullpen guys a few minutes ago, but our team as a whole has bounced back exceptionally well all year long. Regardless of what happens, the TVs will be on in the clubhouse, the music will be playing on low to medium volume, and guys will be just getting changed and getting ready for tomorrow.

Q. How did Arraez come out of the game? And did you think his ankle kept him from either making a good throw to first base or from getting to that pop-up in right field?
ROCCO BALDELLI: I don't think so. I mean, we saw him make all the plays yesterday. We worked him out pretty good yesterday. If he had a regular week of work, would he be making a better throw on the double play? Who knows. There's really no way to know that.

I'm going to bet on him every time being ready, making those plays. I think on the pop-up, it was kind of an odd play. I'm not sure if there was a visual issue or just missed straight out -- you know, a play that he probably makes more times than not. He comes right back, puts a good swing on the ball, and gives us a chance to do something on the other side of the ball.

So I thought he was fine, and I really wasn't worried about the injury issues at all. He came out of the game well.

Q. Rocco, in your bullpen with some of your leverage guys -- I'm thinking of Romo and Rogers in particular -- you've saved them through the season for late leads. Now, is there a point in the series where that might change, either due to results or process?
ROCCO BALDELLI: It could. We don't generally commit to anything early, but I think there's a chance that we end up running some of our guys that have pitched very late in the game. We could run them out there, probably still reasonably late in the game, but maybe push them up a little bit. Again, with the five innings we're going to cover out of the bullpen tonight, we could have seen -- we could have ended up seeing something like that. So that is definitely possible.

Tomorrow, after not throwing today, maybe it's even more likely that they get out there for more extended outings.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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