AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS v WHITE SOX

October 3, 2000

Lou Piniella

LOU PINIELLA: Good, and you?

LOU PINIELLA: Well, it gives you confidence that you can come in to Chicago and win. But this is almost a brand new season, so to speak, so... We've played well on the road. We won the wildcard, got all four we needed on the road. So we feel that we can go into opposing team's ballpark and play ball and win ball games. From that standpoint it's important.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, first of all, Paul's been in our rotation for about three-quarters of the season. He's done a very respectable job. Truthfully, we didn't have many choices. But at the same time, we have all the confidence in the world that Paul can go out there and pitch a good ball game for us. He's had some games this year where he's really been dominating. We're hoping that tomorrow he gives more of the same. But, remember, Sele pitched on Sunday, Halama pitched on Saturday, Moyer, he'll be available either out of our bullpen tomorrow or ready for this weekend. So Paul was the obvious choice, and we're very comfortable with it.

LOU PINIELLA: That's always a problem for a ballclub, to put together 25 players. It's always a bigger problem for the manager, because he's the one that's got to inform the people. We would have loved to have 30 players for this playoff, and I'm sure that Jerry Manuel will tell you the same thing over there in Chicago, but unfortunately you got to go with 25. Our original plans were to go with 10 pitchers and 15 regulars, but that didn't materialize because the fact that we were extended till the last day of the season. Also, Halama pitched on Saturday. Jamie had a throw day yesterday, where he wouldn't be available. And if for some reason this game here goes extra innings, we didn't want to be short pitching-wise. So that's how we came up with the eleven pitchers. I would have loved the flexibility of having another player on our roster, but our bullpen, outside of Tomko, is all short and if we had to eat up innings, we didn't want to be short coming right out of the box. So we went with the eleven pitchers, and we went with the -- I'm sorry, 11 pitchers and 14 regular format. And the White Sox basically did the same thing. But I think our preference all along would have been 15 and 10. It just didn't materialize. Now we could change that. If we're fortunate enough to win here against the White Sox in this series, we can change that for the next playoffs go-around.

LOU PINIELLA: Well, they're similar in a way but really they're not. They have -- Garcia throws a little harder. He's got a curveball, changeup. Abbott's got the slider and the changeup. Again, we didn't have too many choices, and even if we, I'm not saying that we wouldn't go the way that we're going. They've gotten us here, and we feel very comfortable with both of them. I don't think they're as similar as what you would think. Garcia's fastball has more of a sinking motion to it than Abbott's. So we've got two right-handers going, I think against a line-up that the White Sox throw out there, I think right-handed pitching can get the job done and that's the way we're going.

LOU PINIELLA: We have a veteran ballclub. I think veteran ballclubs, with the experience that they bring to the party, have a much better chance of winning on the road than younger teams. At the same time, you look at our situation from an offensive standpoint. We are No. 1 on the road in road batting average, and at home we're dead last at home batting average. How you explain that, I have no idea. But we seemed, especially since mid-season, to play much better on the road and put up more offensive numbers on the road. That's one of the reasons that we've been able to win. I think we won, what, nine out of ten last road games? And we've played very good. I think the experience of the ballclub has more to say with it than anything else.

LOU PINIELLA: You know what? They were all tough because, truthfully, you don't want to exclude anybody from this type of environment or situation. They've all had -- they've all contributed and at the same time you don't want to exclude anybody. It's difficult on me because I have a lot of feelings for my players. At the same time, with the pitching, Pineiro's pitched well against this ballclub; he started here this summer and pitched very well. Plus, he was a long righty. At the same time, Ramsay with Rhodes, Halama and Moyer, we didn't feel we needed four lefties. Although Ramsay's done a nice job for us. So we went more with the right-handed pitching, knowing that we couldn't start both Moyer and Halama in the series, we're gonna have two left-handers in the bullpen at all times anyway. And that was the general thinking as far as how we put our pitching together for this series.

LOU PINIELLA: We really didn't have any. I had to make a choice between Oliver and Wilson catching. We've gone back and forth with that all year. And basically, this is the line-up that has played for the most part of the season, although we've had to mix and match, as you all know. But I feel very comfortable with the line-up we're running out there. We've got some good left-handed hitting on our bench in case we need it. Our line-up is experienced. This is a line-up we all felt very comfortable with.

LOU PINIELLA: The managing got better. (Laughter.) No, I don't know. I really don't know. We were basically about a .500 or slightly below team for the first half of the season. And the last three or four road trips that we went on we started to play much better. And, you know, confidence plays such a big part in the equation. When you start winning on the road, we went to Boston in early September and split with them there, although we won the last two out of three, and then we went to Toronto, played well there. Then we went on that road trip to Baltimore and Tampa Bay and played very well there and finished it up in Anaheim. It's been a steady progression. I think that to win a division or to get into a wildcard you need to play well on the road, you need to be above .500 on the road. I think we're what, seven over or eight over? What's our road record? Seven, eight, I'm not sure. Whatever the number was, it was good enough. But, you know, 81 games on the road and 81 are at home. The amazing thing is that we probably played better on the road the last, what, 45 days or so of the season than our home record. Our home record, at one time, was much better than our road record and it sort of started to come together. But you got to win on the road to get to this -- White Sox won on the road. You look at most of the teams that are the vast majority of the teams that are in the state team Round Robin and their road records are all good.