AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v ATHLETICS

October 8, 2000

Jeff Nelson

JEFF NELSON: Well, obviously everybody on our team didn't expect to come back for Game 5. When we went up 2-1, we were hoping we would clinch it in New York and wrap it up on Saturday. We wound up getting beat pretty bad, 11-1. In one good way, both teams were in the same situation. We had to fly and get in early in the morning, like 4:00 in the morning. It was kind of funny, a lot of guys wound up being tired, but this turned out being the best game out of the five.

JEFF NELSON: That just proved tonight, usually when you score six runs in the first inning, you're going to take the air out of a team, they're not going to play as hard. But, I mean, they're going to swing at some bad pitches; the pitching is going to come in and be tight. As they showed, a young team, a good team, they battled the whole month of September to win the division. They played hard against us. I mean, they never gave up against us, battling back. Andy shut them out in Game 2. They just kept battling them and battling them. I think they had guys on base every inning he was in. They are a team that doesn't die.

JEFF NELSON: You knew when the A's kept battling back and getting guys on base, it just seemed that they would never die. Andy was making good pitches. You knew this is Game 5. Obviously nobody is going to have any rolls. Mariano is going to come in late in the 8th or the 9th. As far as me and Mike, we're going to have to come in early and try to shut them down. Luckily, we were able to come in, throw strikes, get these guys out. You know, if we lose, we go home. If you don't use me or Mike early, you're wondering, "What if we would have used them in the beginning innings and what would have happened?" You have to do that. This is Game 5. They pitched one of their setup guys in Tam in the second inning or the first inning to get out of it. Appier came in to pitch. Both managers, you just have to go out and do what they did and pitch everyone, play everyone, and try to get a win.