MLB WORLD SERIES: PADRES v YANKEES

October 18, 1998

Jorge Posada

JORGE POSADA: I don't really like him -- I am just kidding. But I mean I can relate to him because what he went through is just my father went through that too. My dad is Cuban and I know it is tough for him. At the beginning it was very tough. He didn't know who to -- I guess trust or, you know, it was tough for him. I try to help him and he didn't know who to trust. I tried to help him in any way possible and he was at the beginning, he kind of shied away but then he saw the guys that wanted to help him and I mean, he has come along way since he got here and he has got a lot of friends here, a lot of guys want him to do good. He is a wonderful story. Hopefully he will keep his career going like the way it started.

JORGE POSADA: What do you think? He was -- I mean, strike one, strike two, fastballs, curve ball, change, kept the hitters off balance. A lot of lefties had -- the lineup was full of lefties and he was impressive, you know, I didn't know -- I mean, you have to ask some of the hitters because I see the ball just coming, but he is sneaky. He has got a fastball that is sneaky and the angles he has got a lot of arm angles and he comes right at you. He throws a lot of strikes and the runs helped him a lot too. He relaxed and he is a lot of fun to catch.

JORGE POSADA: I don't think so. First of all, he is not a rookie out there. I mean, he knows how to pitch. He had been in these situations, he knows how to get the guy out -- I mean, get a strike out when he needs it. He knows when he gets in difficult situations, what to throw. I mean, he showed it today. He was coming into lefties, going away to lefties, into righties, away to righties. He had a good plan today and he followed it the whole way.

JORGE POSADA: I think he goes more with instinction, I mean he doesn't know any of them. Just, you know, he saw David Wells pitch before and David Wells is a lefty, but he went more with instincts, he went more with his game plan. He was going in with his strength. That is what I was saying.

JORGE POSADA: I couldn't answer that one. I mean, I am not the hitter up there. I am calling the game for him. I am trying to help him. But I couldn't answer that. I can tell you, he had a good fastball today. That is all I called today. It was all fastballs at the end.

JORGE POSADA: We got some clutch hits. That is the main -- that is why we won the last two games. Hopefully we can still score some runs the next couple of games. I don't know how many are going to take, but it is good to get some scoring and the pitching can relax and the World Series it is going to be decided by pitching and defense, to score some runs like this is a plus.