AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 9, 1998

Jim Thome

JIM THOME: Well, you know, with Andy Pettitte, you have to be ready. He's around the zone a lot and personally I think they've been trying to establish their fastball inside and, you know, I was fortunate tonight to get in some good hitting counts and when you're around the plate, when you get in counts to hit in, it's -- you know, and you can put the ball in play. To be honest I've had a very tough time with their left handers and to hit the two homeruns was nice, but it definitely wasn't on my mind hitting homeruns. I was just trying to put the ball in play.

JIM THOME: To be honest, no. The way O'Neill was going back, I thought he was really camping under the ball, and I don't know if the wind was blowing it back, but I was trying to blow the ball out a little bit so it ended up working out well.

JIM THOME: Well, we knew going into New York that it would be nice to get a split. We got the split in New York, you know, the extra inning game I think was big for us. To play a long game and to get that win and knowing we were coming home, you know, momentum to me -- with these two teams, I don't think there's momentum. I think at any time the Yankees can explode and run 3, 4 games off like that. For us, we have to stay focused tomorrow and just try to do what we did tonight. I think the bottom line is, when you get good pitching and put yourself in situations to win by having good pitching, it's contagious. Bartolo did an excellent job. You've really got to credit him. He gave up a run in the first inning and settled down after that.

JIM THOME: Really, to be honest, the pad that they made me was never a problem. To be honest, I think it was -- it felt like Spring Training kind of all over again. Especially against left-handed pitching. To be honest, I really haven't felt comfortable. The first week or so that I came back I was just trying to get a feel for it and -- actually, the ball I hit off of Rivera the other day that he caught, I felt that my stance was kind of getting back to that feeling of where I was before I broke my hand and, you know, it is something about momentum. It's about getting good pitches to hit. And putting yourself in good counts to hit in.

JIM THOME: Not really. Not really. At that time, it was early August and with the broken bone, -- to be honest, it never really entered my mind. When I found out that I had fractured it, my next step was how long is it going to take and I think the Indians did an excellent job at bringing me the right way -- I could have probably came back in three-and-a-half weeks but they -- knowing that September and we were going to clinch the division, I think they did an excellent job and it's worked out.

JIM THOME: Well, I think this team believes in itself for sure. To be honest, we never got together. We knew coming in this series that the Yankees have really been the team to beat all year. Obviously, with what they've done in the regular season, for us -- going in and playing against the Yankees, you have to bring your game to another level and the two games that we've won, we've won because our pitching has put us in situations to win. Nagy, you know, you look at the game with Nagy and Cone. We don't ever get in that situation if Nagy doesn't put us there. And the same thing with Cone. He put them in situations to win also. So, tonight, definitely after the first inning when they got the run, you could kind of see the momentum. You looked in the bench, they kind of felt that the momentum was shifting and Bartolo did an excellent job. He settled down and for a kid that has really never been in this situation pitched an excellent game.