AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v INDIANS

October 11, 1999

Jimy Williams

A. I think all year, but, you know, you get in the playoffs and you play in Cleveland and they've had all these playoff games, so we knew we were in for a tough battle; but it's like in my mind, they talk about an MVP maybe for our team for this series, I'd have to say it's the whole team, not just one guy, so maybe that kind of sums it up.

A. Well, he said he was good to go. Pedro's situation three days ago was better, but it really wasn't that good, yesterday was a little better. Then he came out around I think 4:00 today and made a few tosses and said his arm felt good. With that in mind we thought maybe a couple innings, you know, tops, but with what happened early in that game, wow. They came on early and then we brought in Lowe early and he's usually our ender, so we decided to go to Pedro and see how he felt. I didn't know if he would be able to go one inning, two innings, I didn't know. I don't think he knew how far he'd be able to go, but it seemed to loosen up for him. I think the big thing for him is he didn't try to overthrow, muscle the ball. He used his legs and he didn't try and muscle it and throw awfully hard so he was able to last that much longer in the game and complete it.

A. I talked to him in the clubhouse prior to our work out. He had already thrown. I wanted to find out what the man felt like. He said he felt good, you know, but that still doesn't tell you how he's going to feel when he gets on the mound and has to make game throws and then come into a game and have to get Major League hitters out, so I didn't know to what degree he felt good, but certainly with that in mind it was a positive remark and he had a good look on his face, so I said well, let's put him in, talking to Joe Kerrigan.

A. I guess, I don't know, maybe you'd have to go ask him. That would probably be a better person to ask. You know, we just try and take care of our own in our clubhouse. I can't really speak about other teams very well.

A. Well, you have to turn your rosters in when? What is today, Monday? You have to turn them in on Wednesday, don't we, before the game? We'll just savor this moment right now. We're not tired, though. I'll tell you that much. We're not tired. I don't know who the hell is going to pitch. Somebody is going to pitch, though. I don't know who is going to pitch now as we speak. I'm being very honest and I'm not trying to evade the question or hem and haw around, because I really don't know at this moment.

A. Well, you know, it's the playoffs and you can have three-game winning streaks in playoffs. It can happen. I've been involved in it, you know, I've been involved in a four-game losing streak with a club in a World Series, so just from my experience, you see it during the course of the season. Does it happen very often? No. I mean, you're playing a great club over here, this Cleveland club, so you just have to -- it's like I said earlier today, I don't know if you were in here, but somebody asked me about the importance of this game in my life and I said well, it's the only one we can play today so I guess it must be pretty important. But we fought out of that two nothing hole and a lot of people contributed certainly. You think about the kid, Merloni playing shortstop, first night, he's out there taking Nomar's spot, but it really didn't bother us because we had done it all year long. Guys had picked people up. So it really wasn't a different situation for us to be in that situation and have that injury there because it had happened to other people, Pedro was out. Saberhagen was out 24 days, didn't pitch. But they all seemed to pick each other up, so I guess in my mind, I think about the MVP of this series, it's probably every one of those kids.

A. See, he's a young man that hasn't had a lot of exposure, hasn't had a lot of ink, hasn't had a lot of people talking about him. But this kid plays both sides of the line and he plays it every day and he worked extremely hard in the outfield to become a good outfielder and then a good outfielder in Fenway Park and you look at his numbers, he's at 30 home runs, 100 RBIs. Who is this guy, who is this masked man, where did he come from, but he's a quiet kid and he doesn't like to talk a lot about what he's done, but you talk about coming up big in a game. Tonight. I don't think he ever hit a grand slam in his life. Tonight was his first one and then to back it up with a three-run homer to win that game, what a tremendous effort for a professional. I mean, he's a big game player. If you look at his numbers with guys in scoring position, you look at his numbers with guys in scoring position and two outs, that might reflect the type of hitter this kid is.