AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v INDIANS

October 11, 1999

Mike Hargrove

A. Kenny, we just, about the seventh inning of game three, we didn't make pitches, plain and simple. I think last night's game is an aberration. I don't know that anybody has any idea of why last night, other than we threw a lot of pitches up in the strike zone in the middle of the plate. As far as tonight, I think you saw two ball clubs that had very tired pitching staffs. That's what you saw tonight. We just didn't make the pitches when we needed to. Plain and simple, that's the way it is.

A. Well, obviously he came in in the fourth inning and I don't think we got a hit from the fourth inning tonight. So his velocity wasn't the 95, 96 we're used to seeing him throw. He spotted his fastball well. He threw a couple 93s, if I was looking at it right, some good off speed pitches, some change-ups. I mean, he threw well. He pitched and he made his pitches. That's the difference. He made his pitches when he needed to. That's what he's done all year long.

A. Well, I'm not disappointed in the effort. I'm obviously disappointed in the execution. We felt going into this season that that was going to be one of the strengths of our club and through injuries all year long, even into the post-season, you know, it didn't stay consistent. We just were a little short out there, but I think mainly due mostly to debilitating injuries.

A. Mike, I felt that going with those three guys in a five game series gave us our best chance to win. I don't know that it was because of injuries to anybody. I just felt that -- this wasn't an arbitrary decision. I talked to a number of people. It was my decision, obviously, but there were a number of people consulted and their opinions gained and then I made my decision. I just felt that it gave us the best chance to win in a five game series going with those three and bringing Bart back. Bart was not tired when he came back. Bart just overthrew last night. He overthrew. He said he felt fine.

A. Got a pitch that came back over the plate to Garciaparra in the first inning, had a two run home run and then had a pitch that came back over the plate to O'Leary with a grand slam. You know, Charlie made some pitches but he missed his spots, and Charlie's last outing, he threw 90 pitches, and Charlie has come back on three days before; so, you know, tonight just, the effort was there. The execution wasn't. It wasn't just Charlie.

A. Well, obviously it turned out to be huge for them. You know, the way he was pitching, I don't think it made any difference if they tied the game or not. You know, Pedro obviously was the big difference in this game tonight, the way both clubs are swinging the bats. There were eight runs scored before, I want to say, the fourth or fifth, so there's a lot of lumber being swung early in this game and the difference between it was Pedro came in and shut us down.

A. Kenny, I explained this after the first time we pitched to Garciaparra. You don't pitch around people when nobody is on base. I mean, I don't know what I have to do to explain this to you. That's just a basic tenet of the game. Especially in a tie ball game, you're not going to put, you're not going to pitch around a guy if there's nobody on base. You pitch around people in RBI situations. We chose -- Nomar is such a good hitter with such good eye/hand coordination, we chose to put him on rather than pitch around him tonight. We have been handling O'Leary up until tonight and Troy got, I think he got a fastball out over the plate and I think it was a hanging split finger from Shuey and no difference, you know, there's no difference in the approach all the way through. We just, there was no way to pitch around him in the first inning because there was a man standing on first base. In subsequent times he came to the plate first base was open, we put him on.

A. Thank you. I appreciate that question. I thought that this ball club came out and played, showed a lot of character. I think that there were times that, things that I heard or read whenever I was in Boston that maybe the character of our team was in question at times. Anybody that's seen us play throughout the year should never question that. I think that was answered tonight. We showed -- we got our butts handed to us last night and our guys came out tonight and showed up to play and it just didn't happen for us, but we didn't just come in and just put in our time. We made the Red Sox play to win.