MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 18, 1997

Jim Leyland

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I thought he did a great job. I thought he settled down. He obviously was a little hyped up on the first inning, I thought he settled in and pitched good. Not quite as sharp, but okay. And that's a real powerful line-up. Obviously I'm very pleased with his performance.

JIM LEYLAND: I just felt like maybe Mike was setting me up to make the move with Branson and so I stuck with Livan, and then as you mentioned Bip had a couple of doubles, he had another shot that Livan caught, I think. Livan only caught it with his foot. I wasn't going to let him see him again. I thought it would be unfair to Livan. You never know how it was going to work out. But when the guy swung the bat as well as he did against him you can't let him in there in that situation.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, it's not just the postseason, I think it's been all year. If you look at our bullpen, Jay is still relatively young, Robbie is not exactly a senior member of the bullpen. Heredia is 20 years old. We picked up Steve Cook for -- excuse me, we picked up Cook for that reason, we wanted a veteran down in our bullpen, a left-hander that had some experience. And we felt like he had a chance to get a right-handed hitter out. He's done it all year. He's been very good all year.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I like that. I have no problem with that, as long as it's for the right reason. And I'm sure it was. But I have to do what I have to do as a manager to give our ball club what I feel is the best chance to win. So that's fine, I don't have any problem with that. This is the time of tension for everybody and there's going to be some guys that get fired up and get upset, but my job is to do what I feel gives us the best chance to win the game, that's what I'm going to do.

JIM LEYLAND: I said that earlier today when I came in before the game, I thought it was CJ that got us going the second half of the season, when we got some homeruns. And like I said, CJ, his offense is one of the things that got this club going. And certainly helped out again tonight.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, that's almost history already. Everybody knows about that, they talk about that all the time. And obviously that's pretty close to flawless, I would have to say. But like I said, CJ is a threat to do just what he did tonight, hit the ball out of the ballpark. When you get a catcher that can do what he does defensively, and also has the potential to hit 20 homeruns, that's gold.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, four RBI's in the first game against Atlanta. I think what people have to realize, you're going to face real good pitching pretty much every night during the regular season and definitely you're going to face it postseason. He got a big one tonight, hit it out of the ballpark, and he was our leading RBI guy this year. So he's a threat at any time, obviously.

JIM LEYLAND: I always like when Bobby works real hard before the game. He slacked off the first day of the workout because of the leg, but the next day he got a good workout. He was out working hard today, and in my opinion Bobby is always better when he goes out and gets all lathered up and does a lot of pregame work. When he does that, I think he's a much better player. I think it gets him zeroed in better for the game, and like I say, when he does that, there's no doubt in my mind when he does that he's a better player. But the leg is bothering him some, but okay.

JIM LEYLAND: Fortunately we don't understand one another (laughter.) No, there was nothing said. I usually don't have conversations on the mound because if you note the way I usually do it, I don't know for sure if it's right or wrong, there's an exception once in a while, but the way I usually do it is I signal before I ever get out there. Normally that's -- I guess that's some of my Minor League experience. I found out when you go out there once in a while the guy will talk you into letting him out there, and normally it backfires. In making your decision before you get there, he might still be mad, but you don't have much of a conversation.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't really think so. I think you're talking about two clubs that are here for an obvious reason. Both of us got on a little bit of a roll at the right time. That's one thing that everybody kept reminding me is that Cleveland was on a roll, a lot of things going right for them. They've earned that. They go right for a reason. And they go right for our club for the same reason. You play 9 innings, you play hard, and anything can happen. And I don't think it's -- I'm not such a big believer in destiny stuff, you got the right bounce and you got the wrong bounce. It can happen. I think it's more a big hit at the right time. Like Alou's tonight, that was a big hit, obviously. I don't think there's a lot of luck involved. Every once in a while you can get a bad hop. But for the most part you get what you earn.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, just because a guy doesn't pitch in a game doesn't mean he throws a lot. Robbie throws a lot. We had a simulator game, not for Robbie, but some of the other pitchers. You have to remember, I'm not going to put guys in just to get some work. Larry has done a tremendous job keeping them sharp, as sharp as possible. Our job is to win games. And if you feel it best you don't have to give somebody work, and you have to use certain people in certain situations, that's what you have to do. All of our guys are throwing a lot, just like Cleveland's pitchers are. Some of them face hitters the other day in a simulated game. But nothing is perfect. But Robbie was fine.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I thought they had a couple chances early to maybe put a couple more on the board and they didn't do it. We hung in there. Counsell had a great at bat to get it started. We did a lot of right things. But obviously the combination of the pitching that came in the game tonight, including Livan's start, one thing that happens is to me CJ and Moises Alou there's no defense to the homerun. You can't ever predict when it's going to happen and there's no defense for it. Obviously tonight at the right time we broke it open a little bit, but I don't know if you ever break them open with a team like Cleveland. We had a couple of balls that they couldn't catch it.

JIM LEYLAND: Whoever pitches best tomorrow is probably going to win the game. And I've talked about our local writers about that all year. I don't believe in momentum in baseball, it's only as good as your next day's pitcher. Whoever is going to pitch best tomorrow is going to probably win the game.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, I guess there's an inning or two where we tried to locate. But with the Cleveland ballgame, Alomar comes up in the last inning with the chance to tie the game up. You never feel comfortable until the last out. Particularly against a team like this. I really don't know a lot about their ball club, and I'm not a great scout. I'm a manager. But I can tell you after one night I can understand why they're here, they've got a lot of weapons.

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