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MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 18, 1997

Livan Hernandez

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Game One

Q. Livan, how upset were you to come out of the game? We don't usually see you show any kind of negative emotion.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I did get a little angry today because we're down to the final games of the season and today I got behind on a few of the batters and I showed emotion.

Q. Was any of the anger because you had to come out of the game?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: No, I didn't get angry with that at all. I was angry with myself. No, because I was done there, and I made way for the relievers and the good work that they did, and that was it.

Q. Livan mentioned yesterday that the only World Series he ever saw live was the last one last year, can you talk about the experience of actually pitching in one today, was it overwhelming and anything along those lines?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: It's a very good experience. It's a very exciting experience. We're now in the World Series and whoever wins four games is going to be the champion, and we won our first game. The team played good defense behind me, Charlie Johnson caught a great game, and I'm just very excited.

Q. When do you think your family will hear of this, and your neighbors back in Cuba?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: They've already heard the game. They've already heard about it. They've already heard the news. I don't know if they were watching it.

Q. As a child, did you ever dream that this is something that you would do, that you would accomplish?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: When I was a child I didn't even think of this, because it's something that hadn't even passed through my mind. But this is a tremendous dream, pitching in the World Series, it's the maximum.

Q. Livan, Jim Leyland said that you were not as sharp tonight as you were in your previous start, could you talk about any difficulties you had at all?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Today my pitches were a little low on the hitters and I was falling behind in the counts. The only one I really didn't like was the pitch I threw to Manny Ramirez, I let it go and tried to pull it back because it was coming out of my hand. That was the only curve ball I threw over the middle of the plate and he hit it for a homerun.

Q. Livan, did you talk to your family or how do you know that they know?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Those are the things I know. They told me yesterday that they were able to watch some of it on TV, and I just know they were watching.

Q. When you first got on the mound were you anymore nervous tonight than you were for any previous start in the season because of the World Series?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Today I wasn't anymore nervous than any other games, I felt fine. The only problem was I only had my fastball working and my breaking ball was just not there tonight, I had bad pitches.

Q. Are you aware that he's beaten two Cy Young Award winners, and is that a thrill?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I didn't know about today's pitcher that he had won the Cy Young. It's something very good to face pitchers that are that good and to confront them and then to be able to come out on the winning end, that's something you should feel very happy about.

Q. Livan, you had some trouble sometimes in the Minor Leagues, struggled a little bit at first, can you talk about how you've grown and if you're more comfortable, how much more comfortable you are now?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I've changed a lot. I'm a very different pitcher than when I first started. From the beginning I've changed a lot, my mechanics, my pitches, my mindset, a lot of things I've changed.

Q. Did you miss Eric Greg's strike zone?

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Not really. Today I had just bad pitches, I wasn't throwing them as well and I wasn't hitting the strike zone. I thought the home plate umpire did a good job of calling the pitches tonight.

End of FastScripts….

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