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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v INDIANSOctober 6, 2007Doug MientkiewiczNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day Q. What's your sense of what Alex is going through right now? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: I'd have to say, the first night I thought he did a good job, really. Last night was, he's tough on right-handers, but just get him to relax a little bit. I've been texting him back and forth this morning to keep his mind right. So he's been through this before. We just need him to be him, and then let everybody else do our own thing. The first night we did a good job as far as getting guys on. We lacked the big hit last night. I believe in him probably more than anybody else outside of his family. So I've seen him do it before. He'll do it again. We've just got to keep plugging along and get him in situations to where, you know, they have to come right at him. I said that before, but I believe in him. He's going to come through, I promise. Q. Can you shed anything further on what you texted him this morning? Anything in particular that you're trying to do to keep his head up as you said? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: Just that's pretty much between us. Nothing major. Nothing earth shattering. You know me well enough that nothing really earth shattering comes out of my brain, so everything is pretty much just, enjoy your day, relax and try to win each pitch come, what's today?, come Sunday. Q. You've been on teams, we all know the Red Sox, coming back from a big hole. Andy and Roger and Derek and the guys have done it with the Yankees. What is the most important factor of digging out of a hole where you're facing elimination? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: I think for one, it is the make-up of the club, and we have that. Two, it's I thought what Terry Francona said to us was perfect: He always said, "win today." And it sounds so simple, but I think if you get too wrapped up in, you know -- we have to at the time we were down 3-0, try to win four, it sounds so large. If you go into each day, win today. That's it. And you keep it simple. Like I said, we've been in a must-win situation since May 29th. So, you know, this team has come together through all those months. And this is not a situation that we haven't been in before. We had to play in must-win games for four and a half months. Why should it be any different now? Q. How do you view the offense over these first two games in the series? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: I would say we did a good job, a decent job the first night. Last night you can kind of call it either way; you can say bad offense, great pitching. His ball last night was moving pretty good. You've got to take your hat off to him. He didn't pitch in ten days, and his ball was down. The first night we did everything right except get the big hit. We felt that, you know, you're not going to score 7 or 8 runs off C.C., and we had him on the ropes for like two or three innings in a row. So one big hit... And we had the right guy up. We had Jorgie up both times. I'll take that every time. But we definitely have to do something better if we want to keep this thing going. So we all know that. I said we've been in this situation before. Take what they give you and try to win each pitch and not get overwhelmed by what we're up against. Just break it down and win one pitch at a time, and we should come out okay. Q. How bizarre was the bug situation? You were flipping your glove up. You were combatting that stuff for a while. Can you talk about the strangeness of the night in that regard? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: I got a lot of phone calls, people thought I was senile at bat in the 8th. I know it didn't look like it on TV, but the joke around the guys was that we all had Derek Jeter's Driven on, and all the bugs were attacking us, so. You can make all the excuses you want. They had to play through the same thing that we did. You know, Joba looked like the movie, "Bees." He had them all over his neck and his back. But then again, so did their guys. But we don't make excuses. They had the same conditions we did. It's a shame it came down to that in a key situation in the game. But we play through rain, we play through snow, we play through cold. It shouldn't make a difference. Your focus is so intense at that moment, it shouldn't matter. But it's not fun when you run down the line and you've got them in your nose and your mouth and your eyes. So I'm just thankful that the ball Hafner hit me, I didn't have any bugs in my eye, because I'd still be laying there. Q. In 2004 you were sort of the villain in here. How much are you looking forward to tomorrow night being on the good side with the fans and everything? DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ: We need them more than ever now. We need the fans more than ever. But this is the greatest place in the world to play a baseball game. And it's a lot more comforting knowing you're coming in here with them wearing the pinstripes than on the other side. So like I said, we believe in ourselves. We believe that this thing's far from over. And I believe in every guy in that room. You find out a lot about yourself when you're up against adversity, and this team playing right at home last night was very -- the plane ride home last night was very comforting. Guys were together, like we're a family, man. We're not ready to go home yet. End of FastScripts |
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