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AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v ANGELS


October 11, 2009


Bobby Abreu

Vladimir Guerrero


BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three

THE MODERATOR: We have Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero.

Q. Bobby, on your ninth inning double, looked like that pitch was well up out of the strike zone. Wouldn't that be a pitch you might normally take?
BOBBY ABREU: Well, in that situation it looked like I was supposed to take that pitch. But you want to be aggressive. Especially with Papelbon. He's one of those guys he come right at you. He just -- he's not afraid to throw the fastball. So I just -- I knew that any fastball middle away it would be something good to hit, hit the ball the other way, especially on the big wall. So I took my chances on that and be successful.

Q. Stick with you, Bobby. Your expression when the ball hit the wall was, and I think everyone noticed that, you're excitement when the ball actually hit the wall.
BOBBY ABREU: I was so excited, especially in that kind of situation. You need a hit. You need to keep the rally, keep it going. You need to stand up in that situation and show if you're a good hitter that's what the good hitters, you want it to be. That's what happened. That's my reaction. That was so emotion. I was so happy to do my job over there and to help the team, keep the running going. To score some runs there.

Q. Vladimir, can you take us through your last at-bat and just to come through in this clutch situation, how do you feel about that?
VLADIMIR GUERRERO: When they walked Torii, my main focus was to go get a good pitch to hit and thank God it came through. And the main thing is that we were able to have that great comeback and win that ballgame. But mainly I was not looking for any particular pitch. I was just looking for a strike to hit and he threw me a strike and I was able to hit it up the middle.

Q. Bobby, besides scoring more runs than they did, what were the things you guys overall in this series, did better so that you guys won?
BOBBY ABREU: We was attack most of the game. We have always guys on base. We always start rallies. Even if you have a guy on first and second, you always attack against these guys. So we know that we have to score runs because you never know whenever they come back. So that's what we did this series and that's why we win.

Q. Bobby, you had a lot of great wins in your career, series wins mostly in New York. How does this stack up? It seems as if this has been a special year for you.
BOBBY ABREU: This is one of the most special wins. This is the win that helped me to go to another level to another series. I never been in that situation to play the other series. Always shut it down in the first round. So now to me to go to the second round is something special. I wanted to play that round. I wanted to have the experience to go to the World Series. So now I'm close.
Just one step to doing that, to get that. And that's what makes me happy. This is one of the most best games of my life.

Q. This is for Vladimir: Is this in fact the biggest hit of your career? Was this something that you've always thought about throughout the course of your career, to be in a position like this to have a hit like you did?
VLADIMIR GUERRERO: We're going to continue to work hard and see what happens. We don't know obviously who we're facing, the Yankees or the Twins.
But going back to the beginning of the question, yes, one of the biggest hits. I'm not going to say it's the biggest hit, but he said one thing that does bring to mind is that we lost a teammate earlier. When it comes down to honoring Nick Adenhart and what happened in April in Anaheim, in that respect, yes, probably the biggest hit, because I'm dedicating that to a former teammate, a guy who passed away.
And more than anything, he understands also the importance of the situation that he had. And to be able to come through is big. Now is the time of just waiting and see who comes up for the second round.

Q. This is to Vlad. You've been on the losing side against these guys a couple of times as a veteran player. How special, how wonderful is this to finally beat them?
VLADIMIR GUERRERO: It certainly is a different feeling and one that we as a team wanted to experience knowing that three years that he was here they got taken out by the Red Sox. In that case, the difference he thought was the emotion of the team overall from the beginning of the season carrying all wait through the series. It seems like a more emotional team, a little more gutsy, more put together. He is actually very happy to see it happen on this side with all due respect to the Boston Red Sox.

Q. For both of you guys: The hitters in front of you that inning, it seemed like there were a lot of pitches from Papelbon, two-strike hit by Aybar, Figgins full count; did it get easier -- did it help against Papelbon that seeing all the pitches he had to throw in the inning?
BOBBY ABREU: Of course, it helped. When you see a guy -- when you have a guy in front of you, it took a lot of pitches, it helped you to see how the philosophy of the fastball and especially on the split too. And his commitment, his command. It depends on where's going to be the fastball. And he was throwing a lot of fastballs middle away and a high fastball away. So you can decide and have any idea what you can do on the play and how is he going to pitch you.
VLADIMIR GUERRERO: It definitely helps. Because when you see a closer, usually you don't see that many pitches. And you can never decide if it's command, slider, fastball, things like that. When they saw 20-plus pitches up on the board, they knew at some point he was going to try doing something different. But they also saw the pattern as Bobby mentioned, too, as to how he was pitching.
It was an advantage to see him throw so many pitches and Vlady repeated again that he did not go to look for any particular pitch but he knew he had to be aggressive in that case from the mound. He was aggressive to make sure he swung at a strike from the batter's side.

Q. Bobby, actually, I have two questions. Number one, as the series progressed, you were 5 for 9 at the plate. You were on base 9 out of 13 times. Were you like in a zone? Was it confidence? And just a couple of comments on your team's pitching in the series.
BOBBY ABREU: Of course, he does -- I want to be on base most of the time. I didn't try to hit homers or nothing. Just be on base to help -- start a rally and to help the guys behind me to feel more comfortable whenever they go -- they going to hit. Take a lot of pitches. And be on base. That's part of my job. And that's what I wanted to do.
So -- and the other question about our pitching, they did do such an outstanding job. Lackey threw an outstanding game the first game. Weaver, you know, he was continued to do it too.
To stop the Red Sox in three games -- and Kazmir, I'm sorry, today, and our relievers, it's not an easy thing to do. To beat these guys in three games. I mean, I don't know if it's ever going to happen. Because these guys, they know how to handle this situations in the postseason. They show they been good. They've been so successful. You aren't going to beat them in three games. We have to give credit to our pitchers so they stopped those guys.

Q. This is for either or both of you. To win the way you did today in a real do-or-die moment that ninth inning, what does that do in terms of momentum and confidence going to the rest of the postseason?
VLADIMIR GUERRERO: We ask God to have luck on our side, but it does help. I think what we have to do instead of thinking about that more is to continue to play together as we have pretty much since the beginning of the season and think about coming back. Because it's a team that was able to come back a lot during the regular season and we did it again today.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you both very much. Thank you, Jose.

End of FastScripts

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