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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v RAYS

October 1, 2011

Ron Washington

ARLINGTON, TEXAS: Game Two

Texas Â– 8
Tampa Bay - 6

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll start right up here.

Q. You went with Mitch at first base tonight. He hasn't had a home run since June and tonight he game up big in the eighth inning.
RON WASHINGTON: No doubt about it. You know, as I said earlier, when Mitch came out of the lineup, it was because he was trying to get Cruz's at-bats. But he has been working behind the scenes and today was an opportunity to get him at first base, and I did. And he came up big. He came up big not only with that home run, but he saved another run that they may have put on the board with that diving catch and getting that third out for Ogando.

Q. Wash, what did you think of Ogando's return to the bullpen and did you consider sending him out there for another inning?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, you know, he has done that before, and he was very good at it. But when we traded for Mike Adams and Uehara, we traded them for those situations. Uehara just didn't get the job done tonight.

Q. Wash, you guys couldn't get anything going against Shields the first few innings, but when you did jump on him, it just was a deluge. And almost everyone got a hit in the game, and several guys had several RBIs. Talk about how you guys pounded on them immediately.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, in the second inning there, after the second inning ended, in the third I thought we were beginning to handle them a little better. We started making him get the ball up, quit chasing the change-up in the dirt and come in the zone. And he got erratic and he hit a couple of guys and we put some stuff together. Michael, Hamilton, he hit Elvis to start it all off. And then Napoli, Napoli got the big hit for us. And, you know, David had a strikeout where they didn't block the ball and that gave us an opportunity. And Beltre ran a ball off Shoppach pretty good and hustled home.
And before you knew it, we were playing our game and ready to go.

Q. Ron, obviously Derek struggled in the first two innings, managed to get through five innings. What did you think of his outing tonight?
RON WASHINGTON: I thought he battled hard. Especially after he got out of that first inning, and all he gave up was one run. Usually when you put yourself in that situation you want to do minimal damage. Too bad the minimal damage had to be a walk.
But he battled. You have to give him credit. That was his first time out there in that situation, and I thought he handled himself very well.

Q. Wash, that fourth inning was kind of typical of what the Rangers had become, and the aggressive play, obviously you got some help there. But that had to be pretty satisfying to see the guys put that together.
RON WASHINGTON: Well, it was very satisfying because Tampa has some great pitching over there, and pitching usually settle down a great offense.
But we kept grinding and kept grinding, and, you know, I think we got our confidence back. Not that we ever lost it, but we don't usually go through games where we totally get shut down. And yesterday we got shut down for two hits and no runs, but we made some adjustments on Shields and we were able to get him. And that's the good thing, so I am very pleased.

Q. Ron, as far as you know, your team had the best batting average in baseball and was particularly strong on offense in the last month of the season. How atypical was what we saw yesterday and how much of what you saw tonight is more what you guys are about?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, yesterday, like I said, you have to give Matt Moore credit. Good pitching will shut down hitting. We just didn't get on the kid. Hamilton was the only one that was able to find some holes. We hit some balls hard, it just didn't fall.
But you have to tip your hat. When you get a well-pitched job, I don't care what type of hitters you have, pitching would probably win it anyway. And that's what happened.
Today, the first three innings, Shields was breezing through us pretty good, but we made the adjustments we had to make on him, make him get the ball up in the zone, quit chasing the change-up, and some good things happened for us. We strung some hits together, and the next thing you know we were able to run the bases and do some things.

Q. Wash, it did appear that you kind of forced Shields away from the change-up a little bit there in the fourth inning and he was throwing a lot of breaking balls, some of which went in the dirt and helped you out. Did they start -- your guys start waiting on the change-up better than they had or making him get it up I guess?
RON WASHINGTON: It is obvious the two games we played against him, of course, he never threw his change-up for strikes against us, and we were swinging at it. We are a team that swing the bat, and we go up there in situations and we swing the bat.
But, as I said, in the fourth inning we started making adjustments. Well, we started in the third trying to make sure we make him get the ball up. Not charge him too much, make sure we see what the pitch is before we attack. And some good things happened.
You know, it's not like we beat him around the yard, but we did enough to put some runs on the board, and beginning to feel good about what we can go out there and do.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Ron.

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