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AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS v RED SOX


October 7, 2013


Jose Lobaton


TAMPA, FLORIDA: Game Three

Tampa Bay – 5
Boston – 4


Q.  Walk us through your at‑bat, when did you find out you were going to hit and what were you thinking when you walked toward the plate?
JOSE LOBATON:  Well, first of all, I was talking to Martinez.  And he said you're going to be up.  We'll see what happened.  He got a pretty good split.  And then I was walking to home plate and I said, well, I'm going to try to hit the ball hard, try to get a double, I don't need a single.  First pitch he threw me a split.  And I said I've got to be more back.  And he threw me the next pitch, I hit the ball hard and said I think I've got it.  But they said keep running, keep running.

Q.  Can you talk about the difference on the bench before and after Evan's home run, how everybody felt?
JOSE LOBATON:  Well, when you're down by three and that inning was ‑‑ we never give up.  Never.  But we kind of a little bit down, a little bit, well, now we've got to score three more runs.  And after we saw that ‑‑ the ball out, it's kind of like the energy came back.  Everybody was kind of like, we've got a chance now.  We've got a chance.

Q.  You've done this a few times this season, what is it about you that kind of ‑‑ you keep finding this moment?
JOSE LOBATON:  It's the ice cream (laughter).
Well, you know, I try to do the best for the team.  I try to concentrate every bat, like every day.  But sometimes you can and sometimes not.  And I think the other day when I was thinking the same, just try to hit the ball hard and then today was the same.  Today I say hit the ball hard and see what happens.
And I listen a lot to all the coaches.  They're there every game watching everything and Martinez, Shelton, they talk a lot with us.  And we got some tips they give it to us.  And today it was one of those.  He said you'll be up.  And give us something.  And then after the first one I said, well, he told me two more fastballs, it's going to be a strikeout, going to be a split.

Q.  You won games where if you'd lost you would have been eliminated.  Do you think that your club has picked up something in winning those games that helped it tonight?
JOSE LOBATON:  Maybe.  Yes and no.  I don't think ‑‑ we don't want to lose.  And that's a big situation for us now.  We have to win.  But I don't think we try.  I don't think ‑‑ but if it's something that has been working for us I would take it, whatever it's good for us we take it.
And I know this team, every day they go out to do the best.  And that happened today.  That happened in Cleveland.  That happened in Texas.  Every time we go out we do our best.  And today was one of those days.  We never give up and now we've got the victory.

Q.  Can you talk about the feeling that you get when you're rounding the bases and you've seen the ball go over the fence.  Can you talk about the human emotion of it.
JOSE LOBATON:  It is ‑‑ it's weird.  You want to do a lot of things.  I mean you want to yell and you want to ‑‑ I don't know, say ‑‑ I was running, I just say thank God.  That's what I was saying.  I say thank God.  It's my first game in the postseason.  The first time ‑‑ the second time it happened in the postseason, but the first time that I got ‑‑ that I play.  And it is something ‑‑ I don't know how to explain.
It's just different when you get a base hit.  You know you've got one more game.  You've got the next day to try to win a game.  It's like a lot of things in your mind at that moment.  It's something weird.  But you just run the bases like a kid, I don't know, like when you were a kid and get a homer.  And it's a different feeling.  To hit a homer in that situation is something special.  Something that you can't explain.

Q.  Did this result or will this result in the best tasting ice cream for you thus far this season?
JOSE LOBATON:  I think every homer that I've been hitting it's been pretty good ice cream.  But today was amazing.  I think the second homer, the second walk‑off that I hit, they gave me like 20 ice cream, something like that.  It was pretty good.  But today it's postseason, it's different.  But it was pretty good.  If I can just keep hitting, maybe I'm going to get fat (laughter).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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