Projo Sox Blog

BY BILL REYNOLDS
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON - It is the nightly pregame dance.

The two managers in the interview room.

Both trying to give a little insight about the upcoming game, without giving away any palace secrets.

So it was Monday night.

The first question pitched to Angels manager Mike Scioscia was that if, once again, he was going to promise that "we will not be eliminated tonight,'' as he had said Sunday night.

This time Scioscia backed off a bit, doing a little revisionist history on Sunday's statement, saying that he'd been asked to compare the Angels with the Cubs and that "the Cubs were eliminated. We're not eliminated."

After Sunday night's game he had seemed like a prophet, and it was apparent that he really didn't want to get into the soothsayer business late Monday afternoon. Yes, Scioscia had turned out right, but it had taken 12 innings and over five hours to do that.

"We didn't play a perfect game [Sunday] night,'' he said, "but we played well enough and did the things we need to do to win.''

Yes, they did.

He also believes that in a short series any time one team wins it immediately puts pressure on the other team, and that a team's so-called confidence going into a game can be misleading.

"We were confident before Game One,'' he said. "We just didn't do the things we need to win. Confidence is not an issue. What you have to do is go out there and play well.''

No surprise there.

Francona was a little more revealing, in the sense that he said that managing in the postseason is different than managing in the regular season.

Take his hitting for Jason Varitek in Sunday night's game, for example.

Normally, that's something he would avoid doing for all the obvious reasons, namely that Varitek is the captain and hitting for him could be interpreted as a sign of disrespect, even if we all know that Varitek has struggled at the plate all year.

His point was that in the regular season it might not be worth it, for then you are managing with a long-range view and that "sometimes during the year I think the long-term is more important than people understand.''

But in the postseason?

"Thanksgiving's right around the corner and we need to win games,'' he said. "Now in the postseason, with three catchers and some very good guys on the bench, it's hard to leave a J.D. Drew not swinging the bat in that situation."

Yet it was on the question of which team had the most pressure on then going into Monday night's game when Francona was his most insightful.

"In a short series every game you can pretty much recite before the game what both managers are going to day. If you lose Game One, panic. If you're down 2-0 you're up against the wall. It's the same in every series. In basketball, it's the same.

"That's why I think we revert to always trying to play good baseball,'' he continued. "Regardless of what the score of the series is, if you play good baseball, you probably end up where you need to be. Sometimes it's a little harder to get there, sometimes it takes longer. But, again, if you just play good baseball, then those quotes will take care of themselves.''

 Tags  Boston Red Sox

---