Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon is still the same — talkative and very funny.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona was surprisingly loose during his chat with the media three hours before the game.
And David Ortiz was typical joyous self as the Red Sox face elimination.
While sitting on the bench before the game, chatting it up with a few media members, Ortiz said he is shooting for the moon tonight.
“I am going to try to hit one,” said Ortiz. “I don’t know about anyone else. But I feel good about this game. I feel good that I will hit.”
As for the managers, here was Francona’s answer when asked what impressed him about the Rays after 23 games this season.
“That’s probably hard to answer right today. If you ask how they constructed it, you could give an answer. There’s certain nights when they’ve beaten us when something has stood out.
I’ve been impressed with the way they built their staff. They built their bullpen, and they have a starting staff that’s young and durable, because if you don’t have one or the other, you’re going to get exposed. I laugh when somebody says, what would you rather have. The answer is you better have both, and they’ve done a very good job of that.
“And they’ve gotten — offensively they’ve gotten contributions from everybody. How many times do you turn on the TV and see somebody hitting a walk-off home run? They’ve got it across the board, and they’ve done a very good job of gaining confidence and then keeping it.
Now, our job is to derail that a little bit, and that’s not an easy task because they feel very good about themselves.”
As for Maddon, here was one of his nuggets from the pregame press conference, reiterating why he pitched Scott Kazmir tonight instead of James Shields:
“You look at Scott Kazmir, he’s a two-time All-Star. He’s the best pitcher in the history of this organization. If you told the people in Boston last year that Kaz was going to pitch against them, they cringed, and all of a sudden he’s not that good.
“We had talked about this prior to the series ever beginning, if the circumstances presented themselves in a certain manner, and they have.
“So I do find it a bit amusing. Like I said, you’re talking about a very good pitcher right now, not just anybody. And he’s pitched well in this ballpark in the past. I know, listen, more recently, he has not been on top of his game, absolutely. And a big part of that to me, the difference being that he’s given up more home runs.
“He’s always been a high pitch-count guy, always. I know this has followed him all the way through. Sometimes it’s a command issue, sometimes it’s also a foul ball issue for me. He gives up a lot of foul balls on two strikes. And furthermore, he’s a strike-out guy.”
