Oct. 7 Terry Francona pregame interview

Q. What’s the state of your pen this morning?TERRY FRANCONA: How did I know that would be the first question. I can’t believe you asked that. We’re doing what we always do. The guys will go out at the beginning of batting practice. They’ll stretch, have their catch game. We’ll take inventory. Cody already came in today and thought he felt really good, which surprised me a little bit. I told both of them that this — as important as these games are, this isn’t the time to fudge. If they need the day today, that’s my responsibility, to be really honest. So when I get out of here we’ll go down there and kind of keep track of where they are. But, one, if you see them pitch it certainly won’t be as much as last night.Q. Can you talk about Kluber and how do you think that the days off will affect him?TERRY FRANCONA: It could go a couple of ways. One, there could be rust, or, two, he could be a little extra strong. I’m hoping that with his routines and the way he works that he’ll shake off the rust quickly and maybe have a little extra zip on his fastball. But his routines are so impeccable that he’ll be ready to pitch. Now, their lineup is going to have something to say about that, too. But I think this rest will actually do him more good than harm.Q. With guys like Miller and other relievers, after a night like last night, you asked them how they were doing, they’ll probably tell you I’m ready to go. How do you balance, in your mind, how truthful they’re actually going to be?TERRY FRANCONA: That’s one of the things that — well, I kind of learned the hard way. I’ve been here four years now and early in the season I used Cody as second inning, and it was in Philadelphia, and I shouldn’t have. And it was one of those situations where he said it was okay. And as soon as he said he was okay that was good enough for me. When the game was over, the next day we talked for a long time and I told him I messed up and I don’t want to mess up. I said I’ve been here for four years now, we’ve been together, so the communication, that needs to be a strength. And I tried to explain to him exactly what you just said, just tell me the truth, because I don’t want to make mistakes. And I think it’s really helped a lot in that the guys are much more open, telling me how they’re feeling. This group, this bullpen group is incredible. They take so much pride in being available that, I mean, my goodness, I mean Shawn and Cody have pitched in so many games the last four years that I’m so proud of them. That’s not by luck. They work at it.Q. Is it safe to say that as the injuries kind of mounted on you guys, not just your pitching staff, does the pressure on you increase, do you have to maybe manipulate the game a little bit more or have more of an impact than you normally would?TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, I hope not. I’ve never been very good in …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com