Oct. 18 John Gibbons postgame interview

Q. What did you see in your players before this game?

JOHN GIBBONS: Really, everything, almost like a normal day. Obviously it’s not, but it was almost like a normal, regular season game. They were nice, loose, and relaxed, well aware of the circumstances. They showed up today like they always do and played a good ballgame. ‘

Started out with Sanchez, great out in the bullpen, bullpen has been pitching really good, nice little roll, too. Then Donaldson’s big home run to get us on the board, we’ve been looking on that. Then some add-on runs, Carrera, a nice night. A lot of good things today.

Q. What did you see early from Sanchez that told you that he was on today?

JOHN GIBBONS: He’s thrown a lot of innings, too. He’s getting tired. I didn’t see that. But you just look at the pop on his fastball. We see it all the time. But some days he is just really jumping. But the key for him is he’s still got to hit his spots. Really, in this league it doesn’t matter how hard you throw if you still can’t pitch a little bit. You’re going to have a tough time. I saw some good curveballs early. That’s kind of hit or miss with him.

But really, backs against the wall, he came through again, but he’s really done that so much this year, but never in a game like this.

Q. A lot of talk about Cleveland just really pounding the outside of the zone against you guys, you guys got some hits early, up the middle, opposite end of the field. Was that conscious on your part or was that hitters making adjustments?

JOHN GIBBONS: No, our guys will do that. They hear it all the time from the hitting coaches and they talk amongst themselves about doing that. And we don’t always do that. But we just saw Kluber not too long ago, he’s fresh on your mind, you get a little better idea what he’s doing.

Yeah, I thought we battled pretty good today, with the bats. But naturally when you score, which we haven’t been doing, it always looks good.

Q. What have you learned about Ryan Merritt, who suddenly becomes a big figure in this series?

JOHN GIBBONS: What I know about him? He’s left-handed. That’s all I know right now. Worried about today.

Q. Can you speak about the play that Josh made it a 2-1 ballgame, when Santana stings it. If they get through another run gets in, ties the game, instead he makes the play and a strong throw to first. Can you talk about that play specifically and how important it was in this ballgame?

JOHN GIBBONS: Yeah, you’ve got a tight ballgame. Everybody is on pins and needles. They’re hanging in there, a big hitter, something, the game switches the other day, maybe you see those other guys, and they’ve got a chance to close it out.

Josh, not only does he get big hits on the offensive side, he’ll pull out some big-time plays. I don’t think he probably gets the credit he deserves, a good defender he is. There’s so many really good third basemen in the …

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