Terry Francona on Reds Win Over Athletics

Yeah, hits and runs were kind of at a premium tonight. Just talk about the couple of clutch hits you were able to get. Yeah, I mean, their guy came out, and golly, I think he punched out the first eight out of nine outs. You know, just changing speeds and kind of in a little bit of a rocking chair. Gave us a tough time. Then we broke through, and because of the way we pitched, they were meaningful runs. Talk about your pitching. Lauer gave you a really nice game tonight. You know, when you give up a home run to the first hitter, he gathered himself. Second guy hit the ball pretty good, too, and he gathered himself, gave up a run late, but in six innings, two runs, Berkey was really good, and then Antum came in and threw, like, three pitches, so that worked out really well. Especially in the light of the news that you guys got today, now Lauer stepped up, and it kind of started that you've been hoping he can do. What does that kind of mean for the club? I can't find a figure out a day when we don't want it, regardless of what happens. I mean, you've got to go play. You know, whatever happens, you go play, and our guys did a good job. What about Matt, the job he did going with the pitch? Hitting the ball the other way? Yeah. He's strong enough to do that, and he's such a good defender that if he can just chip in, that really gives us a big lift. Also no LB tonight? Yeah, I mean, we had first and third, and we get a strikeout, and then Noe comes up and gets the sack fly. Had a base hit earlier. Again, we didn't knock the ball out of the ballpark, but when you pitch like that, the runs are meaningful. Is there kind of back to the way you were at the end of the last set of games? I mean, that's kind of been a trademark of this team this season, what you're supposed to be. You know, if we can keep our bullpen from getting overused, they got a chance to be good. We've had a struggle with that. That's not their fault. I mean, it's just they've been used a lot, but, like, Burke had two days off. That doesn't happen very often, and he came out and had a little extra night, so hopefully we can try to manage that.