This entry was posted on 8/9/2009 7:02 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
So here's a little snippet from Saturday night's Red Sox clubhouse after the Sox had lost their fifth in a row and dropped 5 1/2 games back in the AL East behind the Yankees. Kevin Youkilis was being questioned by a reporter about a pair of fly balls that turned him around out in left field, and Youk, who has been worth his weight in Youk's hot sauce, wasn't overly impressed with the line of questioning. He got ornery and a rant was off and running. Here's the full transcript of Youk going off on Saturday:
Youk: “So now you’re a left fielder? An outfield coach? Very interesting.
Youk: Let me ask you, how many times have you played the outfield? (not since high school, and it was very badly) How many times have you seen me play the outfield? (twice, Thursday and Saturday. I’m not trying to be critical)
Youk: You were being a little critical, telling me that I took an awkward route to the ball. What do you want me to tell you? You want me to tell you that ‘yeah I did’ I don’t know what you want from me? I don’t. If you want me to tell you that that I took a bad route on the second one, then I’ll tell you that. But I’m not an outfielder, I’m an infielder.
I think we were all giving you credit for playing out of position?
Youk: It’s not about credit. It’s about winning ballgames. It doesn’t matter if I go out there and play left field and look like an idiot. It’s about winning ballgames. You can use elegant and other awkward routes, but I’m not an outfielder so I can’t tell you. But the first one I missed and the second one the ball just kept carrying and I couldn’t catch up to it.
What was C.C. Sabathia doing to give you so much trouble?
Youk: (CC) threw the ball well. We just didn’t catch some breaks there and didn’t come up with anything.
What can turn this around?
Youk: Winning. Winning. Winning ballgames. Bottom line. All you’ve got to do is go out there and win.
Is there a concern about the way the team is playing?
Youk: It is what it is. You can’t do anything about it except go out there and play tomorrow. There’s still a long way to go. A lot of stuff can happen.
Does it feel like the season is slipping away?
Youk: The season isn’t over for me. Are we still in the Wild Card race? We’re still in the race for first place. We can come back. We’ve done it before so we can do it again. All we’ve got to is make the playoffs and I’m not going to quit. That’s the bottom line. I’m going to play hard tomorrow and play hard the next day and play hard every day I go out there – and I think there’s a lot of guys in this room that will.”
Can you pinpoint some reasons why the offense is struggling so much?
Youk: We don’t have our full offensive lineup in there right now, and we also don’t have our full lineup against left-handers with Rocco and Jason Bay out. Those two guys against lefties are very tough, so we’re lacking a little bit right now. It’s just one of those things you’ve got to deal with. We’ll be all right. We’ve got another chance to face these guys.
How unfortunate is it that all the injuries are hitting during these key games?
Youk: The bottom line is that everything is blown out of proportion when we play the Yankees. To be honest with you, it’s very tiresome. This is probably the opposite way of a few months ago you were bashing them and now you’re bashing us.
It’s going to keep going the same way until the fans and you gets get over it at some point, I guess. I don’t see that happening. I’m not worried. We’re going to go out and try to win tomorrow. And if we win tomorrow then we go home and get some wins at home.
