In the wake of the New York Yankees' 2011 season ending with their Game 5 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the recently-concluded American League Division Series Yankees manager Joe Girardi visited with Mike Francesa on WFAN for a post-mortem on the 2011 Yankees.
Sports Radio Interviews has the full transcript. We have excerpts after the jump.
Was this playoff lose to the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS tougher than last year’s loss to the Texas Rangers in the ALCS?
"It just seemed like we were so much closer to moving on to the next round. Last year we got blown out in a few games. At times we scored a lot of runs in this series. At times when we needed that one hit we couldn’t get it."
Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher have struggled in the postseason. I’m not sure how you can fix that. The group has been great in the regular season. What do you do about this issue?
"I think people underestimate the kind of pitching you are going to see. You talk about seeing Justin Verlander throwing 101 [mph] in the 8th inning. Max Scherzer throwing 96 [mph] with incredible movement. I know teams have gotten to both of them and we scored four runs off of Verlander, but you are going to see good pitching and you are going to see bullpens are rested because of the days off. It’s difficult to get through the rounds and if someone would have said you are going to give up three runs in the last game and you are going to have the bases loaded twice with one out and only needed two runs from that I would have signed up for it. We didn’t get the hit when we needed it."
What do you take from this season?
"As I told our guys as I walked in after the game I said, ‘There’s nothing I can say that is going to make you or me or anyone in this room feel any better, but I gotta tell you guys you gave everything that you had every day and you played like champions even though we are not going to go out like champions.’ I’m not sure anyone would have thought we would have 97 wins when spring training ended. I don’t. I know these guys gave their hearts and souls every day and it was just really difficult leaving that room that night."