Here are some of the post-game reactions following the New York Yankees’ season-ending 3-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers Thursday night in Game 5 of their American League Division Series.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi:
Q. Joe, with the lineup that you have, is it surprising that the big hits should prove elusive tonight?
JOE GIRARDI: These guys have pitched all year long, Detroit. You look at what they’ve done. I look at this game and it was one hit, maybe one sac fly. That was the difference. And they made some huge pitches when they had to. Whether it was Fister or any of their guys. They made big pitches when they had to.
Our guys played hard. I can’t ask for any more from them during the course of the season. And obviously this is a terrible day for us. But we got beat.Q. Joe, with the way Alex swung the bat tonight and in the series, do you think it was a matter of the injuries ultimately wearing him down or was it something else?
JOE GIRARDI: No, I mean, it could have been. Players aren’t going to make excuses, neither am I. The bottom line is we lost some really close games to them. We lost two one-run games and a two-run game. And as I said, a hit here and a hit there and it’s a different series.Q. Joe, if this were Jorge Posada’s final game as a Yankee, what do you think of his Yankee career?
JOE GIRARDI: This guy, when you look at what he did in this series, he was awesome. He’s had a tremendous career, and I’m sure he’s going to continue to play, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you talk about being proud of players. What he went through this year and what he gave us in the postseason, I don’t think there’s a prouder moment than I’ve had of Jorgie. You can go back to when he came up in ‘96, how proud of him I was when he caught the perfect game and all the championships that he’s won. The heart that he showed during this series, that’s why Jorgie has been a great player.Q. Joe, after all that you’ve accomplished this year, how hard is it to lose in the first round?
JOE GIRARDI: It’s terrible. As I said, we only accomplished one goal when the season ended. We had to fight like crazy to get there. It’s a really empty feeling. It’s an empty feeling for everyone in that room. And it hurts. You just got to remember this feeling and we’ll be determined next year.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland:
Q. You’ve managed a lot of intense games, the one-game playoff against Minnesota. How would you put that up against those games?
JIM LEYLAND: The Yankees are so good that I would be lying if I said it didn’t give me a little extra satisfaction to be able to do it here in the fifth game. I don’t mean that disrespectfully, I mean that respectfully.
It gave me a great thrill to be able to do it here in Yankee Stadium in Game 5. Unbelievable. I was just talking to Dave Dombrowski, other than the American League pennant and that time in the World Series, this will be a game I’ll remember for the rest of my life.