OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jim Leyland and Bob Melvin addressed the media Tuesday afternoon about a half-hour apart. One manager's team was on the brink of the next playoff round. The other manager's team faced elimination.
In body language and tone, however, you couldn't tell which manager had the lead and which one didn't. And that's the point -- in baseball one game has so little to do with the next.
Yes, hitters can get into a rhythm over the course of several games or even a few weeks, nba shoes but the dynamics of each game are unique, and good managers understand this.
This is precisely why Leyland spent a portion of his pregame news conference talking about the difficulty of beating Oakland one more game.
"This team is ready to play," he said of the Athletics. "They're down two games to none, they're ready to play, their mind-set is good. That's the way you have to handle everything. There's no sense worrying about things you don't control."
It's cliché to say this, of course, but it's true, and it remains the hardest philosophy for managers to impress upon their players. nba shoes Baseball requires quick, sudden bursts of movement and otherworldly hand-eye coordination, but it also requires an ability to relax.
"The better you can get that across to your players, I think the better everybody is," Leyland said. "For instance, I never worry about rain situations because the good Lord has it rain, it rains. The players say, 'How long is it going to rain?' I think I'm pretty good, but I have no friggin' idea how long it's going to rain. Are they going to pull the tarp at 8:30? I have no idea. Roll with every punch and don't get too excited as a manager. I think when you do, it rubs off on your players."
Leyland employed this strategy all season. Over basketball shoes for men and over he asked for patience, for the season to play out. He understood that immense pressure engulfed his squad the minute it broke camp, and that one of his most important responsibilities this season would be to manage the consequences of those expectations.
The ethos helped the Tigers ride out inconsistencies and overcome a late three-game deficit to the White Sox in September, when many figured the team was finished. And now Leyland was using the same approach with his team one game away from the American League Championship Series.
"We know this is not going to be easy to do," he said before Game 3. "It's going to be very loud, very difficult. We're playing a great team, one that has done a wonderful, wonderful job. But that's what we do for a living. We're here, we're supposed to be able to handle that kind of stuff."
Detroit has been handling stuff for several weeks. Remember that the 2-0 series lead was improbable not just for Don Kelly's walk-off sacrifice fly, but also because the Tigers had managed only one of basketball shoes their eight runs via an actual hit. The other runs were scored on errors (three runs), a double play (one run), a groundout (one run), a wild pitch (one run) and that sac fly.
"It's been a little freaky, to be honest with you," Leyland said. "It's pretty unique that you come in here and you're up, two games to none, when you've only actually scored one run by way of a hit. And we're going to have to do better than that if we want to close this thing out at some point. ... We're going to have to hit better. But it's baseball, and you never know how it's going to play out."
So don't worry.
And relax.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsorfreepress. Follow him on Twitter shawnwindsor.
Tag your Tigers photos on Twitter and Instagram with #tigersplayoffs for the chance to be published. Also get ready for the playoffs with our We Love the D poster, Tigers paper dolls, player masks and Twibbon.