Oct. 2 Terry Francona postgame interview

Q. Can you share what you said to the team afterwards?

TERRY FRANCONA:  Yeah, just told them that as much as it'll sting tonight, and it will, it hurts, we didn't want to go home yet, that once we get past that, for however long that takes, I want them to remember how much me and the staff, it was an honor to go through the season with them and how much we care about them. That's what I'll remember more than anything.

Q. This whole season, everything you guys work for, to come down to one game, does it hurt more like that?

TERRY FRANCONA: We knew what we were getting into today, and they outplayed us. Congratulate Joe and the Rays. They outplayed us. We were excited about coming into the game, and we lost, so now we've got to go home. That hurts.

Q. I just wondered what you thought of Salazar.

TERRY FRANCONA: When he worked ahead in the count, he was tremendous. When he fell behind, that's when they got their hits, and fastball counts. But when he worked ahead, he had a lot of success. He just tried to throw a fastball away to Jennings, ran over the plate, that was a two‑run double, and fastball to Delmon Young, that's what he's been doing with those.

Q. And the moment didn't seem to big for him, did it?

TERRY FRANCONA: No, it didn't look like it to me. He's going to be a special pitcher.

Q. What did you think of Cobb, and what did he do to turn away so many threats that you had?

TERRY FRANCONA:  He didn't pitch like a young pitcher. We had our share of hits and we had our share of opportunities, and when we had men on base, he was able to ‑‑ it was like as the stadium got louder, he could take something off, spin a breaking ball, throw a changeup. In hitter's counts he got a double play with Cabby, Swish hit that play to first, Loney made kind of a nice backhand play, but he took the sting out of our bats by changing speeds.

Q. The missed opportunity tonight, how frustrating was that, and did you sense as the game went on and you had a few of those situations where they were there, did you sense any tension building up in the dugout, guys gripping or trying to do too much?

TERRY FRANCONA:  No, I actually felt like, because they didn't pull away, that it kept us in range. You always feel that way. That's the way I'm sure they felt the same way, but I thought as long as we had a chance and we kept trying to mix and match in the bullpen and keep it right where it was, because you never feel like you're out of it, ever.

Q. The way you guys played in September really got this town turned on again to baseball. Would you expect given what you saw out there tonight from the fans that it would carry over to next season or that you guys have made some headway?

TERRY FRANCONA:  I don't know, and I hope so. I wish we could have given them a better game. The support was fantastic. We'll see, we have some work to do in the offseason, take maybe an hour or two to rest, and then we'll get back to work. It was pretty awesome to see how it can be, though.