|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AL DIVISION SERIES: ROYALS v ANGELSOctober 3, 2014Greg HollandANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: Game Two Q. You had a busy day the other day with Lacey giving birth and all that. Could you give us a little rundown on, first of all, the details of the baby, and your travels, please? GREG HOLLAND: Well, first off, the baby and the wife are doing great, so that's the number one priority, but celebrated with the team after we won the crazy Wild Card game and flew straight home and went straight to the hospital and spent all night there. Then got on a plane around 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, got here a little after 7:00, drove through traffic, ran through the parking lot trying to find a way into the park, and got down here in the locker room at the bottom of the fifth, and we did kind of a makeshift warm‑up, and got down to the bullpen about the middle of the sixth. Q. What is the baby's name and when did it arrive exactly? GREG HOLLAND: Nash Gregory Holland. I think the exact time was 8:42 p.m. Q. Is Nash a family name? GREG HOLLAND: No, but Gregory is. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. GREG HOLLAND: Thank you. Q. How are you feeling physically, emotionally, all that when you're on the mound last night? GREG HOLLAND: I think the adrenaline kicks in when you're playing a playoff game and so much is at stake. Physically I was kind of worn out, but once I got into my routine and got warmed up and got on the mound and threw that first pitch and got strike one, it was kind of business as usual for me. So I'm glad it turned out good and there wasn't a whole lot of turmoil in the bottom half of that inning. Q. Just a couple more details. Did you charter from Kansas City to Asheville? GREG HOLLAND: Yeah. Q. After the opening game? GREG HOLLAND: Yeah. Q. And then chartered from NorthCarolina to California? GREG HOLLAND: Yes. Q. How about where did you land when you got to LA? GREG HOLLAND: John Wayne. Q. John Wayne. And did the team have transportation for you? How did you get to the ballpark? GREG HOLLAND: Yeah, me and my wife kind of booked all that, so it was kind of hectic trying to do that while you're in the delivery room booking flights and stuff. But we made it work. Q. Was she induced? GREG HOLLAND: Yes. Q. The other question I have for you is how did you come to know Drew William Saberhagen? GREG HOLLAND: I played with his son my junior year in college. Q. Bret's son, Drew? GREG HOLLAND: Oh, God. See, you kind of threw me off with the Drew. I thought, what's he talking about? I thought you misnamed him. He actually played summer ball with a few of my teammates in college, and really enjoyed them and wanted to transfer. I think he was at Pepperdine, maybe. So I played with him my junior year. I think he went 9‑0 for us, so really helped us out going to the regional. Q. Did he tell you about his entry into the world? GREG HOLLAND: No, he did not. Q. So you don't know his story? GREG HOLLAND: No, I've never asked anyone how they entered the world, really. I'm sure it's interesting or you wouldn't be bringing it up. Q. It's very similar to Nash Gregory's. GREG HOLLAND: Oh, okay. Q. Try booking an airplane flight in the press box. What has James Shields meant to the young pitchers as far as a mentor? GREG HOLLAND: He's been tremendous. He takes that starting five as kind of collectively takes them like hey, we want to be the back bone of this team. We want to throw 200 innings a piece. We want to push each other, learn from each other when we're not in the game, we're in the dugout. They're always talking about sequences and how they pitch guys. I think he also leads by example taking the ball every five days and giving his heart and soul. I think once you start rattling off good start after good start, it kind of builds on itself. You want to do just as good as the guy in front of you did. In so many ways he's meant a lot to this team. Q. The defense last night was great again before and after you got here. When you look back on the year, is there one play the defense made when you're on the mound or otherwise that sticks out as your favorite play? GREG HOLLAND: No. I mean, I think there are too many to really think that much about it. I have a short memory anyway. So I usually remember moments when I'm not in the game more often than I did moments when I'm in it. But I know you go back to Cain robbing the home run last year in Minnesota right in our bullpen, and Gordo crashing into the walls, and diving into the wall in foul territory. You just know as a pitcher, if you don't walk anyone, you make them hit the ball, it's going to be really hard for a team to get four or five hits in a row to beat you with a defense like that. Q. You responded to this a little before, but so much of your preparation every day is pretty methodical all through the day. I wonder how you kind of compress that, but also psychologically did any of this fluster you at all? GREG HOLLAND: No, I think the birth of a child is something special, so I didn't really have to worry about coming into Anaheim and playing one of the better teams in the American League because I think that might have actually helped. I wasn't really worried about it. Once you get to the yard, it's business as usual. Like you said, it's kind of a rush process to get loose, but once you get out there and you've done it enough, you learn how to get going and do your normal routine. You just get into baseball mode. Once the lights turn on, the good players have the ability to not think about stuff that's happened prior in the game, stuff that's happened the pitch before, but just stay in the moment. Q. It's not often that a ballplayer shows up in the middle of a game. I'm just wondering if you had any difficulty kind of getting past security people or parking, just believing that you were actually here? GREG HOLLAND: Yeah, well the guy that dropped me off did a great job getting me here, but he didn't really know where to go, and I didn't know where to go either. So I was kind of made a few security guards nervous running up to them with a pack over my shoulder with my ID in my hand saying, "I'm a player. I'm a player. Don't tackle me to the ground kind of thing." But it was kind of hectic running through the parking lot. But they let me in. It was kind of weird when a guy's like you're a player, that's not possible because the game is in the fifth inning. But I had to explain the details and actually got a congratulations and he jogged me right down the concourse and got me where I needed to go. Q. I was wondering before you got to the stadium how much did you know of what was going on in the game? GREG HOLLAND: Landed, I think, it was the top or the bottom of the fourth, and they said it was 1‑1, and I said okay, this is Royals baseball, so I'm probably going to pitch at some point in this game. But being in the airplane I didn't really‑‑ I wasn't able to see what was going on during the game. I just know we scored‑‑ Gordo scored the run right as I got in the locker room to take the 2‑1 lead. So I knew we were in a pretty good position at that point, but really didn't know how we had gotten there other than the sac fly. Q. You're a tight‑knit group out there in the bullpen. What is your level of concern over Kelvin Herrera? GREG HOLLAND: I'm not concerned at all. He's meant so much to this team over the last few years. You're always concerned when one of your friends, much less one of your better players has to leave the game. But he's a tough player and a tough individual. I'm not a doctor or physician by any means, but from what I heard he's fine and hopefully will get back on the field sooner than later because he means a lot to this team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|