AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v YANKEES

October 9, 2003

Derek Lowe

DEREK LOWE: Used it umpteen times today. Any time I throw a sinker or a fastball inside; it's the same pitch. It was a pitch that I needed to throw and I did.

DEREK LOWE: No. I'm not a guy to make excuses. Probably sorer now than I've been in a long time. But no, not at any point did the workload affect any pitches. It was just, obviously, the seventh inning where we had two outs and nobody on and Giambi hit a good pitch inside. I wasn't able to throw a strike to Bernie and then Posada pretty much put us away with a big double.

DEREK LOWE: I look at tonight as -- I know you guys love to talk about this, but I threw one cutter the home game and it was the home run to Johnson. It's a pitch I haven't used in a while. Jason and I talked before the game that it would be a pitch we were going to try to get involved as early as we can, but not in a situation where it would hurt you. It we were 0-1 on Johnson and it was the perfect time to throw it. It was just a very poorly-located pitch. When you're a ground ball guy, you have to live and die by it. The other two hits, the other two runs were scored on ground balls and sometimes they hit them out and sometimes they don't. Like I said, the cutter in the seven inning were tough.

DEREK LOWE: We knew it was going to be a tight game going into it but we did a fantastic job of pitching out of jams early. That's what it time of year is all about, who can pitch out of jams and who can't because you know the score is probably going to be low. When you pitch -- when you don't pitch out of jams, they score a lot of runs. And he didn't win 21 games by accident. He did a good job.

DEREK LOWE: You know, again, I look at the cutter to Johnson and then -- I mean, ground balls, I can't control those. I can't control where they go. The seventh inning was, again a good pitch to Giambi. The walk was unfortunate, but I don't necessarily look at it as a poorly-pitched game. I think Pettitte pitched good. This is my game. I can't change. If I pitch here in Game 6, you're going to see the same thing and hopefully different results.

DEREK LOWE: Yeah, when you look at it, if I'm able to get one more out in the seventh inning, it's 4-2. I know I didn't, hearsay is always great. But up to that point, we were a bloop and a blast, as they say, away from it. That's why they are who they are. They are extremely tough and they never give up. Giambi, I wish, could have easily hit a ground ball to somebody but he didn't. He battled and they beat us.

DEREK LOWE: We had a 1-0 lead and the opportunity to go up 2-0. So you don't feel that great because we just lost the game. But any time you have Pedro it doesn't matter when or where you have an opportunity to give him another day. It's going to be electric. I know Roger and Pedro are both looking forward to it. They had an opportunity to go at it in '99 and they are going to get another chance again.