NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BRAVES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 20, 2001

Randy Johnson

RANDY JOHNSON: Well, if I knew I was going to pitch like I did in Arizona, I wouldn't make any. I probably won't make any until they've made some. But you can go out there, I could throw the exact same pitches that I did the first night, and if I don't execute them and hit the locations that I need to hit, then that might be the difference in the ball game. Like I told you when we were in Arizona, it really came down to executing the pitches and location. So stay within my game plan. That's getting ahead of the hitters, then hopefully being able to put them away like I was able to do in Arizona.

RANDY JOHNSON: I'm fine.

RANDY JOHNSON: Bullpen has been pretty solid all year long. I mean, all facets of our game have been very instrumental to getting to where we were at at this point. Bullpen is -- has been very strong all year. It's been countered on a lot. There's been a lot of appearances by Swindell, Brohawn, BK. They'll continue to be a big part of what we're trying to achieve here. They haven't pitched in very many games simply because Curt's went deep and he's finished every game he's started. I've only pitched one game so far and I was able to finish that. So it's -- they're in kind of a tough situation. They haven't pitched very much, so it's hard to stay sharp. But I'm sure Brenly will use them when he feels he needs to use them. So they need to stay sharp. If that's a matter of coming out early and maybe throwing a little bit extra, doing whatever they need to do, I'm sure they'll do that.

RANDY JOHNSON: Well, I think as a starting pitcher, you get to pitch once every five days. When you watch your position players behind you and they're not coming out of very many games and they're playing 130, 140 games a year and you're starting 35 games a year, you'd like to finish what you start. But it was laid out in spring training that that wouldn't be a priority for Brenly for me to do that this year. That's simply why I didn't have as many innings as I've had in the past or complete games. That's probably why I feel a little bit better at this point right now than say years past. I've still thrown as many pitches as I have, but the mental grind of going back out there in a close ball game, or a blowout, and coming out of those games has probably made me a little bit fresher than normal.

RANDY JOHNSON: They got medication for that (laughter). Well, I've been doing it for a while now. I think your arm just becomes -- I don't want to say immune to the violence that you put on your arm when you're out there throwing -- but when I was younger, I'm 38 years old now. So obviously when you get older, your body doesn't recover as fast. But because I've been doing it for such a long time and I'd like to think that I keep myself in pretty good shape by doing arm exercises, strengthen up the muscles, and a lot of that can be eliminated by preparing yourself, by doing your arm exercises, by getting treatment and various things like that. But over a long haul, when the season's done and over with, you're prepared to rest your arm and looking forward to resting your arm. But I don't think there's any pitcher in baseball that has thrown as many pitches as I have in the last three or four years. So the physical grind doesn't sometimes match the mental one when you go out there in a close ball game. I don't think it needs to be said, but pitching a lot of close ball games, which I have over the last few years, I think that's probably what wears me out at year's end than throwing 4,000 pitches at year's end.