AL DIVISION SERIES: ATHLETICS v YANKEES

October 9, 2001

Mark Mulder

MARK MULDER: I've improved a little bit facing lefties this year. I'm throwing more strikes, I'm able to use more of my pitches against them. I'm going to approach them the same way I I've approached a lot of other lefties, a lot of two-seamers, but hopefully just get ahead in the count. That's the big thing for me, against lefties, anyway.

MARK MULDER: I don't think so. We've got too loose of a team and we joke around way too much to let the nerves just get to us. We have a lot of fun out there. That's what we've been doing all season. Ever since we turned things around at the end of April our clubhouse has been completely different. We're not going to try to change anything. That's the thing we just don't want to try to do too much. Hopefully we'll just keep pitching to them.

MARK MULDER: Well, I think it has a lot to do with it. I came in hungry this year. Getting hurt like that, it makes you realize a lot of things, just how lucky you are to be here and how much you need to work to be successful here. I worked hard this off-season, to put myself in the position where I am this year, and that's to be a big part of this team. I didn't have a say in what happened in the playoffs or at the end of the year and it's a lot more gratifying winning this year, for me, anyway, than it was last year.

MARK MULDER: You've got to pitch the way you pitch. I mean, you have to throw inside to be successful. You can't just live on the outside corner. If something like that happens, I'm not worried about that. We'll see how the game goes. That's really not an issue right now.

MARK MULDER: I don't know if you would call it a rivalry, but we -- I like pitching after these guys. We pitch three days -- three consecutive days and it's fine. I learn from those guys. We all throw completely different but you learn and watch the way they pitch, watch the way they approach different hitters and it's fun being around these guys. It's not competitive, but it's competitive to do better than the guy the day before you, and that's just fun.

MARK MULDER: We haven't talked about it too much. I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of measures taken that I think we will be okay. Hopefully, it's not something I'm going to concern myself with when I'm out there on the mound, though.

MARK MULDER: I think it would be huge, especially starting in Yankee Stadium, not having the home-field advantage in the series. To win Game 1, hopefully can set a tone and we can go from there.

MARK MULDER: I've gone after hitters all season long. I don't believe I've thrown too many pitches in any games this year. I feel I throw a lot of strikes and get a lot of early-count outs, and that's the way I approach every game is to throw the least amount of pitches to every hitter as long as possible in the game.

MARK MULDER: What's happened is awful, and to understand that people probably will be pulling for them because -- that's certainly understandable. I mean, that's not something that you are going to concern yourself with during the middle of a game. I mean, everybody knows what's going on, what happened. But like I said, it's not going to -- it's not going to be in your head when you are out there though.

MARK MULDER: I hope you don't. You've got to stick with what's been successful and you've got to pitch your game out there, just because it is a different stadium or whatnot, you've got to stay on your own page of how you pitch and go after hitters the same way.

MARK MULDER: Overall the team is more confident. We don't know quite what to expect. We were not able to set our rotation last year; we clinched a lot earlier this year. We had a tough series with them last year, but we are not going to change anything. We feel good. We've been playing good baseball the entire second half of the season and hopefully we'll continue that.

MARK MULDER: Yeah, we throw over quite a bit. But it's part of the game. I don't think any of us have great moves; that probably leads to that. I think we have been holding runners on better recently but if we had better moves, we obviously would not have to throw over as much.

MARK MULDER: Oh, by far. (Laughter.) I don't have that great of a move.

MARK MULDER: I'm sure it's going to be crazy here. It's going to be fun, though. That's what you want. You want to be able to pitch a big game in front of a big crowd in a big situation. I look forward to that. Obviously, our hitters are going against him. I know who is on the other side of the field, but I don't have to face him. I think more of the things going through my head is about their hitters and not necessarily pitching against them him.

MARK MULDER: I don't think we knew what to -- I didn't really have a part of it, but I was here and I watched it. I don't think guys quite knew what to expect a little bit, just with the situation, trying to do too much. Maybe that's what they did last year, try to do too much, I don't know. But I don't think we are going to do that this year. We are going to have fun with this and go from there.

MARK MULDER: I've kind of always been that way. I don't get real rattled, I don't get nervous. I get more anxious than I get nervous, so I've been that way the last two weeks of the season, ready to get these playoffs going. I don't look at it as not knowing what I'm doing out there and I'm going to be prepared.

MARK MULDER: I don't look at any of last year's stuff. I sucked last year. (Laughs). I don't take that into consideration, really. I pitched completely different this year and I've pitched well both times against them, just made a couple bad pitches here and there. Hopefully I won't make those mistakes this time.

MARK MULDER: When Huddie -- when I started in AAA, he was in AA in '99 and just came up and dominated and came into the big leagues. When I saw what he did up here his first year, I think it definitely gave me confidence, because I saw what he was doing and once all three of us got up here, it's not -- we just have so much fun out there. You know, I think that has a lot to do with it. We are not putting extra pressure on ourselves to do too much. We might be young, as far as our age, but I don't think as far as our mindset or how we go about things, I don't think we are all that young.

MARK MULDER: I don't know if it took pressure off, but we all are kind of looking at each other going, "All right this will turn around sooner or later." And then we kept on losing and losing and, "What's going on here"? Then we turned things around. It's very gratifying this year, after the start we had, everybody started saying we were a bust and stuff, but we kept at it and we fought through it. Look what we've done now; we've really turned things around.