NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 10, 2001

Randy Johnson

RANDY JOHNSON: Well, I mean, the game's final score is 3-1 -- 4-1. When I came out, it's 3-1. I walked two, I believe, the one that I walked ended up scoring. You can look at it that way, you know. I'm not going to fight myself about it. I'm a pitcher that walks batters, in the very beginning, used to walk a lot of guys. I've cut it down considerably. It's unfortunate that it was a walk that I had right before I gave up a home run.

RANDY JOHNSON: Strong kid, Albert Pujols, bad location, tried coming in on that pitch and you know I could have thrown that pitch down and away, but I got it up and away. And you know, he was late on it and that's why it went to right field. And I had a feeling it was gone as soon as he hit it. So it was more bad location. But over a course of 162 games, over 35 starts, I've probably made a few bad pitches and have gotten away with them. So, like I said, yesterday, it was a situation, a game like this is under the microscope, if you will, because you have no room to make errors or bad pitches or things of that nature because, you know, I've watched a few of the post-season games up to this point and it's been all pitching. There's been very little offense in any of the games, and that's usually what it's going to be in a five-game series. In a seven-game series, you have a little mere leeway to make a pitch that's going to hurt you. But in a five-game series, you don't have that.

RANDY JOHNSON: My psyche is not hurt. It's obviously -- you know, it's upsetting that we lost. But I'm going to give a lot of credit to Woody Williams, he pitched outstanding. We saw what Curt did last night and Matt Morris matched him pitch for pitch. And the one run we scored was a hit batter. Damian got hit and he ends up scoring. Today you have to tip your hat to Woody Williams, he pitched extremely well and helped himself at the plate as well.

RANDY JOHNSON: I'm not putting pressure on myself at all. I went out there and I pitched the best I could. After Woody Williams scored, it was a 3-0 ball game and I pitched five shutout innings. It wasn't good enough to win. Woody Williams pitched better. He shut our offense down and I just didn't -- you know, if someone is to blame, I guess I am. I gave up the three runs, but I'm here to take whatever you guys want to say. It seems like I've been in this position behind a microphone every post-season -- it's just -- last year was a little more frustrating because I don't think it gave us a chance to win. Today, I settled down and, you know, you just -- it's all about pitching. If you see a post-season game where there is five or six runs scored, that's you know a lot of offense in a post-season game, and you may see more in a seven-game series. But in a five-game series, all the pitchers know they have to make the pitches. And it was unfortunate it came in the first inning because after the first inning was over, I felt like I settled down and got into a groove. The bases loaded, I think there was one out, I struck out Pujols and the runners went back. And I think I got another strikeout, and then a pop up. I pitched well at times and then, you know, the first inning was an inning that, you know, I tried to sell some of the young kids. And I still live by this philosophy. As a power pitcher, you don't have a lot of -- power pitchers take longer to get into the flow of the game. From the first inning, that could be the ball game right there. And, essentially, it was. In post season or sometime in the regular, Pujols will probably be named rookie of the year. He has a lot of power. I felt I made my pitches later to him in the game to him to get him. It's split one apiece. We'll go to St. Louis and hopefully do our job there.

RANDY JOHNSON: Well, I mean, in every lineup you may have a hitter that does well against you, and being a pitcher, knowing that, you want to pitch that one particular person carefully and not let him hurt you and then maybe get the person that is coming up after him. Like I said, it was a pitch that was up and away, he hit it. It was just bad location. Location down, down away, or down. And maybe he doesn't do that. I don't know. They had a good lineup today. That was a lineup that I watched a lot of videotape of before the game. A lot of players are more contact hitters than power hitters, but Pujols, essentially in the first inning, of all innings, was the one that did the damage there.