AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: MARINERS v YANKEES

October 14, 2000

Roger Clemens

Q. In light of the questions about your post-season past, what does this game mean to you?

ROGER CLEMENS: Well, I think if all that counted was me in particular getting wins, I'd have a lot of wins. I left a lot of games with leads and didn't get wins; pitched poorly a handful of times, too. But I guess I'm in a fortunate situation where I get an opportunity to continue to go back and pitch in post-season games. So having said that, I think, you know, I feel real fortunate that I've been able to continue at this stage of my career, to go out there and be a part of a great deal of excitement and have a chance to light it up. And sometimes, you know, you get beat. But tonight was special. I knew I was going to be strong. I tried to do the things I needed to do so I would not over-throw, but my fastball was very much alive, and I just knew I needed to try to harness it early.

ROGER CLEMENS: Well, I'm trying to have fun, but you have to lock in when you're in somebody else's building. Obviously, you have to keep the crowd out of it and try to follow suit. I thought Andy did a great job out there in Game 3 to keep them in check early. He gave up one run. I tried to follow suit. He held on. Obviously, what El Duque did, he was able to hang on and give us a chance; and that's what our job is. And it was 0-0 for quite a while. I was thinking, I've got to stay away from a big inning. A couple big innings have hurt me in the past. But tonight, I had all three pitches going and probably my best splitter of the year. It was really dancing and doing everything I asked it to do. And once I have that, with my velocity, it's fun.

ROGER CLEMENS: Martin hit a slider. He painted it in early, starting in the middle, but it was breaking inside; it was so hard -- I got behind that slider more than I would like to. It broke, but he was able to get a good piece of the bat on it. I think if I think back, I heard it hit -- I think it hit Tino's glove, if I remember seeing it. I think he deflected it a little bit. Once he got on second base, it doesn't take a whole lot -- it doesn't take much to realize that you have to focus in right there, because I have some big-time hitters coming up. I know one or two at-bats I put myself in a tough spot with Edgar. Any time you get behind with him and you have to give him a ball somewhat over the middle, you're definitely taking a chance. I was pretty fortunate there. I made sure I got the ball down with something on it. He hit one -- the at-bats you are talking about, I think they were both strikeouts. We just worked the strike zone really well. Give credit to Posada, he called a good game, he watched me the whole time. Even with the foul balls, he was focused on me. And sometimes the looks and things that I do looking at him, it's a game within a game for us. So he did a great job.

ROGER CLEMENS: When I was changing shirts, the volume on the TV was down. Our trainers keep the volume down. I don't like to hear the comments as far as what's the game. I like to see, obviously, when there is one or two outs, and I will make my way back towards the field. They flashed the box score and that's when I noticed it in the fourth, and I noticed it again in the fifth -- I think it was the fifth. And that was it, really. At this point, when we're trying to just win a game, I just continue to tell myself to -- let's win the game. I really didn't focus on that. I've always felt that I throw too many strikes to throw a no-hitter, because I'm going to give a guy a pretty hittable ball, especially in a game like this, with something on it. You know, if I ever do, I would probably, you know -- you'd see four or five walks, I would say, in the walk column. I would have to be fairly wild.

ROGER CLEMENS: Well, that's surprising. I would have thought Edgar -- again, I haven't looked at the numbers, but I do know one or two occasions where A-Rod has hurt me to right center. I think his power is that way. We had a game plan, and we stuck right with it. We wanted to work inside, obviously. The comments that some of the TV guys made about setting a -- afterwards about setting a tone, I was setting a tone from the beginning with myself to really concentrate about getting three pitches over and getting over for strikes. I don't think the first one was that close. The second one I think was closer. But I don't think the first one was that close. I was just trying to go at his hands inside, and actually, for strikes both times. There's another ball that got away from me when I turned it loose. I don't know if Danny Wilson was at the plate or not, but I threw one at the backstop, too, later on. Again, I can get what I need done by working both sides, and I wanted to open up the plate away a little bit, or maybe later on in the game, without really getting into a detailed pattern, if I'm going to face him if we match up again, whether it be this season or down the road.

ROGER CLEMENS: That's my approach. Again, I made the statement earlier coming off the field, that's my approach in a July game or a Saturday in July, as well as a post-season game.

ROGER CLEMENS: Well, I had three pitches working today, and that makes a big difference. I think that any hitter will tell you if I'm able to locate three different pitches, no question about it. I had command of all three, and it makes it -- definitely makes it a lot easier to pitch when you do that, especially against some great hitters in a great lineup. But again, tonight, I focused all night on trying to keep the zeros up there, stay away from a big inning, and our guys came through, hitting the big homer. And three runs in that situation for me, at that point, is just -- you know, it really enables you to go out there and continue to do what you're doing. And of course, every one of the guys -- almost every one of the everyday guys that were behind me tonight ran out and said, you know, "It's 0-0; continue to focus." Again, tip your hat to these guys. They battled extremely hard. It just makes it awful fun.

ROGER CLEMENS: I was asking Jorge, who called time-out, and it was Jorge that called -- he wanted to know if he was crossed up, and he said "No, Alex called time-out." And actually the umpire, he stepped in and -- Wally stepped in and said, "No, I called it, and it was in time." We talked about it the very next inning. I said, "You called in plenty of time when I turned back to throw and they were coming out." There was no way -- I held up one time throwing a ball like that. I try and go ahead and let the ball go.

ROGER CLEMENS: I have no comment on that. I was trying to work A-Rod inside.