NL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS v BRAVES

October 8, 1999

Shane Reynolds

SHANE REYNOLDS: Realizing that kind of early in the first game, it had be a situation through the course of the last half of the season where I had gotten too high of an arm angle and had lost in sink on the sharp ball and lost the sharpness of the split finger. We had gone through processes of throwing off the mount and I was trying to find out what the problem was before this last start. I think we found it; that hopefully it was the arm angle. I didn't really throw that many off-speed pitches in the first game, in game one. I stayed with a lot of fast balls. They were very aggressive. I'm a guy that's always around the plate that tried to get ahead with the -- whether they be -- Klesko commented on trying to be very aggressive and hit one of the first two pitches. They did that. There were a few innings where I had first pitch, second pitch out. Again, not having a split finger, my outpitch had been tough and the statistics shows that. Having to go out and bat on them and try to get in the groove and find out what's working that day. There are times that you go out there and you don't have your best stuff and you have to deal with it. There are times you get into the rhythm and get into the game and you have all your pitches and you're not thinking about anything. He puts a sign down and not throw it, you're not thinking about anything. When a certain pitch is not working for you and it's your best pitch, your outpitch, that creates a little problem. But you got to stay with, you know, what's working that day and that day was a fast ball and trying to throw a lot of strikes and getting ahead in the count.

SHANE REYNOLDS: Yeah. I mean that's kind of been the game plan from the start really. Ever since just before the Mets series, he's been swinging a real hot bat. He's one of their leaders on the team, a guy in the lineup that gets the big hit, drives in a lot of runs and you want to stay away from that. I think that maybe that's gotten taken out of context a little bit. Maybe because, you know, I just threw eight straight fast balls out in the -- he's the guy when you step to the plate, he's kind of like Bagwell. If it's a one to one ballgame or two to one ballgame, you're trying to win it, don't give that guy anything to hit. That's what we are trying to do. The situation may be, you know, made more than what it really is. Just that we don't want Chipper to beat us. It's just like another team against us with Bagwell all year. I mean, you don't walk 150 times then in the course of the season when a team is not going to let you beat them whatsoever. So that's just the situation. A situation arises, try not to give him anything too good. If there's nobody on base and there's two outs or an out or something and you don't want to put somebody on because they do have a whole line of hitters, if within the first couple of pitches you don't make your pitch, then don't give him something to beat you with. That's all we are trying to do.

SHANE REYNOLDS: It's very fun, no doubt. I mean this is what you start in December and January working for is what you go through hot long training days is this right here. Everybody enjoys it and loves it and it's very much fun. Some guys can take it to the field and perform a hundred percent in their best having a wonderful time enjoying it. Some other guys like myself, I don't think, don't really have fun out there. It's my job and it's something that I need to perform and do well so when I'm out there doing it, I'm not really having that much fun. I mean, afterwards, before and all that other stuff, yeah, it's a lot of fun. These times in the course of a season, it's like I said what you work for, but when I'm out there, it's try to get into the business and have fun later.

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