AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

October 8, 2004

Kevin Brown

KEVIN BROWN: I'm very happy with the results, obviously. I think the guys were probably scared enough watching me pitch today. I think it was a motivating factor for them. Obviously, you know, there's things I can't do now that I've done in the past, but ultimately it's not how you get them out, as long as you get them out. I had some hard-hit balls, and I had some not-hard-hit balls, too. And we got a couple fortunate plays, and especially in the last inning, where the balls were base hits, and we managed to get out, I think, Hideki set him up pretty good there, but, you know, the -- I noticed a lot of people back home that have been doing an awful lot of praying, and I really appreciate all their prayers. How things turned out today, I know there's been a lot of support there, my family and friends back home. They know how tough it's been for me this year.

KEVIN BROWN: My expectations, obviously, each inning you try and not let them score. As a pitcher, obviously, you like to have such domination that you can walk out there and cruise along and make it look easy. If you have to battle and work your way out of situations with the guys on the base, as long as you can keep them from scoring, then, you know, you've done a job for your team. Obviously, I threw a bad pitch the first inning giving them the lead. And my team came back and put the runs back on the board. It was a huge sigh of relief on my part. It gives me a little breathing room and I try to tinker, work around, try to find out what I can do. They've got a great lineup. There's no taking anything away from that team. They play aggressive, they play hard. They're good from top to bottom. I had a couple hard-hit balls, and a couple not-so-hard-hit balls that found the hole, too.

KEVIN BROWN: It was, I don't want to throw that pitch in that location again. Obviously, it was a mistake pitch, and again, when you've got guys that are quality hitters, they're not going to let you get by with a whole lot of mistakes, and again, they are a solid team and take advantage of the mistakes made throughout the course of the year, and again, the team did a great job behind me defensively, made some very good plays, kept some other balls in the infield that were tough, that were tough, but kept the ball from being able to score and gave me a chance to work out of it.

KEVIN BROWN: You know, I really honestly -- it's not even worth talking about, because at this point in time of the year, no one cares how you feel as long as you get somebody out, and, you know, it's -- it is what it is, and I'll do what I have to do to get out there and take the ball, and give them everything I've got and beyond that, it does no good for me to sit and try to describe to you what I do or don't feel. So, I mean, I'm not going to waste a lot of breath, and you just not waste a lot of ink, I guess. At this point in time, that's it.

KEVIN BROWN: Obviously, this is the time of year when the cards are down, and you can't put it off until tomorrow. You can't have a bad week. In a short series like this, it's all or nothing, and obviously, to have an opportunity to be a part and to be able to walk out on the field, I don't take that for granted. When I was younger I probably, like most guys, feel a little bit like Superman, like nothing can hurt you. I definitely don't take that for granted these days, and, you know, in a setting of the way things have gone this year, to be able to be on the mound and be a part of the win, it's a great honor. It's a very satisfying experience, but I would say it's tempered, because we all in this clubhouse, we know this is obviously an important stepping stone, but no one's going to be celebrating today. We're all looking at what we've got to do tomorrow, which is go out and win another ball game.

KEVIN BROWN: Well, you would have to ask them to be honest with you. I think most of it is after the initial moment, you know, of reaction, I think they understood what happened. I think there's probably -- again, if you got honest answers from most of the guys, in baseball there's probably not too many guys who have not, you know, been angry at one moment and thrown a helmet or broken a bat, where there's a possibility they could have injured themselves. Unfortunately, I didn't have a bat in my hand at that point in time. But the -- I think again, just after it happened, I think most of the guys understood where the frustration was coming from, and that it was not something that I did because I didn't care about the team. It was quite the opposite. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have been upset with the way things were going.

KEVIN BROWN: Whenever he asks me to take the ball, I'll be there.