AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 19, 2001

Jamie Moyer

JAMIE MOYER: I don't feel like it's a burden. I feel like it's another game to go out and pitch. I felt that way all season, go out and pitch and try to perform to your best abilities. I felt that way in the Division Series and I'm going it continue to feel that way in the League championship.

JAMIE MOYER: I really don't know anything about their mystique because I've never played here.

JAMIE MOYER: Well, I think not only myself and Glavine, I think there's a game of baseball and pitching, most of the game is down and away. You have to pitch inside. You have to use both sides of the plate effectively. I'm sure you've all heard that a zillion times from a pitcher and a pitching coach. It's just trying to be aggressive with what you are doing, sticking with your game plan, forcing contact, and my biggest thing in the last -- the second half of the season, and really, the last couple of years is you try to force contact. Like Lou just alluded to Rivera, he doesn't walk people. Walking people is a free pass. A walk, a hit and a hit, before you know it, you're in trouble versus if you're forcing them to beat you with three hits or four hits in an inning to score a run, it makes a big difference. You try to force contact and allow your defense to play behind you. I'm well aware that I am not a power pitcher. I'm not going to come out and dominate a ballclub, and I just have to pitch to my abilities.

JAMIE MOYER: I don't know. I've only heard -- tell me the exact quote. I've heard a lot of different things, so, I mean, I don't know -- I didn't hear it from his mouth, so I don't know what he said exactly.

JAMIE MOYER: I like that. I like that fire. We're here to play. We're here to compete. I hope we can do -- fulfill that and take this series back to Seattle. But, you know what, we can't take it back to Seattle until we play tomorrow and hopefully win a game tomorrow. Worrying about Game 6 now to me is a waste of energy. Just go out and play and take one game at a time, one pitch at a time, one hitter at a time and break it down to something that simple and hopefully move forward with it.

JAMIE MOYER: I can't speak for the team as a whole. I can only speak for myself individually. Intimidated? If I was intimidated I would not have gotten on the plane so I don't feel like there's an intimidation factor. They are no different than we are. They are grown men playing a kids game and so are we, and everybody is playing hard. Go out and see what happens. Maybe we go out and win Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 and all of a sudden, you know -- I'm not saying that's going to happen, but you never know what's going to happen. You never really know what's going to happen until the game is played. So, again, my focus and my direction is tomorrow. And tomorrow only. To get caught up in Game 4 or Game 5 or Game 6 or what if you are pitching Game 7 -- what if I don't? I'm not going to worry about it. To me, that's just the wrong direction to take.

JAMIE MOYER: If they left the fences the way they were a few years ago, it would be great. Yeah, I enjoy pitching here. I really enjoy coming to Yankee Stadium. I try to look at the history that's taken place here. All of the great players that have played here, all of the great games that have been played here, and I look at it as a privilege and an honor to be able to take the mound and pitch in Yankee Stadium. It's a unique ballpark and there are very few of those left in this country that have that history behind them. So I feel very fortunate to have that opportunity.

JAMIE MOYER: Well, I don't know if it's a tense time so I can't -- I don't really feel like it's tense. I didn't wake up tense. I woke up -- I actually felt like I had a good night's sleep, believe it or not, or a good morning's sleep. Yeah, Edgar is a professional. He comes out and he works hard at what he does, and that's why he's successful. As a club, we rely on him. We rely on our offense greatly. You know, it just goes to show his work ethic, and, you know, what this game of baseball means to him and I think it's outstanding. I think it's a great reflection on him and I think that's why you see a lot of hitters look up to Edgar.

JAMIE MOYER: If I could do anything, I would like to put myself in the same situation I was in the last two starts, and really, the second half of the season. I've been feeling very comfortable and very confident in the pitches that I want to make, my game plan. Our catchers have done an outstanding job. Again, personally with me, both Tom and Dan have done a great job. To me, that's what it's about. You have to work together as a team.

JAMIE MOYER: I don't want to make it sound like it's oh, hoe hum, it's just another game, but I try not to make too much of it. I try to just prepare as if it's a normal game, try not to get caught up in the hype and everything that's going on in the stands and the media and things like that. Just go out and try to focus on what I need to do because I think in my earlier years, I put that extra pressure on myself. Maybe I felt like it was a big game. Maybe I felt like I was pitching so I was not going to get sent down to the Minor Leagues and I think I learned a great deal from those experiences. I can remember a game just a few years back, we might have been teammates at the time in Baltimore and it was at the All-Star Break where they were going to play the All-Star Game in Baltimore and there were a lot of people that I had played with and knowing that the All-Star Game was going to be played in Baltimore, there was a lot of excitement the last couple days of the first half. I happened to pitch one of those days and I had been throwing the ball I thought, fairly well and I really got caught up in the All-Star Game and I wasn't even involved with it. And thinking about -- you know, I really became distracted from that and that's something that I always look back to when I'm in any type of situation, and actually, in my last two starts, I've kind of looked back, reflected back to that time and that situation because it really stuck out to me because I was so unsuccessful the day that I went out to pitch in that situation, that it has really been a vivid thought in my mind and it's really kind of stuck with me. That's what really enables me to stay focused on what I want to do.

JAMIE MOYER: Thus far, I have not felt that way. Again, I feel like I've been pretty well focussed and I really -- you know, things from the first pitch forward have moved in a positive direction. I really haven't been in a situation where I've had to, you know, pick and try to figure out where I am, if it's a mechanical flaw or I'm not just right. I've been able to stay away from that so it really has not been an issue for me so far.