AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v WHITE SOX

October 11, 2005

Jarrod Washburn

JARROD WASHBURN: I feel great.

JARROD WASHBURN: I haven't weighed myself. I don't want to. Sitting in the back room yesterday, in my quarantined room, watching the game at Angels Stadium, I saw Bartolo (Colon) come out and then Buddy (Black) checked on me shortly after, and I asked him if he wanted me to get ready to pitch. I wanted to get out there and help the guys. I felt like I let them down in that first series and wasn't able to help them beat the Yankees. So I wanted to get out there as fast as possible.

JARROD WASHBURN: (Laughing) In theory, yeah. I've probably got more sleep than most of them. I didn't fly back from New York with the team. I stayed in New York and got a good night's sleep there and then flew out the next day with Dr. Milhouse. So I've got a good night's sleep in the past two nights as opposed to any of my teammates. Yeah, that's good. But right now I need as much sleep as I can get, so I'm still a little tired and a little weak, but I'll be ready to go.

JARROD WASHBURN: No, that wasn't brought up at all. I don't even know what the options were. They just came and told me, "Hey, you're going to stay here and fly back to Anaheim tomorrow."

JARROD WASHBURN: I can't think of anything that would be worse torture for a baseball player to go through. Those were the hardest two games I've ever watched in my life, having to sit in a room by myself, having to watch it on TV and can't help. It was tough. Watching games and sitting in the dugout on games you're not pitching is pretty tough, but it's something you're used to because that's your job as a starting pitcher. But I really didn't feel like part of the team. I just felt kind of like an outcast and couldn't help the team, so it was like torture sitting back there not being able to at least go out there and cheer my teammates on.

JARROD WASHBURN: Probably longer than I'm taking (smiling).

JARROD WASHBURN: I haven't picked up a ball in probably four or five days. Actually I played catch on Friday, was the last time I played catch. I was going to play catch today and loosen it up a little bit and get some blood moving in there and remember what a ball feels like.

JARROD WASHBURN: Maybe a little bit. Any time you lose a guy that's in the Cy Young running and probably should win it, it's going to affect a ball club. You know, our rotation has been outstanding all season long, and it hasn't just been a couple guys, it's been 1 through 5 who's been pitching well. You know, it's just up to us now to continue what we did all season long and pick up Bart.

JARROD WASHBURN: No, it was something that I really didn't feel coming on. I felt it coming on for about two hours and then it hit me real hard and I knew I had something pretty bad. You know, I figured out pretty quick what it was. I used to get strep throat once a year, and then about three years ago I got it in spring training and it knocked me out for about ten days, and I had to start the season on DL. So I knew what it was when it finally hit me hard, and luckily this time we were able to jump on it in time and get the shots in me quickly and get a handle on it before it got out of hand.

JARROD WASHBURN: That's going to be up to Mike and Buddy. I told them I'm going to give them exactly what I do every time out there, and I'm going to give them everything I've got for as long as I can. I would assume they'll probably be pretty cautious given that I'm a little weak still and not really regained all my strength. I'm not going to hold anything back. I'm going to give them everything I've got for as long as I can.

JARROD WASHBURN: You know, I think we feel that way no matter what the situation would be. Any time you come in playing a team that has home field advantage, you want to try to get that first win on the board and steal back that home field advantage. You know, we want to come in here and play well. You could look at it as they're rested and we're tired, or you can look at it as they've had a few days off and they could be rusty and we're just staying in the groove and being able to go out there and keep our rhythm. There's different ways to look at it. They looked like they were swinging the bats real well in that Boston series, so maybe having a few days off quieted the bats down a little. Let's hope so.