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AL DIVISION SERIES: ANGELS v RED SOXOctober 3, 2007Josh BeckettBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game One Q. Can you talk about your pre-game preparation. It looked like you obviously had a game plan with what you talked about with Tek and John before the game? JOSH BECKETT: Talk about my pregame? Q. Formulating your game plan before the game. JOSH BECKETT: Same as every time. You don't take it any differently. You know, you just do the same exact thing you do every time. You don't change a lot of things just because now we're in the postseason, you know. You do what made you successful to get here. I don't think changing a lot of things is the way to go. Q. You're fond of saying that the past is past, and you only worry about this game. Can you indulge us for a moment, in some fashion compare what you did tonight, what did you in '03 with the Yankees, how these games are similar or dissimilar? JOSH BECKETT: You know, they're not similar. They're similar because of the results. I don't think really anything else is similar. I think I got a lot of ground balls tonight; I got a lot of flyballs that night. It was a good game, you know. Tek did an unbelievable job. Had some great defensive plays behind me and we got some timely hits. Q. Two postseasons, you now have three shutouts. You have been teammates with two guys who have reputations as terrific postseason pitchers, Wells and Schilling now. What would it mean to be thought of by your peers to be in that class as a great postseason October pitcher who rises to the occasion? JOSH BECKETT: I think that those are all things you should worry about when you retire, not really worry much too about them. I always go back to one pitch at a time, you know. That's what you do in games like today. That's one thing that I can point out for myself that I did well. I never got ahead of myself. It was always one pitch at a time. You know, didn't matter what was going on. If they had a guy on third base or if they didn't have anybody on, you just go one pitch at a time. Had to hit some balls at some guys and I was fortunate. Q. Talk about what you had tonight and why were you so effective. JOSH BECKETT: You know, I was ahead of a lot of guys, you know. And they get a lot of guys that are those guys that foul a lot of pitches off. And I just didn't want to get wrapped up in trying to strike a lot of guys out, because those are the at-bats that will end up killing your pitch count and you're out after 5 1/3 because you got 120 pitches. And as I said, I just stuck with pitch to pitch. Trying to get outs as quick as possible. You know when you have a defense like I have, it's pretty easy to sit back and do that. Q. You talked about pitch count and keeping that down. You were disappointed in your last two outings in September to have long first innings where your pitch count got up early, and you knew you might not be able to go past the sixth or seventh because of that. What did you do early to maybe be a little more aggressive and keep the pitch count down early in the game? JOSH BECKETT: I just think, you know, you go out there and you find out what kind of pitcher you are that day and you just go from there, and get into pitch-by-pitch execution. Just exploiting hitters' weaknesses. Just ends up snowballing, and every inning you end up with a quicker inning because they know you're throwing strikes and they're up there swinging and you get a couple first-pitch outs. Q. What did it mean to you tonight to finish what you started? JOSH BECKETT: I don't know. I mean it's always great. It's a really cool thing to be able to go out there and be the only pitcher that pitches for your team that day. But if we had been up big or something, I probably wouldn't have finished. You know, I don't think that they really ever after eight innings, I don't think that they ever thought about taking me out. It was just one of those deals it was kind of known throughout the dugout that I was going back out there. Q. Three basic pitches. Absolutely equally effective tonight across the board, your fastball, your curve and your change. JOSH BECKETT: Yeah, you know, I think I had a really good sinker today, and that's why I got a lot of groundballs. It's fun when you keep your defense on their toes. Q. You obviously have said that you're staying in the moment pitch by pitch. But Youkilis said that you were pretty talkative on the bench in between when your team was up. When did you realize that they thought you were having a special night? JOSH BECKETT: None of them said anything to me. We were just -- I'm always like that. I talk to guys, they come sit next to me. We talk on the bench in between innings. You know, I'm kind of notorious for that. There are a lot of guys that choose not to talk to anybody on the day they pitch. I'm just not one of those guys. We're all in this together. Those are the guys that are going to help me win the game playing defense and scoring runs. Not like I can do a whole lot of that myself. Q. You talked about treating this like any other start. Is it difficult for you when the playoffs come around to keep your emotions in check and keep that under control? JOSH BECKETT: No. Not really, no. I'm just out there trying to execute pitches until somebody takes the ball out of my hand and the game's over. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Josh. End of FastScripts |
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