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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v RED SOXOctober 19, 2007Fausto CarmonaCarl WillisBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Workout Day Q. Fausto, what do you think you can do better this time out than you did in Game 2? FAUSTO CARMONA: I'm going to try hard to stay aggressive, the same way I always pitch. Whatever happened last time, I've forgotten about it, it's going to be a new start and I'm looking forward to it. Q. What are you going to do different this time? What did you learn from your last outing? FAUSTO CARMONA: I'm not going -- yes, I learned that I need to pitch, but I'm going to continue to do the same thing that I did during the regular season. Nothing is going to change. Q. Carl, from your perspective, what did you see different from Fausto's first outing against the Yankees to his last outing against the Red Sox? CARL WILLIS: You know, I don't think there was a huge amount of difference. Obviously he was trying to be aggressive. We were trying to be aggressive. I thought Boston obviously had a very good game plan, and they were patient. You know, it was one of those nights with the adrenaline going, we just didn't get ahead in the counts as we'd like to. It's not about how we attack Boston, it's basically our philosophy of pitching, and we fell behind. That was the biggest key, I thought. A lot of credit goes to them, though. Q. Fausto, how will you handle pitching in a situation where if you win you go to the World Series, if you lose or the team loses, you've got to go to a Game 7. How will that affect the way you pitch? FAUSTO CARMONA: I've got a lot of faith in myself and the club that we're going to play a nice game and a good game tomorrow. Hopefully we come out of this game victorious, and I'm looking forward for the next. Q. The last time around against Schilling in this ballpark, was it just a little bit intimidating at all, or will tomorrow be a little bit intimidating at all knowing what Curt Schilling's track record is? FAUSTO CARMONA: No, I'm not going to be intimidated by anything. I'm not thinking even about Schilling, I'm thinking about the hitters that I've got to face. Q. Carl, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a sinkerball pitcher in this odd-shaped ballpark? CARL WILLIS: Well, I think always to keep the ball on the ground, we like to try to play station-to-station defense or pitch that way, so to speak. To keep the ball on the ground here more times than not, I think you're going to have a lot of singles. So you have to group back-to-back hits or a significant amount of hits put together in one inning to score. So that makes it a little more difficult, I think, to create a big inning, which we're going to try to stay away from obviously, so I think that is a key. Q. Carl, you've had a lot of good pitching in this series from a lot of people, but the one thing you've been missing is the big command performance by one of your co-aces. Is that kind of a surprise and the missing piece for you guys? CARL WILLIS: You know, I don't think so, because it takes 162 games, a full season, to qualify for the playoffs, and then we got through the ALDS, and at some point in time or another, I think the best teams have different people to step forward and step up, and we've had that happen throughout the course of the regular season. And now it's happened to this point of the postseason just from a pitching perspective, Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd and the performances that they have given us. I think we feel strongly about all of our starters, and we have talked about that since spring training. And we feel that if one falters, we have someone qualified the next day to pick the team up. Hopefully that will be the case here. Q. Were you trying to be a little too fine the first time you faced Boston, or were they just patient, just making sure that you threw strikes? FAUSTO CARMONA: Yeah, I was trying to be a little fine. I've got to make sure I'm not going to leave any pitch down the middle of the plate. I was thinking just a little too much. Q. Carl, was it him being too fine or was it them being patient for him? CARL WILLIS: You know, I think it was a combination of both. Not to avoid the question, but there are times throughout the course of the season in going back and reviewing the video of the game, there were pitches that Fausto made hitters swing at throughout the course of the season. But I think, again, the Red Sox being very disciplined and obviously a veteran lineup of professional hitters, they laid off of a lot of pitches that other clubs at times swing at. But I would also say that early in counts he was a bit fine, and he needs to trust that sink on the plate. I think we'll see that happen this time. Q. Fausto, so much is made about this batting order, Manny, David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, but can you tell us what you learned about the other guys, the other hitters in this lineup and how you might take advantage of that? FAUSTO CARMONA: You've got to approach everybody the same way, Manny, Ortiz, all those guys, starting from the first guy in the lineup to the guy who is hitting ninth. There's going to be no change in approach. I'm always going to be aggressive with those guys and pitch my game. Q. After the way C.C. pitched last night, do you think he has a tired arm, that he's hit the wall, or is this just the postseason, the effects of the postseason? CARL WILLIS: Well, as far as having a tired arm, I don't think so. I know the velocity is there. I did think obviously last night was an improvement from his other two postseason outings. I thought he stayed in his delivery much better last night than those previous two outings. Pitchers go through certain periods, and not to say that he's struggling, but pitchers go through certain periods, and when you go through a down period and it happens in the postseason you open yourself to a lot of criticism or questions. If this had been happening in June, probably not as much attention is given towards it. But I thought that he was fine. Again, I thought last night was an improvement, and hopefully he'll get another outing. Q. This is actually for Luis, just curious, at the end of the second inning last night, Beckett went out of his way to say something to you as you were running off. Was there anything to that? LUIS RIVERA: No, it just happened on that inning he threw a high inside pitch to Gutierrez, and when he was walking off the mound he stopped by and said, "Make sure he knows that I wasn't trying to throw at him, the ball just came out of my hands like that." End of FastScripts |
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