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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v DODGERS

October 6, 2009

Randy Wolf

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Randy Wolf.

Q. Randy, after a long and successful career, the post-season has been avoiding you. But now it's going to be your first time you take the mound in post-season. How does it feel to be experiencing it for the first time and setting the pace for your fellow pitchers?
RANDY WOLF: Exciting. It's been a long road. Obviously this is my 11th year and my first post-season appearance. It's really exciting to do it at home. Obviously I was in Philly for a long time. And I left there and I watched them go to the playoffs and the next year win the World Series.
And I rooted for those guys in a certain aspect because I played with those guys. But you know for me personally it's a lot of fun to do it in a place that's my hometown. I grew up here.
I grew up watching this team. This was the big league stadium I went to when I was a kid, and for my first experience as far as the post-season to be in LA, my hometown, is pretty special.

Q. Can you just talk about this whole year as a whole, I remember talking to you right when you signed and you had to wait forever to get a contract done, to get the right team interested. Standing on the field at a high school in Harvard Westlake and you were just happy to have a contract. Now Game 1 starter in the NLDS, can you talk about how the year's gone for you?
RANDY WOLF: It's been an interesting year. When the off-season started, I obviously thought I was going to go back to Houston. That didn't work out. And the whole off-season, it was kind of uneasy, obviously where the world was and nation was economically and teams didn't know what direction they wanted to go.
And for me to find a place to play was kind of difficult and LA came in pretty much at the last minute and I think it was a week before spring training and I signed and went off to Arizona.
It's been a very interesting year. I was happy to have that opportunity to come to LA again, and I felt that I owed them something because in '07 I only pitched half the year. So I felt I had some unfinished business, and I think we still have unfinished business, but it's been a fun year so far.

Q. Talking about the playoff thing, I believe you finished second in Philadelphia four or five times and, like you said, you missed them there and missed the playoff year here. Did you feel sort of cursed at all as you were going through your career that way?
RANDY WOLF: A little bit. Second place is first's last. And I knew the jinx was either me or Mike Lieberthal and unfortunately it was Mike. I love the guy, but sometimes there are two-leaf clovers. (Smiling) I always made that joke, but it was something that Lieby and I battled for in Philadelphia. It was hard for us to watch and watch them go to the playoffs and World Series.
You obviously start feeling like there's some kind of a jinx even though I'm not a big believer in that, but luckily that went away.

Q. A lot of guys making their first post-season start would seek out a veteran's advice. But you are a veteran, who do you turn to or do you just talk to yourself (Laughter)?
RANDY WOLF: I do that a lot, actually. I think the main thing is you have to treat it like pretty much any other game. I think when you build it up, that's when it becomes a monster. And I think I've been out there before. I've faced this team before. And I obviously know that it's a tough task obviously going against a guy who probably was the frontrunner for the Cy Young.
It's going to be a battle. If I execute what I want to execute, go out there and throw strikes, I think I'll give this team a chance to win. We have a good team and it's going to be a battle going against a tough guy and I think if we just all stay with ourselves and play the way we can, we definitely have a shot.

Q. What do you think you were doing differently in this final month that you were so successful compared to earlier this season?
RANDY WOLF: To tell you the truth, I really wasn't doing that much better, I just happened to be on the left side of the decision column instead of the middle, which I was a lot of it. And I think we just played better baseball, and I happened to be out there pitching when we were playing better more consistently, and scoring early.
And I think that was the main key. I think for me I didn't let the early frustrations of the year really get to me. I knew I was throwing consistently and keeping the team in the game.
And I thought it would even out at the end. With all the frustrations that came with this year personally, you know it's all worth it now. And I think this is the best part of the year, the most fun part of the year. And a part of the year you could take advantage of it doing something special.

Q. How does it feel to be considered the ace of this squad right now?
RANDY WOLF: Well, I almost despise that word. A guy like Chris Carpenter, you could consider him an ace. He's done it year in, year out. And he's always -- when you think of Chris Carpenter, you think ace. He's the guy who is almost a perennial top five Cy Young voting guy, and for me I've been pitching well. I've kept the team in the game. And I happen to be pitching Game 1. I think with this staff we could have an ace on any given day.
But obviously Kershaw against Colorado was considered an ace that day. But that's why I don't like to use that term. So it's just try to pitch as well as you can, that's the key.

Q. You say you don't believe in jinxes but didn't you change your number and what led to that?
RANDY WOLF: Actually I went back to my real number. I always wanted No. 43. It was the number I had in Philly for a long time. And when I came to the Dodgers in '07 Brazoban had it when I came back in '09 this year Brazoban still had it. And out of spring training he didn't make the 40-man and at that time I already had 21, stuck with it. And then during the year Mitch Poole, our clubhouse guy, said, Do you want to switch to 43? I said, It's about time you asked. It's nice to have the number back. And I don't believe in jinxes but that doesn't mean that I'm not superstitious.

Q. The Padilla Flotilla, you remember from the Vet and Philly days, do you see him regaining some of what he had then as he earned the No. 3 spot in this playoff?
RANDY WOLF: You can't doubt his stuff. When he's come over here, I didn't really get an opportunity to see him much in Texas. We played him one time during the year. But you can't deny his stuff. He's throwing a 94 to 96 an hour moving fastball and drops a 52 mile an hour curveball in there. Throws it for strikes every time.
When he came over here, I told some of the people here in LA that I thought he was going to be a big addition for us. I think a change of scenery was going to be big for him. I think the way our team is, I think we're very laid back. We let guys do what they need to do.
I know he works hard. He's in the weight room all the time. And guys respect that. So I think when he came over here he was kind of a fresh start. And I think he's taking advantage of that opportunity. It's good to see, because I know there were some not very pleasant things said about him when he left Texas. But my experiences with him in Philadelphia were positive. And I'm glad he's coming over here and doing a good job for us.

Q. I don't mean to make every question about superstition, but during -- I don't know what to call it, the no-decision streak, did you wear a different shirt under your jersey? What was in your mind during that time?
RANDY WOLF: I was wondering if I should fly to Haiti and get a voodoo doctor to undo the curse. I think the main thing was to not worry about it. I think for five days I let it get to me a little bit. And I realized that was very unproductive, and I realized that I was pitching well and for the majority of the starts that I was getting the no-decisions the team was winning, I would realize that was the most important thing.
And I think that's the only way you could get out of it. And it worked.

Q. Have you ever thought about how many wins you could have, had any of those actually been a decision?
RANDY WOLF: No (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Randy.

End of FastScripts

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