|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES v PHILLIESOctober 11, 2009Cliff LeeDENVER, COLORADO: Game Three THE MODERATOR: Questions for Cliff Lee. Q. I know you've never pitched in this park and there's that -- I guess the fact that the air can kind of change breaking balls and things like that. Is that something you think about or is it kind of a park where both pitchers have to deal with the same thing so you just deal with it? CLIFF LEE: I'm not going to go out there and not use my breaking ball because somebody said it doesn't break as much here. I'm still going to pitch the same way. It's like you said, both teams will have to play with the same elements. So it's going to be an even game. But, I don't know, we'll see. I'll throw -- I'll go out there and pitch like I normally pitch. If I feel like a certain pitch is not effective, not doing what I want it to do, then maybe I'll use it less, I don't know. But going into it, I'm going to try to pitch my game and pitch the way I always do. Q. How tough is it to be successful against this team three times in a row here in one season? Do you have the same game plan? Do you attack it the same way that maybe you did the last time around? CLIFF LEE: How tough is it to be effective against the same team three times in a row. I don't know. The first two are over with. So it's tough if you said that before the first time and you had to do it three times. But after you've been effective twice, it's easier doing it three times when you've already done it twice, having to do it once. So I don't know, they're going to make adjustments. I don't expect to run through the lineup just because I've been effective the past couple of times. You still have to go out there and make pitches. If you make mistakes, they're going to make you pay. That doesn't change. I've been effective the past couple of times because I've located pitches, because I've stayed out of the heart of the plate and stayed away from 2-0, 3-1 counts where hitters can get aggressive on you, and made them swing their way on base. That's the name of the game, regardless of what team you're facing. But I'm going to continue to try to do those things tomorrow and just give the team a chance to win. Q. What advice, if any, have your teammates given you or specifically the other pitchers about pitching in this ballpark? CLIFF LEE: Honestly, not much. I really haven't talked to them about this specific ballpark, but I think everyone hears the breaking balls don't break as much. The ball travels further, all that kind of stuff. But I'm not going to really buy into it. I'm going to have to see it for myself type thing. So I'm going to go out there and pitch my game and, like I said before, if I see that maybe my breaking ball is not breaking as much or whatever, I'll make the adjustment then. But until I see for myself and prove to myself what's going on there, I'm not too caught up or I'm not going to buy into you can't throw breaking balls or any of that kind of stuff. I'll just have to see it for myself. Q. As you said, hitters make adjustments. When you face the same team twice in a short time span, do you automatically make adjustments or do you go out there and let the hitters tell you what to do? CLIFF LEE: I'm going to continue to try to do mostly the same sort of things I did last game. And I felt like I was unpredictable then, and obviously I was to have the success that I did, I think I had them off guard, off balance and was standing out of the heart of the plate. Those are the things you have to do to be successful. I'll try to do some more of that. Obviously they're going to watch the video of the last game and see what I did and make adjustments. They'd be a fool not to. I've got to do the same thing and try to do more of the same, but not the exact same stuff, because obviously they're watching the same stuff. So they should make adjustments. That's the name of the game. If you're not making adjustments, you're losing ground in this game. So we'll see. I'm going to go out there and throw strikes and kind of see what they're trying to do, one bat at a time. And that's never ending. It's a never-ending chess match as far as that goes with adjustments. So I'm sure they're going to have somewhat of a different approach due to the fact that I was successful last time. They're going to probably change their approach towards me and we'll see. We'll see what happens. Who knows. Maybe they're going to be super aggressive. Maybe they'll be super patient, I don't know. But I know that I'm going to go out there and try to throw strikes, attack the strike zone and force them to swing the bat. Q. You didn't know you were going to start tomorrow until yesterday. How did that impact your routine at all? Did you have to change some things yesterday? What did you do from when you found out you were starting or was it not really a big deal at all? CLIFF LEE: It really wasn't that big a deal. I had an extra day. I would have had an extra day anyways. So it didn't really matter. I would have thrown a bullpen yesterday if I would have been starting Game 5. But obviously I didn't do that. I did have to tweak my routine a little bit. But I don't think it's going to matter that much. Q. What if anything do you think you can do to improve from the last time around against the Rockies? CLIFF LEE: Not give up any runs. (Chuckling) I don't know. I want to do more of the same. I want to get as deep into the game as I can, give the team a chance. I am not going to try to one-up what I did last time or whatever. The bottom line is just to give the team a chance to win. And with that, you've got to throw strikes. You've got to be efficient with your pitches, not walk guys. And force them to swing the bat. That's really the bottom line. Stay out of the middle of the plate, if you can locate and mix speeds and stay out of the heart of the play, good things are going to happen. If you're behind in the count and then missing out over the plate, bad things are going to happen. So it's my job to locate and try to hit the mitt as much as I can. Q. Along those lines, as great as it was in the first outing, in the beginning -- and the Rockies made an allusion to this -- it looked like they had a chance to put some runs on the board. Were you babbling certain pitches there? Or what was the adjustment from that point to the rest of the game? CLIFF LEE: Looking back on the game, it's easy in hindsight to say they had chances here or there and then afterwards they didn't. And in hindsight the first couple of innings was their chance to score and after that I was locating pitches and more efficient and they didn't have many chances, to be honest with you, unless they hit a homer or something like that. Looking back the first couple of innings, they had some guys on base. They got some pitches to hit, and for whatever reason they either swung and missed or popped it up or hit it to someone. Yeah, the first inning they had two guys on and the second inning I think they had a lead-off double that was stranded. So, yeah, that's -- in hindsight, those were their chances to score. Obviously they scored there in the ninth, too. I believe at that point it was a 5-0 game. When they scored it made it 5-1. So it was kind of too little too late. Yeah, me being able to leave those runners on base in the first couple of innings definitely kept the momentum on our side or at least even. If they scored one or two runs there, it changes the whole momentum of the game and puts more pressure on our offense and just changes the whole momentum. So for me to get out of those first couple without giving up a run or two there was big for us. Seemed like after that I was locked in a little bit and didn't miss many spots. Try to do more of that tomorrow. Q. You've been around J.A. Happ for a few months. Can you tell me what impresses you the most about this young guy? CLIFF LEE: I would have to say his composure as far as being a young pitcher, he's pretty composed out there. He doesn't get rattled much. He comes right at you with fastballs. He's not afraid to throw strikes. He pitches with his fastball. He's impressive. The numbers he puts up speak for themselves. He had a pretty good year and I think he's got plenty of room to improve. I think he's going to end up being -- he's already pretty good, but I think he's going to be really good in the future. And it's good for this organization to have a guy like that, that at such a young -- so early in his career doing what he's doing. And I think he's going to be even better. So he's got a bright future ahead of him. And I like the way he pitches with his fastball. He's not afraid to come at you. And he throws strikes and when things do happen to not go his way he doesn't get rattled. He keeps his composure really well and stays in control. And that's hard to do, especially as a young player. So those are the things that impress me the most about him. Q. I know I'm looking into the future just a tad here, but how much do you guys and yourself -- you could be in a situation tomorrow where it's a clinching situation, how much do you just want to wrap this up in Colorado and not have to go back to Philadelphia in Game 5? CLIFF LEE: Obviously we want to win it as soon as possible. There's no reason why we wouldn't, just to prevent the likelihood of losing. You want to win it today, you want to win it tomorrow and get it over with and move on to the next round. But if that doesn't happen, if we happen to split here, we're fine with going back to Philly and trying to win it there, too. But the first thing we've got to do is win today. I think if we take care of today and coming into tomorrow, we're going to try to win tomorrow and get it over with. So anytime you get down to the last game, you never know what's going to happen. So for us we want to try to take care of it as soon as possible. Q. It may be as cold tomorrow as it is today, could you talk about the coldness in an outing in terms of temperatures in the past and the challenge of getting a good grip, good feel on the ball when it's cold? CLIFF LEE: The weather is -- you can let that be an excuse for you if you want to. But for me I'm going to try to not really -- I don't want to make that an excuse. I don't want to go into it saying, oh, it's so cold, blah, blah, blah. I might do this or I might do that because it's cold. I don't care if it's 120 or 20 below, we're both playing with the same elements. It's equal for us. It's equal for them. Their pitcher is going go out there and throw with the same ball and the same temperature. I'm not going to try to make excuses for it. Some people say that cold weather does affect your grip, and maybe it does. But it affects the other guy's grip, too. So I don't know many hitters that are happy hitting in the freezing cold weather either. So it's even. Everybody's playing with the same elements. So I'm not going to sit here and try to make excuses for myself going into the game. It's even playing field and we're all playing on the same field. Q. Just to follow up on Happ. Did you guys talk? Did you share any information with him after your Game 1 outing to kind of get him where he needs to be? CLIFF LEE: Not really. He knows what he's doing. He's a smart kid. He knows -- he watched what I did, obviously, and saw the things that were effective and he's smart enough to pick up on that stuff. If he's got any questions for me on any of that kind of stuff, I'm open to tell him whatever. I'm sure I will during the game. I will give him pointers here and there just to help him out. But I'm not a guy that forces information on anybody. But if he happens to have any questions or stuff or if I see something that I feel like he needs to know, I'll tell him. But he knows what he's doing. I'm sure he's done his research and watched video and probably watched the game I pitched and saw what worked and stuff. So I think he'll be all right. Q. How much would the experience from Game 1 help you in this game, just getting a taste of the post-season? CLIFF LEE: I don't know, it can't hurt. Obviously getting the first game behind me in the post-season and being successful and giving the team a chance, throwing strikes, locating, doing all the things that it takes to be a successful starting pitcher and to do it on a bigger stage or whatever, it can only help. But I'm not going to sit here and say I think I got it figured out or whatever because I pitched good the first time. I've still got to go out there and take care of business. I'm not going to take anything for granted just because I was good in the first game. I've still got to do my work. I've still got to do everything I do to prepare for starts and treat it just like every other outing. Like I said, once you start taking things for granted and thinking you've got something figured out, it's about to blow up in your face quick. So I'm trying not to do that. I want to continue to do the things that I've done to make me successful and sticking to my routine, and things that happened in the past, good, bad or indifferent, once it's over with, there's nothing you can do about it. All you can do is keep going forward and doing the things that you know you need to do to be successful, and that's kind of where I'm at with that. Q. Tomorrow night is either going to be a clinching game or an elimination game. So the weight of a game like that, is that something that you can use for fuel or is this more of a tunnel-vision situation? CLIFF LEE: Since you put it like that, it's basically a do-or-die situation. Every game we play from here on out could -- obviously not today, but, you know, the next day could be our last game. So we've got to go out there and play like that. And truthfully, that's almost the way you've got to play your whole career. Because injuries and stuff that happen, you never know when it's going to be your last game. So obviously it's more amplified when it's the post-season and you're facing a clinching game or an elimination game. It's a little bigger as far as that goes. But, still, in this game, you never know when you're going to play your last game. So you've got to go out there and give it your all and do the things that you need to do to help the team win. And that's kind of -- hopefully I'm going to play a lot more games, but, still, you never know when it's going to be the last one. And I'm going to go out there and pitch like it's my last game. Q. Is there like a particular kind of mentality that a team needs in order to be successful on the road? You're going to be facing two games here in Colorado, 50,000 screaming fans and stuff like that. How do you overcome that? CLIFF LEE: I don't really get too caught up in the crowd. I don't mind pitching on the road, to be honest with you. I like being the spoiler just as much as the hero at home. Both are fun to -- both are fun. It's still the same game. Obviously it's different when you're getting booed for doing good versus being cheered for doing good. It's whatever. I like both sides of it. It's still a lot of fun. You're still facing the same opposing team. Whether you're at home getting cheered or you're at home getting booed, either way you've got to do the same thing: You've got to go out there and give the team a chance to win. For me, I don't get too caught up in the fans. I don't really -- if I'm sitting there thinking about that, then I'm thinking about the wrong things. I've got to be focused on the opposing hitters and trying to get those guys out. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Cliff. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|