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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES v DODGERSOctober 18, 2009Ryan HowardCliff LeePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Three Los Angeles Dodgers 0 Q. Cliff, having pitched in the postseason this year for the first time, what's the difference between waiting all these years and thinking you could do it and now pitching these games and knowing you can do it? CLIFF LEE: I don't think I ever doubted myself. I always had confidence in myself and felt like I could pitch in a big game. But you never know until you get the opportunity. It's a challenge. It's what you play all year for is a chance to get to the postseason, and once you get there, you've got to step up and try to -- for me I've just got to try to give the team a chance to win. It's really that simple. When you've got the offense that we've got, I don't want to go out there and walk guys and have long innings and stuff like that. I've got to go out there and attack hitters and throw strikes and give our offense a chance to score runs. Tonight we did that pretty early and made things a lot easier for me. Q. Ryan, my question is, can you talk about your productivity during, let's say, since August until now, and is it the lineup? Is it your experience? Is it your own maturation? RYAN HOWARD: I would probably have to say it's a little bit of everything. When you're hitting in this lineup, you've got guys like Chase, Jayson Werth, Raul, Shane, Jimmy, Cliff, when you've got guys like that in this lineup, it makes things a lot easier, and for me just going up there right now, just trying to be as disciplined as I can and just be as relaxed as I can and just trying to work good ABs and get good pitches to hit. Q. You talk a lot about what you're not seeing or what's not going right when you're struggling. Can you just talk about, I don't know if this is a little bit repeating the question, but can you talk about what you are seeing now? RYAN HOWARD: I don't think it's really seeing anything. I think it's just more plate discipline, just being more relaxed and just trying to work good ABs, trying to wait for a good pitch, a mistake or whatnot, and trying to take advantage of it. Q. Cliff, can you talk a little bit about the last three games or so. Obviously you struggled a little bit towards the end of the regular season but seemingly have regained your form. What's been the difference on a night like tonight when you only have one runner reach second base? CLIFF LEE: Tempo and rhythm has a lot to do with it, and when things are going well, you want to keep the tempo and the rhythm going. But with that, too, when you see things start to turn, you've got to be able to slow the game down there a little bit, too. But I think towards the end of the year I did struggle a few games, but it seemed like it came down to three or four pitches a game. In the postseason you've got to bear down; every pitch matters. It helped tonight when we got four in the first and two in the second, and kind of gave me a nice cushion to where I can use a little more of the plate and throw strikes and not walk people and force them to swing the bat in those situations. But when it's a closer game, you've got to bear down. You've got to throw strikes and stay out of the heart of the plate. Every lineup you're going to face in the postseason is pretty good, or they wouldn't be there. You've got to make pitches, mix speeds and stay out of the heart of the plate. That's really the name of the game as far as pitching goes. I feel like I've been able to do that so far. Q. Ryan, the result against Kuroda was obviously different tonight with you guys than it had been in previous times. To you is that more about him appearing different in some way or was it about an adjustment that you guys as a lineup made? RYAN HOWARD: I think it was more of an adjustment that I think we made as a lineup. We went up there, took pitches, got good pitches to hit and hit them. It's really simple, really simple. But I think we made a lot of adjustments up there and really just tried to work counts. Q. Ryan, you hit a lot of home runs, but what does it feel like to hit a triple and turn around second there and then a head-first dive into third. RYAN HOWARD: Full-out panic going around second base. No, I mean, it was a lot of fun. I saw where the ball was. I saw where Ethier was. It was one of those things where I had to make my mind up if this is going to happen or not. So once I hit second, it was pretty much going full bore. Q. And Cliff, Joe Torre was saying that sometimes your delivery has got a deception to it that it startles hitters to the point that they're not ready to hit when the ball is coming. Can you comment on that? CLIFF LEE: Well, yeah, I guess so. I feel like I hide the ball a little bit. I don't really know what he's trying to say with that, but it's a good thing to hear the opposing manager say stuff like that. For me my delivery is what it is. I guess it's deceptive, but for me I'm trying to locate pitches. I guess it helps that I'm deceptive, but I've still got to work the corners and stay out of the heart of the plate and use all my pitches. For me I think that's what makes me effective, but people can evaluate that how they want to and say it is what it is, but for me it's about locating pitches and staying out of the heart of the plate. Q. Ryan, what does it mean to a team in the postseason when you have a starting pitcher as hot as Cliff is right now for the team confidence-wise? What does it mean to have a guy doing as well as he is right now? RYAN HOWARD: Oh, that's huge. That's huge. When he takes the mound, you can see it in his presence. He goes out there, he shuts the other team down, gives us opportunities to go out there and just put runs on the board. As a position player playing behind him, he works fast, keeps a good tempo and a good rhythm in the game. Whenever you have a pitcher that has good tempo and good rhythm, you love playing behind him because you're usually not standing out there too long on the field. He gives us opportunities to go out there and put up runs, and that's really all you can ask for. Q. Cliff, can you just talk about going to bat obviously in the eighth inning and getting ready to go back out in the ninth, and the opportunity there to go back out in terms of obviously getting an at-bat was good. CLIFF LEE: Right, obviously coming to the plate I figured I was going out for the ninth. But when Victorino hits the home run, they told me that was it. If I would have known that were the case, I would have tried hitting into a double play or something to go back out there. But, you know, it's competitive nature. Every time I go to the plate I'm trying to get a hit. Every time someone comes up I'm trying to get them out. It's a lot of fun, got a hit somehow. But that guy has got really good stuff, too. I was shocked to even make contact off that guy. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun when I hit home plate, too. I got to give Victorino five. It was a nice view from second base on that. Q. Ryan, I know how important it is to stay in the moment, but I just can't resist this question so please bear with me: From tonight's game obviously you guys could repeat, at least beat the Dodgers, I'll put it that way. So what goes through your mind if it's CC Sabathia that you have to face eventually? RYAN HOWARD: Wow. Um, well, it's kind of like you said, you stay in the moment. You don't want to get ahead of yourself. Right now you worry about Game 4 tomorrow and then hopefully take care of business tomorrow, take care of business in Game 5. Then you worry about the next opponent that you face. Those guys over there, it looks like it may be a pretty good series with that series shifting back to LA. But we're just going to focus on our series and then we get to that point, then we'll worry about whoever else we've got to face. Q. You mentioned earlier that plate discipline has been a big key for you over the last couple months. Was there anything in particular that kind of led you to tell yourself you've got to really bear down as far as that's concerned? RYAN HOWARD: No. I don't know. I mean, I guess it just happened. For some reason I just went up there and just started seeing more pitches. Just told myself to relax and try and see as many pitches as I can and just wait for a mistake. Q. Ryan, you've been going so good for so long now in the playoffs going back to last year and you tend to hit well in September anyway. Was there anything over the course of the last postseason where you kind of had a moment where you said, okay, now I know what I need to be doing or something like that? Because basically since the end of the Dodgers series last year you've been hitting fairly well. RYAN HOWARD: I think it's more just the experience that I've gained from last year to this year, just the entire feel of the playoffs and just kind of taking a step back and looking at last year, at what kind of happened last year, and just ways of maybe being able to change that going into this year. I just kind of gathered that experience of just being more relaxed, going up there and being loose and having fun playing the game. End of FastScripts |
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