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MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES v YANKEES

November 1, 2009

Cliff Lee

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game Four

Q. Charlie has indicated that he had a conversation with you about the idea of pitching on short rest. Did you indicate to him that you would like to pitch on short rest, or was it just kind of a more informal conversation about that?
CLIFF LEE: It was a pretty quick conversation, him asking me if I had ever done it and me telling him no and saying that I think I could. Basically that was about the extent of it. Pretty quick, brief deal. I just let him know I'd pitch whenever he wants me to pitch. I think I could do it, but he makes the calls.

Q. What do you think has helped you find success while making consecutive starts against the same team? I know you did it for the Indians a couple times earlier this year and then against the Rockies.
CLIFF LEE: I don't know, like I've said before, having experience against the American League, it falls into the same deal; it's about making pitches and mixing speeds and being unpredictable and stuff like that, whether I've faced them the first time or the sixth time in a row. It boils down to making pitches, locating, and making them swing their way on base, throwing strikes, working ahead, all the things you've got to do to be a successful pitcher. It really boils down to that, whether it's the first time, second, third, whatever.

Q. A.J. Burnett is probably going to be pitching tomorrow night, and you guys both share the same agent, you both are from the same state. He spoke a little bit about your relationship. Can you just talk a little bit about that.
CLIFF LEE: Yeah, like you said, obviously we have the same agent. I didn't really know him growing up. He was a little ahead of me but I knew who he was obviously. There's not a lot of guys from Arkansas getting drafted, much less making it to the Big Leagues. For us, we've met each other over the years and became friends and stuff, but it's not very often two guys from the state of Arkansas make it to the Big Leagues, much less square off against each other in the World Series. So if that does happen, that's going to be a neat deal for our state and going to be a lot of fun, and something we can talk about for the rest of our lives.
Yeah, it's going to be a neat experience.

Q. Have you guys communicated at all during the World Series?
CLIFF LEE: Just yesterday. He was coming out from throwing a bullpen and I was out in the outfield shagging, and we kind of talked. He congratulated me on how I threw Game 1 and I congratulated him on how he threw Game 2 and talked a little bit about what made us successful in those games and stuff and just asked how the family is doing and just general conversation. But yeah, we've talked.

Q. You said you had a brief conversation with Charlie. How does that work drawing the line in terms of making your opinion clear, "yeah, I would start," and then respecting his authority? Does it vary by manager or pitching coach, or how does it work?
CLIFF LEE: I don't know. I thought I made it pretty clear. I told him I would pitch whenever he wants me to pitch. I think I can do it. You make the calls. That basically was the extent of it. I'm not disappointed or mad or frustrated or anything. My job is to pitch when Charlie wants me to pitch, and that's what I'm going to do, and I'm going to make the best of those situations. I'm not going to try to second-guess or anything like that. I would have been happy either way.

Q. Obviously you don't get to face a team twice in a series during the regular season ordinarily, so given that, how difficult would it be for you against the Yankees to follow up what you were able to do in Game 1?
CLIFF LEE: I think that I've already answered this question basically. It boils down to making pitches, locating pitches, whether I'm facing them the first time, the second time or the 20th time. It's about locating pitches. It's about mixing speeds and working ahead, staying away from 2-0, 3-1 counts, which is where you want to be if you're a hitter. Yeah, that's what you've got to do, whether it's me or any pitcher. That's what we've all got to do to be successful, especially against lineups like the Yankees and the Phillies. If you're not throwing strikes and missing out over the plate and walking guys, bad things are going to happen. But if you're locating, working ahead, mixing speeds, more than likely good things are going to happen. That's really what I try to keep things about as simple as that.
I don't really overcomplicate it or think, man, I just faced them the other day, it's going to be different now. It's still the same game. I've still got to go out there and locate pitches and do the things that I just said. And if I don't, bad things will probably happen. And if you do, good things will probably happen. That's how I look at it. It's really that simple.

Q. You see a pitcher have a strong season and sometimes really struggle in the post-season and then sometimes you see a pitcher have a strong season and do really, really well in the post-season. Why do you think you've been in the second group this year?
CLIFF LEE: What group am I in? (Laughter).
I don't know. Regardless of what happened last game, it doesn't matter. It's over for me, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. You've got to keep pushing forward, keep doing your work to prepare for the next one and don't get outside of that. I mean, you're going to have good streaks, you're going to have bad streaks, and you've got to try to ride the good ones and limit the bad ones. The only way I know to do that is to stick to my routine and do what I know I need to do between starts and prepare.
What happened yesterday is over. There's nothing I can do about that now. What can I do today to prepare for tomorrow? I stick with that. I don't really look into, well, this guy did this for this long and now he's doing that, what's the reason behind it? I don't know. I don't think along those lines. I think along the lines of what can I do today to prepare for tomorrow, and then after today is done, it's done. Move onto tomorrow. What can I do now to take care of today? And when that day is over, move onto the next one. It's really that simple.
And you can break it down to game to game, inning to inning, out to out, pitch to pitch. You've got to keep your mind in the moment and do what you know you need to do right now to take care of business, and once it's over, it's over, whether you had success or whether you didn't or somewhere in between. That's kind of how I look at it.

Q. We know that pitchers have individual preparations for games, but when you're in a situation like this, or you're in a series, it's the World Series, do you ever swing the emphasis over more towards a group type of a discussion, exchanging ideas as to what you're seeing out there on the mound? How do you work during the World Series?
CLIFF LEE: I mean, to me it's the same as every other game. I mean, I don't know how much more clear I can be about that. It's still the same game. During the season we still -- I'm always going to try to pick Jamie Moyer's brain and Pedro Martinez and Cole Hamels and these guys that have been around a long time and have a clue about what they're doing. I mean, we're always helping each other out. We're always kind of not really second-guessing what happened, but just saying, maybe if we would have done this or that, things would have worked out differently. This would be a good time to do this. We're doing that every game. It's what we do on the bench. We'll go watch a couple innings in the video room and see the location and critique each other's stuff. That's what we do to try to make ourselves better. That doesn't change because it's the World Series. We still do that now.
Yeah, we do that all year, and we're going to do it now, and we'll continue to do it until it's over with.

Q. Are you still throwing the same sort of bullpens between starts that you do in the regular season? And is there anything you're doing now that would suggest, you're now eight months into the season, including some Spring Training and now this past month, that maybe would suggest that you're this far along?
CLIFF LEE: No, everything is exactly the same. I've thrown basically the same bullpen from the start to the finish. I feel as good now as I've felt at any point during the year. That tells me that what I'm doing in the off-season and the preparation I do is right, and I need to continue to do that same stuff. My routine is working.
That's a good thing. Hopefully I continue to feel good and keep going.

End of FastScripts

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