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NL DIVISION SERIES: REDS v PHILLIES

October 6, 2010

Roy Oswalt

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game One

THE MODERATOR: We'll have questions for Roy Oswalt.

Q. You were in the postseason in 2005. Could you compare that Astros team to this team now?
ROY OSWALT: I compare the starting staff a lot to the '05. I've been doing it since I got here, watching Halladay and Cole, they remind me a lot of Clemens and Pettitte. They were on top of their game there then and these guys are here, too. So, you know, it helps our starting staff out a lot when you start kind of watching each other pitch and kind of feeding off each other.
I think as far as the offense, I think the offense here is a lot stronger 1 through 8 than we had. We had a lot of scrappy guys and a lot of guys that did the right things as far as power and overall offense. I think the offense here is better power-wise.

Q. You've had a lot of success against Cincinnati in your career. Is there any way to explain that?
ROY OSWALT: When I was going through it before I lost a game to them, I had to talk about it all the time. I lost a game, I think, two years ago to them. Wasn't a whole lot said after that. So the team changes so much. There's really no way to explain it from when I first started. There's not a guy left on that team, I don't guess, that played then. So it changes so much. I don't know if it's just the way it lined up. A few times I actually gave up a few runs against them and my team came back and scored me a few.
So we just kind of lined up where I pitched on the days that we scored some runs and some days I was able to shut them out. Really wasn't one direct thing, I don't guess.

Q. Roy, whether it's scouts, media, other players, a lot of people keep talking about how you bumped it up or jacked it up once you got here. I don't know if, A, you believe that, and B, if you do believe that, do you have an explanation for it?
ROY OSWALT: I thought I was throwing pretty well in Houston (laughing). I just wasn't winning a lot of games. Any time you get involved with a group that you have here, as far as the atmosphere and the starting staff and the guys on the team, you come into the clubhouse, and you just kind of expect to win. You know, you have so much talent 1 through 8 in the lineup, and then you get into a starting staff as a rotation. I try to treat it as two different things.
You know, you have a team as a starting staff, and you have a team that plays with the starting staff, and you have a real good mix of guys here with Halladay and Cole and Blanton and Kendrick this year, we all kind of made ourself a team and try to pull for each other and push each other as much as possible.
With the offense we have here, I mean, you have a lot of times Carlos is hitting eighth and he's one of the .300 hitters, you don't see that much in the National League. You've got 1 through 8 you have to go out every day as an opposing pitcher and get eight guys out every time in the National League. It's tough. Lot of times you get down towards the end of the lineup, and you have guys that are more defensive guys than hitters, and here you have an offensive club all the way through.

Q. When you got here, you and Roy Halladay had pitched in opposite leagues. I wonder, was there much of a curiosity factor on your part as to how he does what he does, a fellow top right-hander in the game? And what has most impressed you about him? Not just off the field, but on the field and on the mound.
ROY OSWALT: I think the biggest thing is the media makes a big deal out of the American League east, how hard it is to pitch over there. And they have good clubs over there. I knew him coming from that division over to the National League that they still have to pitch. I mean, you still have to pitch. You still have big league players in all the leagues. Just because one market is a little bit bigger than the other doesn't mean anything, you still have to pitch when you get out there.
And I knew he was going to do -- he's got probably four of the best pitches in baseball. All four of his pitches he can throw at any time.
When you can do that in the big leagues, you're going to create a lot of havoc for the opposing hitter. No matter what division you're in, guys still have to put the bat on ball. I've pitched in the National League before, just changing divisions. I've pitched in the east, you know, when we'd come over here and play, it wasn't that much adjustment as far as league-wise.
But everyone was saying something about the ballpark here, about how small it was. I mean, Houston is about as small as you can get in left field.

Q. To piggyback on what you were talking about about the ballpark here, the fact that you haven't lost here, is that something you can attribute that to or just the way you feel when you pitch here? How do you view that and what's been the reason for your success here?
ROY OSWALT: I don't know. For some reason the mound here, the way the park is set up, I feel like I'm standing next to the hitter when I'm throwing. Feels like -- it don't feel like the regular 60 feet. Feels like I'm throwing 55 feet. I don't know if it's setup. You go into some parks and you feel like you're throwing long toss to the catcher, and you go into parks and you feel like it's a little bit shorter. And this park feels like it's a little bit shorter.

Q. When you came over, Cole was having a tough season in terms of wins and losses. His ERA was really strong, but like yourself, he wasn't necessarily getting rewarded, but down the stretch, of course, he was able to turn that around in that regard. What differences did you see in him after you came over and how tough is it to stay focused when you're not getting that reward, pitching well, but not getting the victories?
ROY OSWALT: I think the biggest thing, you get other guys on the staff with you, which Halladay started here with them. But you get other guys that you can kind of lean on along the way, it helps out so much. For the last, after, '06 series, the '06 season, Roger and Andy left, and you feel like you have to win every game you go out there after that. You put so much pressure on yourself to win. If you lose 1-0, you feel like you didn't do your job.
You start kind of building off of a bad, I guess you'd say, attitude. Every time you go out, you think you have to throw a shutout instead of saying, Hey, throw a quality start-up and see if I can win the game. And I'm thinking he probably got in a rut. Same thing I got with Houston where you felt like you had to throw a shutout every time you went out. And if you gave up one or two, you felt like you were just pitching to eat up innings, instead of winning the game.
I think halfway through he realized, you know, I'm doing the best I can do and pretty much all you can ask from yourself. And guys start scoring a few runs for him, and he started believing in himself as far as winning games instead of just trying to eat up innings and get deep in the game. I know I did.
When I got over here I felt like these guys can score three or four any time in the game. If I can just stay in the game long enough and outpitch the other starter, I feel like I can win the game every time out.

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