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NL DIVISION SERIES: REDS v PHILLIES

October 6, 2010

Bronson Arroyo

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Game One

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Bronson.

Q. A lot of people make a big deal about having postseason experience when you get to the playoffs, particularly for starting pitchers. In your mind, how much of an advantage is it to have been there before?
BRONSON ARROYO: I think just a little bit. I think it's overplayed a little bit. Because at the end of the day after you get through that first inning, everything kind of settles down, you get into your comfort zone. You feel like it's a normal game for the most part until you get into a couple of sticky situations.
But as long as you can control your emotions and your adrenaline level early on in the ballgame, you're going to be fine. I think a guy like Roy's been playing the game for a long time. I don't think he's going to have any problems dealing with the environment.

Q. Kind of a follow-up to that question. On the other side, the Phillies are here for the third year in a row. It's kind of old hat for them. A lot of you guys are excited. Does that help, too, the enthusiasm that maybe some of the newer guys will bring?
BRONSON ARROYO: You hope it does. We've obviously got a pretty young club from top to bottom. We've got a lot of guys with fresh legs that aren't too far removed from college, actually.
You hope that enthusiasm brings you positives on the field. I mean, in the Cardinal series when we had the fight, it obviously didn't bring too many positives to us. We lost three ballgames with that emotion and that angst coming out in the middle of a ballgame. So it can work both ways, and you just hope these guys can harness it and use it in a way that's positive.

Q. You've been with the Reds for a while, and now you're a couple of days away from starting a playoff game. Personally how satisfying is it going through maybe some of the leaner years and here you are two days before starting a playoff game?
BRONSON ARROYO: Yeah, I've said over the last couple days, I think it's going to be hard to top '04 for anything I do in my career again. But as far as just getting to the playoffs and feeling that you're a bigger part of the ballclub, this is definitely sweeter for me.
In Boston I was flying under the radar, I was riding on the coattails of Curt Schilling and Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez. And they just expected me to go out and pitch five or six innings and give them a chance to win. Where on this club for the last four or five years, I've been in the front of the rotation, and I've had to shoulder a lot more responsibility.
So I think going through the last four years and being able to grind from the back of the pack and being a team that wasn't expected to be here at this point in the season, for me, it's definitely been gratifying.

Q. You've pitched at Yankee Stadium in the postseason where the fans are extremely intense and harsh to put it mildly.
BRONSON ARROYO: Right.

Q. Philadelphia fans have a reputation for backing their team in a similar manner. What are you expecting in terms of reception? And how do you mentally prepare yourself for that type of fan reaction?
BRONSON ARROYO: Yeah, I expect a very Yankee Stadium-esque environment. Especially warming up in the bullpen. It's always these guys are right on top of you here in this bullpen. It gets a little crazy sometimes just during the regular season much less here in the postseason. I know these fans here are serious about the game. They've been touted for a long time, especially in the NFL, as some of the craziest in the game.
So you prepare yourself mentally to deal with all the raw emotion and excitement that's going on around. You try to suppress it as much as possible not to burn off too much excess energy before you get out there on the mound and get deep in the ballgame. But I've always enjoyed it. I loved playing in the stadiums when guys are screaming obscenities about my mother, you know what I mean (laughing)? I have a good time. Because I know at the end of the day I'm the one standing on the mound that gets to control what's going on.
It's fun. It's all part of the game. As long as something outlandish doesn't happen in the stands to your family or something, it's all part of the game.

End of FastScripts

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