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NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v GIANTSOctober 7, 2010Tim LincecumBuster PoseySAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Game One Braves – 0 Q. Buster, how many times do you think you went out to see Tim, and did it usually lead to something good? BUSTER POSEY: I would guess two or three times maybe. I probably didn't even need to. It was a matter of making sure we stayed on the same page. Q. Did you imagine this must have been what Carlos Ruiz felt like yesterday? BUSTER POSEY: Oh, gosh. I can't imagine what he felt like, because that was fun. The fans were behind us the whole game, and there was a lot of electricity out there. And when you throw a complete game shut-out with 14 strikeouts, it's going to get pretty loud, I guess. Q. What was your read on Timmy's demeanor out there? BUSTER POSEY: From the first inning on, pretty much, he kind of had that confidence that you like to see out of him and carried it the whole way through. Q. Buster, were you able to hear the fans chanting "Posey's better" every time Heyward came up? BUSTER POSEY: No, actual, I didn't hear it. ) Actually. Q. Buster, were you safe? BUSTER POSEY: I guess it's a good thing we don't have instant replay right now. Q. Can you talk about that slide? BUSTER POSEY: Well, I saw that he swung and missed, and I could see -- I don't know if it was Conrad or Gonzalez that was covering the bag, so I saw it was kind of up the line, and -- it was a beautiful slide, wasn't it (smiling)? Q. Just your overall perspective on your first post-season game and having a successful one at that? BUSTER POSEY: Just overall assessment? We came out on the side we wanted to. Pretty special first post-season game for me. And just to be a part of what this guy did tonight, it's a good one. KATY FEENEY: Tim is here now so indicate to whom your question is directed to. Q. Tim, after that first pitch, what did you tell yourself to calm yourself down? TIM LINCECUM: The first pitch or the batter? Q. The batter? TIM LINCECUM: Don't worry about it, make your pitches and everything will be fine. You tell yourself, you've done this a thousand times. We've been in these situations. It's another game and just treat it like that. Q. Were there any other points when you had to go through that sort of mental checklist, or once you got by the Infante double, did you feel like you were in command pitch-after-pitch? TIM LINCECUM: Yeah, for the most part, the two balls that hurt me were the two hits, and they were lead-off hits. So they put you in a shut-down mode, where you've got to make better pitches and better location. And other than that, that was pretty much all I dealt with. Q. Tim, early in the game, it looked like to get outs, you went to off-speed stuff, and later in the game, just said, hey, here is the fastball and you were throwing it past people. Did the game have two different parts to it? TIM LINCECUM: Yeah, it progressed like it did. I don't feel like it felt like two halves. All the pitches were working. Buster and I were on the same page, for the most part. And just trying to fill out the strike zone, few batters in the first few innings got to look at those 3-2 counts, and I had to make a better pitch. But other than that, it just felt like things were in place. Q. Tim, the first post-season game, but if any major league game have you ever pitched better? TIM LINCECUM: I don't know, that's hard to judge what "better" would be. If you come out on top, I think that's good. Shut-out, as far as shut-outs go, I think that's up there with one of my better ones, if I had to rate it. Q. Did having the extra rest make that much of a difference? TIM LINCECUM: I don't know if it made that much of a difference. I felt anxious to get out there a couple of days ago. You've got to deal with those extra days. But other than that, just trying to stay in the right mind-set and not worry about the game, came up quickly. And a couple of hours before the game, it kind of felt like they drug on, but, yeah. Q. Struck out the side a whole bunch of times in your career, but in the second inning, they swung the bat nine times and they missed all nine. Nine swinging strikes. Do you think you've ever struck out the side with nine swinging strikes? TIM LINCECUM: Not that I knew about. But the game will show you where it goes. And you see swings where they're late, and you start sticking with it and reading that. And I got Buster back there helping me with that, so it makes it twice as easy. Q. Tim, how great is it to work with a guy like Buster? You're both so young, playing in a post-season game. TIM LINCECUM: It's great, just relaxed feeling, telling each other, we've done this before, no big deal, come out and play the game. And throwing to Posey has been great for me. The guy is a student of the game. Like I said before, just wants to get better and help us get better. So those two things put together, works well. Q. Tim, did you have anyone lead-off triple, error, whatever it was, doesn't produce a run, any thoughts about that? Gee, it would be nice to get an insurance run or -- TIM LINCECUM: Not right now. You get that one run and you know how valuable it is in the postseason. So you try to turn it into shut-down mode after that and take advantage of any run we get. Q. Tim, is it hard to believe that August happened? TIM LINCECUM: Yeah. Time and time again, guys tell me that guys go through struggles, Timmy, you're human, this kind of stuff. But it almost feels like it's that far back there, try not to think about it, try not to get back into that same mental slide. Other than that, going up right now, things feel like they're in the right place. Q. Buster, it looked to us with all the high foul balls to start off the game, that Tim might have been amp'd up there. It looked like things might have gotten better after the first swing-through from Jason Heyward on the change-up. Did you call that pitch at all as a way to make him sort of calm down a little bit? TIM LINCECUM: No, I don't think I did. You know, I never really sensed he was amped up too much more than normal. It was pretty much the same. Like Timmy said, the same as it's been the past month or so. His fastball had a lot of late movement on it tonight and we kept using -- I think he threw it -- the high fastball ended up playing into our hands a little bit better than you saw late in the game. We got a lot of swing-throughs on high heaters. Q. Tim, was there any discussion about who would pitch the 9th inning in the dugout? TIM LINCECUM: No. Rags looked at me and asked me how I was feeling, and I said I was feeling fine. So that was pretty much it. Q. Tim, your first post-season start. Could you have imagined pitching any better than this? TIM LINCECUM: No. I was hoping to be in a situation to give me team a chance to win. Working off that, and everything else has kind of been that cherry on the top. So take it as it comes. It's good. Q. Tim, in this big game when you're striking out all those people, are you feeling excited? If not, what are you feeling at that time? TIM LINCECUM: You know, maybe a little bit of excitement as the game gets closer to the end, especially when we scored that run. But other than that, it's just worrying about that next pitch, not too much excitement. Except for maybe getting out of innings, when runners are on base. But outside of that, I don't think there was -- I think I kept my emotions in check, and I was pretty poised out there. Q. We've seen you get so many swings and misses on your change up. But as Buster said, your fastball had more movement on it. Certainly it was a big pitch for you. What adjustment did you make to get that movement on it or life on it? TIM LINCECUM: Nothing lately, just sticking with what I've been doing this last month. In between starts routine, you know, pretty much, I was reading it as the game was going. Their swings were telling me what I needed to throw. Q. You set the tone for the series with this kind of game. What is your sense of how Matt can follow that up and Jonathan Sanchez after that? TIM LINCECUM: I feel like these guys are definitely poised and ready to get back out there. I was ready for scratching to get on that field after six or seven days off. I'm sure these guys are itching to get that second wind. And it gives us a little bit of a spring board to go off of and tack on tomorrow. So I feel Matty and Sans are going to be fine. Q. When you were coming off the field it looked like you said something to the home plate umpire. What was that about? TIM LINCECUM: He told me to take my bracelet off. Q. You look at the great game that Roy Halladay pitched yesterday, four runs quickly. What kind of approach does that take versus tonight where any one mistake could have been meant the ballgame? TIM LINCECUM: I think that's how it goes in the game. Everyone knows that first run, or any run is big. We're going to turn into shut-down mode or play the best defense we can, pitch the best we can, scoring a run. And it's a different kind of situation with Roy Halladay, four-run lead going into that. Different kind of pressure. Different situation, so... Q. Tim, this franchise has been around since '83. Nobody has struck out more than 10. You struck out 14. Do you find that hard to believe? TIM LINCECUM: I mean, especially with the great arms that have come through this organization. I mean, but I don't know. I'm just happy about it. I was able to do what I did today. KATY FEENEY: Thank you, Tim. End of FastScripts |
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