	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GIANTS v PHILLIES

October 19, 2010

Madison Bumgarner

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Game Three

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Madison Bumgarner.

Q. Now that you have a few days to look back on it, was your first start in the postseason any different at all than a regular season start? Did it feel different when you took the mound each pitch, the atmosphere?
MADISON BUMGARNER: It was definitely a good atmosphere in Atlanta. Didn't have quite as many people as the first night, but they were loud and they were into the game for sure.
I feel like I try to just keep telling myself to relax and to step back and take deep breaths and don't let the game speed up and get away from you.
I feel like we're able to do pretty much the same thing we did all year.

Q. I know you personally haven't had a whole lot of success at AT&T Park, but if you take your personal record out of it and look at being back home for Game 3, 4, and 5, and the advantage that AT&T Park provides to you with the fan base, et cetera, what can that mean for you guys here?
MADISON BUMGARNER: It's always nicer for us to play here at home. I mean, it's easier to play at home, I think. But for the success thing you're talking about, I don't think it has anything to do with the park or pitching here. I think I just hadn't had much luck, the games I've threw here.
And also there's been some good games that were close, 2 to 1, 1 to 0, losses for me. I think it's just the way things worked out. But I'm definitely comfortable pitching at home, too.

Q. You've told me a couple of times that having pitched in your high school state championship kind of prepared you for this. And people sort of look at that and go: Really? Can you see why people might find that a little funny?
MADISON BUMGARNER: Yes, it's definitely nowhere near the stage it is here. It's not anywhere close. But at the time, when you're in high school, you know, that's the biggest game you played in your life at that point in time.
So, I mean, I think the way you feel before a game like that then, when you're that young and in high school, kind of is the same feeling now, even though it's not even -- you don't compare the stage we're playing on here to high school, obviously. But I think inside it's kind of the same deal.

Q. What does it say to you that Bruce Bochy put the confidence in you to pitch Game 4 of both of these series, especially over a guy with the experience of Barry Zito?
MADISON BUMGARNER: It's a huge honor. I feel blessed even to have an opportunity to pitch in this series and the last one, too. It's pretty awesome to get to do this. And I'm looking forward to it. But that speaks a lot. And it's a good feeling that he has confidence in me and our team does also.

Q. Can you talk a little about last year and, you know, your velocity dropping, a lot of people were curious about what happened, and the spring wasn't that great. And how did you get yourself back to where you needed to be by the middle of this year?
MADISON BUMGARNER: Well, it was just a little bit of mechanics got off a little bit and it wasn't where I needed to be. Took me a while to fix it because I never really worried about mechanics. I didn't ever focus that much on them. I never really had to.
And when something like that happened, I wish I would have now because it took a long time to fix. But I was trying to find anything, every week I had a different answer for what was going on. We just couldn't figure it out. And finally started making some adjustments this spring. And finally I feel like I got to where I needed to be probably in probably August, I guess, the end of August. Took a while to fix.

Q. You're young enough to probably have watched a lot of the guys on the Phillies on TV when you were growing up. Were there any of those guys, Utley, Howard, Victorino, you enjoyed watching while you were younger?
MADISON BUMGARNER: Just about all those guys. They've got a great team. They're good. So I watched -- I like to watch good teams growing up. I didn't really have a favorite team or favorite player, I just liked watching good pitchers, good hitters, just good teams in general.
And definitely have seen a lot of those guys. So it's fun to get to play against them now, when I watched them growing up, like you said.

Q. Your first day up here in the Majors this year we asked you about the blowup in Sacramento. And I remember that you said that will never happen again and that you'll find ways internally to make sure that never happens again, and I'm just wondering in the starts you've had here, was there ever a time when you had to tell yourself: Serenity now, serenity now?
MADISON BUMGARNER: Even before the game, before all that happened down there, there was times where there would be bad calls or anything happened and I know not to let it bother me and to just go on to the next hitter. Just for some reason that day I wasn't able to do it.
So I don't know what the real answer is. I mean, I let my emotions get the best of me, I guess. And I think it's better it happened down there than up here. So it's obviously good to get it out of the way, and now going forward I'll know how to handle it better.

Q. So now you'll still do now what you did before that day?
MADISON BUMGARNER: Yeah, I feel like I do a better job of it now since that time, though. Something happens, it's a lot easier to step off and just relax and move on after seeing what can happen.

Q. The Phillies, as far as their lineup, been a lot more patient in this series. Kind of changed their philosophy. How do you plan on attacking that lineup tomorrow?
MADISON BUMGARNER: You know, I'm going to go out there with the same game plan I normally do. Just go out there and try to throw strikes and get ahead of guys. So if they want to take pitches, I don't know what their game plan will be. It might be different. They might be swinging early. They might be taking.
So it's hard to say. So I'm just going to go out there and try to throw quality pitches each time, see how it goes.

Q. There was a time in June and July where you were mentioned a lot in some trade rumors. How aware were you of some of that stuff and how much of a blessing was it that you're still sitting here today?
MADISON BUMGARNER: I didn't really pay any attention to that stuff at all. I think it's easy to get sidetracked. So I just tried to stay focused on what we're doing here and definitely glad I got to stay here.
I don't know what the talk was, but I'm definitely glad to stay here. This is where I want to be. So I'm glad it worked out that way.

Q. I want to ask you about your conditioning and if you think any changes in your conditioning had any impact on last year to this year, and also if you had to do anything special to get yourself to last through this entire season more than you ever pitched?
MADISON BUMGARNER: The only thing I've done is just stay the same really. I hadn't changed anything from the first year to last year to this year. It's been pretty much the same routine. Maybe some deviations to kind of line it up, make it more fun some of the days. But same stuff. Same workout routine. Same running.
One thing I hadn't done is taper off at the end. I've tried to stay on the same level, and I feel that's why it's helped me to stay in shape here to the end of the season.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297