	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

Matt Cain

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Game Three

Phillies Â– 0
Giants - 3

THE MODERATOR: First question for Matt.

Q. Bochy came out to talk to you before you pitched to Victorino at the end. Seemed like an important moment. What did he say to you? What was going on?
MATT CAIN: Just asking how I was feeling, just kind of instilling that he had confidence in me. It didn't sound like he wanted to take me out of the game, but he was trying to -- we've got confidence in you, make your pitches and we can get this guy out.

Q. I asked Bruce about managing and he made all the right moves and Aaron came in today and Renteria. The group of ballplayers, do you guys respond to what he says? I mean, managing is so tricky. I'm just wondering what the feeling is about Bruce in there.
MATT CAIN: It's great. That's the reason that he has the job. He does a great job of getting the right guys in at the right time. And we respect anything that he does.

Q. Right before the start of the fourth inning, it was right after -- it was the previous inning, Victorino got a hit. I saw the umpires talking to you along the baseline, what was that about?
MATT CAIN: Just asking a couple of questions about if I was set and the right situation, stuff like that.

Q. You probably know that starting lineup at the Phillies came in with pretty good numbers against you and a couple of those guys really good numbers. What was different today with your pitching against them specifically?
MATT CAIN: Just trying to focus on making my pitches and getting in the pitching counts where I'm ahead and trying to make them a little more defensive. That was my goal today. And that's what we just kept trying to do from the start to the end.

Q. Following up on that, Chase Utley in particular has had really good numbers against you in his career. Seemed like you threw him a lot of change-ups today. Was there a thought process behind that and why was it so successful?
MATT CAIN: Just trying to keep the ball down. Once you elevate the ball to any of the power hitters is usually when they take advantage of you. That's where he's taken advantage of me before. So I was just trying to keep the ball down to him.

Q. How do you compare this game to the other good games you have pitched, especially the last couple of years in this park?
MATT CAIN: Just in general, all the games I've pitched.

Q. How you compare this game to the games you've pitched, right up there?
MATT CAIN: I would say this has probably got to be -- this has got to be the top one, really, to be able to pitch in the postseason is great and to be able to go out there and throw the ball, throw the ball well and help your team win, you know, is a great feeling.

Q. Having already thrown in the postseason once this year, were your emotions a little more subdued at the beginning of this game?
MATT CAIN: Yeah, I think they were. With going through all the introductions and all that stuff, I think you kind of get used to it a little bit, because sometimes you get your nerves going, your routine is a little different. We've been through a couple of the introductions and having the postseason start before, throwing against the braves, I think definitely using that experience today was definitely very helpful.

Q. Sometimes you hear guys say you just have to treat it as another game. Is it just another game in a postseason?
MATT CAIN: You like to try to think of it that way. But it's not. There's a lot more pressure on you. But you find your ways to think of little things, whatever it is to be able to think of it as another pitch or another starting day, just go out there and stay to your plan and try to stay to your strengths.

Q. So much was made of Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels coming into this series, did you guys feel any bit slighted at all just knowing how well you as a staff have pitched over the past six weeks?
MATT CAIN: No, we knew this was going to be -- and we still feel like it's going to be a close matchup every day we go out there and pitch against these guys. So we're just taking that one game. We'll come out there tomorrow and do the same thing.

Q. As somebody who has been here longer than anybody else at what point did you start thinking maybe this team had a chance to be what they're doing now?
MATT CAIN: You know, we felt confident with ourselves in spring. We had a great spring. We came out of spring hot. We felt we hit a bump in the road. When we started hitting bumps in the road we came out of those quicker than we used to, I think that's when we started noticing that we were a team that was going to do things right for the season.

Q. Along the same lines, with the Phillies rotation, this is seven quality starts in a row for you guys. Do you think you sort of made a point? And did you have that sort of in mind coming into the postseason?
MATT CAIN: Well, that's our goal to go out there every time, all of us, as a rotation, want to go out there and stay in the game as long as possible. And our biggest thing is to be able to stay in the game seventh, eighth inning, try to get wins, especially playing in this ballpark sometimes you've got to stick around to get those extra wins.

Q. Charlie Manuel said in the past when you've pitched against the Phillies you often maybe got too aggressive with your fastball, and you avoided that today. When you were looking back on past starts against them and getting ready for today, was that a conscious decision to get away from that?
MATT CAIN: You know, not really. I mean, I'm a guy that's usually going to throw a lot of fastballs. But I think the biggest thing was really making sure the location was better than the previous times. I think that's really the main goal today was to go out there and try to keep the ball closer to the knees and stay at the bottom of the strike zone.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Matt.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297