|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v GIANTSOctober 31, 2010Colby LewisARLINGTON, TEXAS: Game Four Q. During the regular season if you have a bad start, you know four days you're back out there again. Is this one of those things where the last few days you've just been itching to get back out there and go back and be what you have been? CLIFF LEE: Yeah, pretty much. In the regular season usually when you have a bad outing, your next outing is going to be against someone else. This time I get a chance to redeem myself against the team that actually put it to me pretty good last time. You know, I'm looking forward to it. I've been working hard and ready for -- it's basically the last start of the season for me, and I want to do everything I can to help this team win the World Series. Q. You've set such a high standard for yourself that on the rare occasion when you did struggle, I wonder if this came as a surprise to you? CLIFF LEE: I don't know if it was a surprise. I know every time I go out there I expect to be successful, so anytime it's anything less than that you're disappointed. You know, but I wouldn't say surprised. You never know what's going to happen when you go out there. Those guys swinging the bat are pretty good, too. If you make mistakes, that's what they get paid to hit. That was the main reason why I got beat last time. I was throwing a lot of balls over the plate. You can't do that on a consistent basis and expect to be successful. They showed me that the other night. It's my job to go out there and stay out of the heart of the plate and limit the amount of mistakes I make. Q. Just kind of building off that point, you struggled in the post-season and it was such a shock to people that people were writing things saying Cliff Lee is human, and no one knew that before. Obviously you've been through some struggles before. I just wonder how you deal with it when everything is so magnified and amplified here in the post-season. CLIFF LEE: I mean, I keep things simple. Yeah, I expect to have success every time I take the mound. I mean, I didn't last time. I'm going to go out this next time and expect to have success. Yeah, that's really how I look at it. I don't really care what people were saying, wow, he should do this or should do that. It has no bearing on how I go about my business and my preparation. I mean, if the games were played on paper and what people write, then we shouldn't have to play them. That's why you go out there. You never know what's going to happen. Sometimes the best go down, sometimes the worst teams win, and that's why you go out there and play the game. There's so many variables and so many things that can happen, you never know what's going to happen until you go out there and play. I know I'm going to go out there and be confident and expect to have success and do everything I know to do. That's really all I can do. Q. As you've gotten a chance to sort of review what happened in Game 1, do you realize what it was that happened, or do you just chalk it up to these-things-happen kind of thing? CLIFF LEE: Yeah, I know what it was, I was throwing balls over the heart of the plate. I wasn't working ahead in the count as well as I would like. You know, I hit a guy on an 0-2 pitch, I walked a guy. Those are the things I don't need to do, especially in the World Series. But it happened. I mean, I made mistakes. Good hitters capitalize on that, and that's what they did. That's really it. If I were throwing every pitch on the corner and working ahead in the count and they were doing that, I really wouldn't know what to do. I would think I would have to change sequences and change my approach to them. But that wasn't the case. I was throwing balls over the middle of the plate, and they did a really good job swinging the bat and working the count and getting themselves in good positions to hit. Yeah, that's what happens, especially at this level. Q. It's one thing to see what happened and another thing to try to figure out why. Have you been able to figure out why that happened? Was it a mechanical thing or something you need to change? CLIFF LEE: Anything I say is an excuse. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. I threw balls down the middle of the plate and they hit them. I can't do that. Regardless of what I say it's going to sound like an excuse, so there's no point really getting into it. I've got to do a better job of locating pitches. The reason why and all that stuff, regardless of what I say it sounds like an excuse, so I'd rather not say anything. Q. Was there any issue with the mound the other day? CLIFF LEE: No, none. I know I kick and scratch on the mound all the time, but I do that every time if you've watched close enough. That's part of, I guess, my in-between-pitch routine and what I do. I like to pay attention to where my foot is hitting, and a lot of times -- I've had a lot of coaches say, hey, what's wrong with the mound out there? But it's nothing. I try to keep it smooth and level and clean, but that's really it. Q. You got here about four months ago and obviously the Rangers came in kind of at the last minute and you ended up here. What were your expectations when you got here? I know obviously you're in the World Series but what's been your take on your time here so far? CLIFF LEE: It's been a great experience, great teammates. I mean, I knew the offense was unbelievable before I got here because I've had to face them in the past and it hasn't been a whole lot of fun. But yeah, I knew Josh Hamilton, Kinsler, Mike Young, Nelson Cruz, Vladimir Guerrero. I knew we were going to score runs, no question about that. I think the thing that's impressed me the most other than the offense which I already knew, the pitching staff. The bullpen has got a lot of guys that throw really hard, throw strikes. O'Day has got a little different something, and it's a good mix of guys in the bullpen and starting rotation. C.J. Wilson the way he's throwing, Colby Lewis, Hunter, these guys know what they're doing and they know how to pitch and it didn't take me long to pick up on that. It's definitely one unit working together. It's a lot of individually talented players, but we really do pull for each other, and if someone doesn't get it done the next guy is there to do it. That's the recipe for a winning team, and that's why we are where we're at. Q. Having seen the atmosphere here last night, how would you describe it and how much of a factor can that be for you guys? CLIFF LEE: Obviously home-field advantage can be a factor, depending on the player. I try not to look at it that way when I go play on the road and obviously it's similar on the road, but you can definitely feel the volume here. I mean, it's a lot of people making a lot of noise. You can tell it's something they're excited about. Yeah, it's definitely neat to get to feel the volume in the crowd when they get excited, and obviously this is the first World Series for this team, and you can tell the fans are super excited about it. Q. What's your opinion on the Giants' batters? And has that changed at all since the series started? CLIFF LEE: I mean, they've got a lot of quality hitters, there's no doubt about it. I don't know if I gave out a -- in the last press conference I was saying how good their pitching staff was and it made it seem like their hitters are not good and that's not the case. I'm just saying their pitching and defense is what got them where they're at. They've got goes that put together quality at-bats, make you throw a lot of pitches, battle. Those are the guys you want on your team, guys that do that. They've got some guys that are heating up at the right times. I mean, it's a good lineup, there's no doubt about it. They proved it in San Francisco for sure. They scored, what was it, 20-something runs in two games? They know what they're doing with a bat. If you make mistakes and miss over the plate and find yourself 2-0, 3-1 in deep counts with them, the more pitches they see the better they get. That's the kind of lineup that is, and they showed that in San Francisco. Hopefully we can do more what Colby did yesterday because he pitched an unbelievable game. They're pitchable, but like I say, if you make mistakes and miss over the plate and they're 2-0, 3-1, bad things are going to happen. That's just about any lineup, but especially teams that are in the World Series. Q. Admittedly this is a little bit silly, but shaving the beard, is that a superstition? Would you have done that if the game had gone better? CLIFF LEE: No, I'm not really superstitious about that. I don't like shaving, so I usually let it go a little bit before I shave it. But that's really all that is. It's not a superstition. Q. Ron Washington has been very loyal to the guys in the lineup and how he plays them and he doesn't really ask guys in the playoffs to do things he didn't ask them to do in the regular season. What does that mean to you and your teammates that you pretty much know what to expect? CLIFF LEE: I think it's a lot of credit to the guys that are in that lineup. There's not a whole lot to mess with there. From top to bottom, it's pretty fierce. You have a couple guys have a couple bad games, whatever, they're going to come out of it and figure it out. Our lineup, we can have a couple guys struggle and that would be all right usually. You'd like for everyone to be clicking, but with the power we've got from top to bottom, they pick each other up. It's a fun offense to watch and I'm glad I'm on this side of it for sure. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|