[It was] the right idea -- I just missed a little bit. |
A lot of things have to go right. You have to have a good defense behind you. I look at something like that, that's very hard. I could see maybe a closer doing it, someone like (Dodgers closer Eric) Gagne, if he pitched one inning at a time. |
After the second inning, I just started to relax and let it go. I just tried to hold on. We finally made our move. |
Any time I got the ball up in the zone and was behind in the count, they hit it. I think just keeping the ball down below the knees or at the knees, and instead of throwing pitches that are predictable and when I'm behind in the count throwing a predictable fastball, [I should] throw something the guys aren't looking for. I think a lot of it for me now is I'm able to execute a lot of my pitches. It's just a matter of figuring out what they're looking for. Over time, since I've seen the hitters more, I've gotten better about doing that. |
I distinctly remember Jay Gibbons hit the grand slam off me at Baltimore. I think I ended up giving up nine runs in that game. It was just a nightmare game for me. That was a good example of the snowball effect. If things go bad in the first inning, I don't want it to snowball it even more. |
I faced these guys in spring training and they got me pretty good. I changed my game plan against them tonight and gave us a chance to win. |
I mean the first one, obviously, I just flat out hit him. But the next two, I like throwing inside and I'm not going to back off. I can assure you I wasn't doing it on purpose. But that's the type of player he is. |
I met him about one minute before I went out to warm up. The next thing I know, he's saving my game. |
I think one thing I learned [in 2005] was keeping the pitch count down. Just keeping the ball down at the knees. |
I was just trying to make my pitches. I did basically the same thing as I did last time (against Boston). Keep the ball down and get ground balls. |
I was putting the ball in play and the defense made a lot of big plays behind me. It gives you a lot of confidence when you can let them hit the ball and you know they can make the play. |
I wasn't able to control the damage. One inning won the game for them. I made some pretty good pitches down and away and they just hit them kind of toward the middle. The bunt kind of threw me off and next thing I knew it was second and third. I just fell behind and made a bad pitch to Teixeira. I just wasn't good. |
It really helped me get the ball inside on right-handed hitters more. I like to pitch inside. It's where I'm most effective. |
It's all taken care of. And by (Friday) night, security was already beefed up. |
It's funny, because it was my first time ever in that pool, too. |