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October 15, 2007
Looking back on this game, the second inning, the turning point in this game,
looking back on it, you get the bases loaded, don't get anything, they come out and get the two-run homer, is that kind of where this one went wrong for you guys?
Well, it was a really pivotal point. Westbrook came out and looked a little strong early, got some pitches up, end up bases loaded, nobody out, threw Jason a slider that was maybe backed up, got the short pop-up to left, then made a good pitch to Coco. Then after that it looked like he got locked in, started letting that sinker work, threw some cutters and they come back and tacked two on, a fastball that runs probably middle in to Kenny, ends up being a big swing.
Against Carmona, taking the first pitch worked really well for you guys. You hit
out of 1-0 counts almost all night long. Tonight it looked like you had sort of a similar strategy, that ball looked like a strike and fell out of the bottom. You seemed to hit out of 0-1 counts all night long. Is there some sort of way those things overlap onto each other, that strategy?
The strategy, especially with guys that are sinking the ball, is to get pitches up in the zone that you can handle. With Carmona the ball was out of the zone. It was
ball one. Tonight those were down; they were really good pitches. I don't know that we want to do a whole lot with those. That's what pitching is all about. You work
ahead and you stay out of the middle of the plate. That's why guys are effective.
Can you talk about Matsuzaka's outing today, if it was different at all from
Anaheim.
When you look at -- I don't know, what was the final count, 101, it's a lot of pitches. It's a lot of deep counts. Saying that, he made the one glaring mistake to Lofton for the two-run home run. You know what, again, it's a lot of pitches, and the more
pitches you throw, especially to dangerous hitters, the better chance you give them. I mean, that's the same concept that we talk about all the time, they kind of reversed it on us. I thought he threw some good pitches. I thought he had some depth to his slider and there was some differential, and I thought his fastball was good. Just a lot of deep counts.
Obviously mistakes are magnified at this time of the year. Big Papi, what was he thinking on that ball at second base, the one that hits him?
Because they were not holding him, he had such a big lead and he took a jab step towards third, and I think he realized he was in no-man's land and he stopped and it hit him. By that point he was probably out anyway, but I think the reason he got out there anyway is he's not a base stealer, and he's working hard to get a big secondary so he could score, and he got himself into no man's land.
Speaking of Ortiz, can you say much about the condition of his knee? Is it okay? Was there any sort of after-effect soreness?
After effects from what?
Being hit with the ball.
Oh, no, no. He hit a ball off the left field wall and hit a bullet towards first base and made a turned for a double play. No, he's fine.
Posted by Art Martone 
at 11:51 PM | Permalink
