MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 26, 2001

Mike Mussina

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, it means that Joe has enough confidence in me to let me go out there and start the first game. It means I get to pitch on the road. That's what it means.

MIKE MUSSINA: Does it mean anything to get to go first?

MIKE MUSSINA: In this situation, every game is important. First game or any other game in this series, they are very important games. I'm not looking at it like I'm the first of anything. Just, it's my turn to pitch. He asked me to pitch the first game, so I'm going to go pitch. Hopefully, I can pitch well. When the other guys go out there, their games are just as important as this one is, and hopefully the whole staff pitches well.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, people have been asking me that question every month, do you feel more like a part of the team than you did in April, and in June -- I've been a part of this club since the first day of camp. It's been exciting to be on a club that has a chance to do this. I'm just happy to be pitching well now. It's just the way things have gone. I'm just happy to pitch the game that got us turned around in Oakland, and, you know, anybody else on the staff could have gone out there and done that; it just happened to be my turn.

MIKE MUSSINA: Obviously, it's exciting. It's something we all want to do. We all went to camp in Florida or Arizona, way back in February, we all wanted to be standing here with a chance to win a title. You know, Gracy waited, what, 15 years to have a chance at it, and this is my 11th year. Sometimes you have to wait a while and sometimes you get a chance to go every year, like Jeter; I guess it's part of the deal. It's exciting. I think once it's all over and we all get to sit back and look at it in a month or so, we're going to probably appreciate it more than now because we are still trying to get something accomplished now. It's still a job and an important one, at that.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, I don't know. Everybody has their opinions of who it favors, having not seen somebody, if it would favor the hitters or favor the pitchers. I think guys on both sides have seen both of us. I know I've faced a few of their players over the years and I know Schilling has pitched against the Yankees a few times while he was with Philadelphia. I don't know how much of that is going to be a factor. When you get into these games, and a lot of times in the World Series play, one side has not seen another pitcher or whatever. Once you get the game going, you don't think about it too much anymore. It's a factor that is there, but I don't know how big of a deal that is going to be, honestly.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, I think No. 1, I hope he's tired. When we go to the mound to pitch, our objective from the beginning of the game is to not give up any runs. Once the team scores one run, then our objective is to hold them to one run, and so on. He's been hot, he's throwing the ball great the last few weeks. Obviously, in the playoffs in a big stage, he's the best ball he has all year, maybe. Does that mean we are going to get no runs or I have to give up no runs to win? I don't know. We've seen some hot pitchers along the way, too, and we are able to scratch out a couple and find ways to win. We are going to go out there with the same plan we are going out there with up to this point, and when you are in the playoffs, you are always going to see good pitching. That's the nature of the playoffs and games are going to be low-scoring, because that's the history of the World Series. Hopefully, we can get a couple and hold them to less than that.

MIKE MUSSINA: I don't have a problem with it right now. But thinking about that, Game 3 of the first round, I think was a little strange for us, because we really didn't expect to be down 0-2 coming out of there. It happened kind of fast and all of the sudden we were down 0-2. Really, we had nothing to lose going out there in Game 3, at least that's the way we felt. It was just, let's go see what happens and maybe we can get back in this thing. We felt if we could get them in Game 4, it would put the pressure on them to not want to have to fly all the way back to New York and win Game 5. This one is going five, six, seven games we are assuming. We want to get off on the right foot and have a good game and come away with a win, but there's a long way to go. We're going to try to play well every single night we are out there.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, there's things you have to do. And have to be responsible for, like sitting here. But if you can stay away from all of the flash bulbs and remember that there's a game in there somewhere, we missed all of this first World Series in Arizona and the Yankees trying to win four in a row, and remember there's a game in there somewhere, then you're going to be all right and that's just the way I'm trying to go about it; I'm worried about the game and not stuff that's going on around the game.