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NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES v PHILLIESOctober 9, 2009Pedro MartinezDENVER, COLORADO: Workout Day THE MODERATOR: Questions for Pedro Martinez. Q. I'm sure you've heard the weather forecast. What do you expect these conditions to be and how tough do you think it will be for you to pitch? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, to be honest, I don't really think about it. I'm planning to go out there and have fun and do whatever I have to do. I have never been in a situation where I have to pitch with the snow on the field or anything like that. But I have been in pretty cool weather. But I'm just looking forward to the challenge and see what else I have to defeat. Q. If you could answer in Spanish and English as well. PEDRO MARTINEZ: Why? This is America. English-speaking America (Laughter). Is anybody going to give me an extra ring for translating for you guys (Laughter)? Q. I'll leave it to you. You've only pitched seven innings since September 13th. How do you think that will impact your health and what you're able to do tomorrow in terms of how long you're able to stay in the game? PEDRO MARTINEZ: That's another wonder. We don't really know. But I feel really good physically. I'm looking forward to going out there. Hopefully get a normal start, use my experience to my advantage and try not to waste too much energy and too many pitches. Hopefully I'll have the feeling for the ball and hopefully be able to give my team what they expect, which is a quality outing and a win. Q. In August you were saying that you felt as good as you had physically in years, eight years or something like that. How do you feel now? Do you still feel very good, and is your neck problem completely a thing of the past? PEDRO MARTINEZ: It wasn't my neck. I later found out it was one of my ribs out. If I can stay away from Javy Vazquez, maybe I'll be all right. Q. The curveball? PEDRO MARTINEZ: The curveball from Javy Vazquez, I'll be all right. I feel really good. I feel like I'm right now in perfect position physically. And I'm just going to probably continue to do it hoping that everything is going to be just like that. Q. With all you've been through in the last few years with your injuries, what has kept you motivated to pitch? PEDRO MARTINEZ: There's a few reasons. Some of them are personal. Some of them are it's kind of a reward for all the work and all the things that I have been through over the last three years. I think my reward for all the work, it's having the opportunity to be here, to pitch again, to actually make a comeback, probably the biggest comeback in the history of a shoulder like mine and the type of surgery I had. And some of the personal things are the fact that those were my dad's last wishes. He wanted me to go and play baseball, and the way I ended last year wasn't really the right way, and that wasn't the way I'm sure, I'm positive, that my dad would like me to go away from the game. The only thing is I think I worked so hard that it would be wasted talent if I didn't come back and pitch. It would be a wasted time, a wasted amount of work. And it was a big one. It was a big one. If you ask me would I do it again, the kind of rehab I did, I won't. I would just say good-bye to you guys and give you a big hug and hopefully see you somewhere in New York. Q. How special is this start for you to pitch in the post-season again and for all you've been through and for not even having a team in July? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, every game is really special. But this one makes me look really smart (Laughter) because I chose this team after waiting a long time. And I decided to wait, really wait. I gave away opportunities to make a lot more money. Probably start off from spring training with some teams and actually go on and on and on, but I waited for the right moment, the right team, and I don't think I could have chosen a better team than this one to actually get my opportunity to pitch in the post-season. And I'm really excited and it might sound a little weird that I'm excited, but I am, just to have the opportunity to be here right now. Q. Your last start by the time you take the mound will have been 10 days prior. What have you been doing during this time period to stay sharp? Have you been throwing bullpen sessions? How many pitches have you thrown? Have you faced batters since your last start? Can you run down what you've been doing to kind of keep in shape? PEDRO MARTINEZ: To be honest, I haven't faced any batters. I've done enough throwing. I think the softball that I have is about to run away from me because I've been keeping my hands on that softball and too much for too long. But I have been trying to get as much of a feel for the ball as I can. It's hard because it doesn't matter how much you throw in the bullpen, how much you practice. The intensity of the game and the quality that those hitters put up against you is totally different. But I have been trying to stay sharp. I would have loved to have pitched a little bit in between, but that's not the case right now. I just have to go and do whatever I can at the time I have. Q. You've obviously pitched in Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series. Does the best-of-five aspect of the Division Series change the feel of the start at all, make it feel even more elevated because it's an even shorter series where every game has that much more weight? Do you think of it that way at all? PEDRO MARTINEZ: No, we try to stay focused and play consistent baseball. If anybody lets up at the time you're playing the game, that's the one that's going to end up in the losing end. And you just have to stay focused, play the game that you know how to play. Those people that are gifted to actually maintain their focus and actually put it into play, you know, the abilities that they have, put the abilities that they have and what they learned through playing baseball and keep it clean, keep it pretty much consistent, it's the one that's going to probably surpass everything. The one that loses the focus, sees the game a little bigger because it's playoff, hu-huh, 27 outs, nine innings and it's a baseball game. You put your fundamentals in there and just go on, try not to lose your focus. Q. Charlie said earlier that one of the challenges in pitching in weather that is expected tomorrow is to get a grip on the ball for the pitcher. What type of things will you do to try to get the grip? You rely so much on your control. PEDRO MARTINEZ: To be honest, I don't think I'm going to try to do too much. Go out there, do what you normally do, warm up, get the feel, get as much as you can and do whatever you can, because it's something that we don't get exposed to every day. And I'm just going to try to warm up well, take a little longer warming up and see how everything is going to feel, and after that just go on and pitch my game. It's something new for me. It's something new for everybody. This kind of weather you don't see every year in the baseball game. I'm not planning on doing too much tomorrow. Q. After your first start at Wrigley this year, after the game we were talking to you and you said how late in the season if the Phillies need somebody cold-blooded you're their guy. I'm wondering how much have you missed pitching in the post-season and why do you enjoy it so much? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Why? Probably this is the opportunity you want to get a chance to win. Actually, being in the post-season after 162 games, it's not an easy task. If you see out of 30 teams only four or six, whatever, make it to the post-season, that's pretty good odds. You've got to be really good. And to have the opportunity to be here, it's great. And at the same time until you lose the last game you have a chance to go to the World Series. And there's nothing greater than winning a World Series, I think for us, play 162 games and spend such a long season trying to achieve that. Q. When did Charlie tell you that you were getting the ball and what did you say to him? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, he said he had to run it by Dubee and he ran it by me. And he pretty much got it out because of you guys. He wanted to get you guys away from him and actually get everything settled and not have to answer any more questions about who is pitching and who is not. Q. You talked about your recovery, how difficult it was, how much you went through to get to where you feel the way you felt this year. Was there any point during that whole process where you wondered whether you'd be here on a day like today talking about another post-season start? PEDRO MARTINEZ: I kept my faith. I thought I was going to get a chance. I've been around for quite a while now. And I've seen what happened at the All-Star break. Right before the deadline comes, there's a lot of moves that are made out of emergencies. And I have seen that. And if I was healthy, with the experience I have and I'm not -- I don't like to talk about myself, but I have to say with the results I've had so far in my career, in every aspect, post-season, regular season, and the experience I bring, I thought I was going to get a chance. And right now I think I'm looking really smart (smiling). Q. Different pitchers that I've talked to had different takes on what the air here and the altitude does to a breaking ball. Some people say it affects them. Some people say no difference. Pitching this particular city, in this ballpark, do you notice any difference in any of your pitches, what your curveball will do or anything like that? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, without a doubt it feels a little drier. I'm accustomed to pitching in a little warmer weather and more humid weather. But this is something that everybody has to face. You can't make a big deal out of anything that the other pitcher has to do and he's not complaining. So I'm going to go and do what I probably can do on that given day and see who comes out on top. Really, I don't have to whine. There's no crying in baseball (Laughter). Q. I know you've said you've never pitched in snow. You grew up in a place where there was no such thing as snow. Do you remember the first time you even saw snow and what you did, what you thought? Did you run out and play in it or run the other way? PEDRO MARTINEZ: (Smiling) I think I was going across the mountains of Reno, Nevada on a bus. I think it was a 12-hour bus ride, something like that. Nothing surprised me. I'm not surprised by anything that comes up. I came straight from the Dominican and I was dropped right in the middle of Great Falls, Montana. If you're going to talk about drastic changes and stuff, weird things to see. When I got to Florida, I kind of understand English. But when I got to Montana and the accent I said maybe I don't know that much. It was just the accent. And I had to adjust to all those things. But when I saw snow, I actually stopped to grab a little bit and put it in my mouth to see if it felt like ice. But it's something that you get accustomed to. Now I have a house in New York where I see snow every winter if I want to. Even though I don't really enjoy it that much. After the first glance was gone, the same way was my interest. But I haven't pitched in snow, really. But I have pitched in 30-degree-some weather in those playoffs in Boston, New York, and Cleveland. I'm not going to really make a big deal out of it. Q. Charlie said he thinks the bigger the stage, the better you pitch. Do you feel that way about your performances? PEDRO MARTINEZ: No better person than Charlie to say it. He probably will start with the coldest night that one night in Cleveland. And in the World Series so far, which is probably the biggest stage, so far, thanks to God I hope I get some performance like that tomorrow. But I'm not known to be intimidated by the challenge. And hopefully after getting older I don't feel anything different. I'm expecting to just go out there and have success like always. And I don't know how big you want to make the stage, but to me it's a baseball game, and that's what I was talking about earlier. If you make the stage any bigger, your concentration is not going to be at the same level you normally will have it for a regular game. And to me it's nine innings, 27 outs. Whoever plays less mistakes in the game is the one that's going to win, the one that keeps the concentration and the playing level at the same level all the time, consistent. Q. Most of these guys in your clubhouse won a World Series last year, but not very many of them have actually been in this situation. They held home field advantage throughout last year's playoffs, won the first game of every series, were up 2-1, 3-1 in the World Series. You've been in this situation. You know what a pivotal game Game 3 can be when you're tied at 1. Are you at a place with this team where you're comfortable pulling guys aside and offering any wisdom you might have, or are you kind of a guy that's just going to go out there and pitch and let that speak for itself? PEDRO MARTINEZ: Normally my preference will be to actually lead by example. But if they come and ask, they want to pick my brains about what I think, what I see, what kind of hole I'm seeing, what am I seeing that they don't, I'm more than open to do that. But I'm respectful of everybody's privacy and the way they think and the way they approach the game, and I just look, and I look and I look. And if anybody wants a suggestion, I guess I will do that. But I don't normally like to dig into anybody's territory. I let them come to me and take advantage of my experience and what I have to offer. And what I have to offer, I wish they could take it all because I'm not going to be around for very long anymore. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Pedro. End of FastScripts |
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