It's tougher when you're established. Before, I'd see 13, 14, 15 pitches that I could drive in a game. Now, I see one, two or three, so I have to be better.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Any time you can go out there and throw 12 pitches in any inning, you give your team some momentum coming in and get some confidence out on the mound.
Later, I could take something off my slider and I could make my fastball sink, so I really had four pitches.
You aren't going to stick around long with just two pitches.
I trust how much my ball moves. I can throw it at you or this far off the plate and have it end up on the black. That's where I kind of went to the next level. I knew what all my pitches were doing. Even in '14, I didn't have that ability.
I wanted to make a lot of good pitches.
I've got four pitches now. I don't have to use them all the time, but I've got them in my pocket now for when it's necessary.
I think my mindset and my approach is to hit the ball hard, whether it be first pitch or work the count.
One game, one pitch can change everything for a hitter. The way I like to approach it is that every at-bat is its own unique opportunity to go out there and do something really good.
In the minor leagues, previous to 2008, I took a lot of pitches. I prided myself on on-base percentage. I made sure that I made the pitcher work.
My pitch count as a general rule was 135. And I knew how many pitches I had when I went to the mound for the last three innings.