Pitches are like pages of a book; they're so important. The chess game; how I set you up early, and how I'll do it differently later.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I wanted to make a lot of good pitches.
The pitcher setting up the batter. It's chess, and you play with it.
You play your surroundings. You pitch accordingly. Not that I drastically try to change my game plan based on the score or the team or stadium, but you have to take everything into consideration.
It's very important to go pitch-by-pitch and game-by-game and not getting too far ahead of myself. In the past, it was trying to make up for a bad game and thinking ahead and what do I have to do to fix this.
Bottom line is, you have to pitch. You want timely hits.
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.
My pitching philosophy is simple - keep the ball way from the bat.
I've learned over the years that it doesn't matter where you pitch in the rotation. For me, preparation is everything.
I only know one way to pitch. I really do.
It's not just what you do on the pitch, it's what you do off the pitch.