azdad1978
Championship!!!!
David Vest
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 11, 2005 12:00 AM
Diamondbacks closer Brandon Lyon rid himself of the negativity surrounding his first blown save Friday night against the Dodgers by tossing a scoreless ninth inning on Sunday to secure Arizona's 5-4 victory in the series finale.
Manager Bob Melvin chose to rest Lyon on Saturday, and the move seemingly worked well as Lyon shrugged off a leadoff single by J.D. Drew then retired the next three batters for his second save.
Lyon was glad the Diamondbacks needed him to close another game so soon.
"Anytime you have a bad outing like I did the other night, you want to get back out there as soon as possible and get your confidence back up," Lyon said. "It was good for me to get out there as soon as I did and put all that behind me."
The right-hander from Utah got revenge on Jose Valentin, who homered off Lyon on Friday to lead Los Angeles to a come-from-behind victory, by striking out the slugger with a nifty curveball.
"I just made better pitches this time," Lyon said. " . . . Fortunately, it worked out for us tonight."
Melvin surprised some when he named Lyon the closer at the end of spring training - including Lyon, who missed last season after undergoing ulnar nerve transposition surgery in March.
"My only expectations for this season were to have a healthy arm and to feel good," Lyon said. "That was my No. 1 goal: to work hard enough where my arm felt good and I could just throw the ball and not have to worry about my injury. Last year was a frustrating year for me. But looking back now, it doesn't seem as frustrating."
The Diamondbacks acquired Lyon and three others in the trade that sent Curt Schilling to the Boston Red Sox after the 2003 season.
Once left-hander Casey Fossum was traded to Tampa Bay in February, Lyon became the most visible Diamondbacks player involved in the swap.
That fact rarely crosses Lyon's mind.
"I can't put that extra pressure on myself," Lyon said. "It's just great to know that the players around here and the coaches feel highly enough about me and have faith in me to do the (closer's) job."
General Manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said anyone who thinks Lyon was not a key ingredient in the Schilling trade is mistaken.
"He was much closer to being a deal breaker than a throw-in," Garagiola said. "(Boston) knew what they had in him, and it was not easy to get him in that deal. Ultimately, we said, 'Look, this is the guy we want, and he has to be in the deal. You guys have to decide. If you want Schilling, well, we have to have this guy.' "
Lyon wowed Melvin with a 0.69 ERA in 11 spring training outings and with his unflappable demeanor.
"He hasn't shown a whole lot of emotion one way or the other," Melvin said. "I haven't seen too much emotion out of him even just talking to him so, you know, you can't tell if he's bothered out there or he's feeling confident or whatever. I think that's a good attribute."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0411dbside0411.html
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 11, 2005 12:00 AM
Diamondbacks closer Brandon Lyon rid himself of the negativity surrounding his first blown save Friday night against the Dodgers by tossing a scoreless ninth inning on Sunday to secure Arizona's 5-4 victory in the series finale.
Manager Bob Melvin chose to rest Lyon on Saturday, and the move seemingly worked well as Lyon shrugged off a leadoff single by J.D. Drew then retired the next three batters for his second save.
Lyon was glad the Diamondbacks needed him to close another game so soon.
"Anytime you have a bad outing like I did the other night, you want to get back out there as soon as possible and get your confidence back up," Lyon said. "It was good for me to get out there as soon as I did and put all that behind me."
The right-hander from Utah got revenge on Jose Valentin, who homered off Lyon on Friday to lead Los Angeles to a come-from-behind victory, by striking out the slugger with a nifty curveball.
"I just made better pitches this time," Lyon said. " . . . Fortunately, it worked out for us tonight."
Melvin surprised some when he named Lyon the closer at the end of spring training - including Lyon, who missed last season after undergoing ulnar nerve transposition surgery in March.
"My only expectations for this season were to have a healthy arm and to feel good," Lyon said. "That was my No. 1 goal: to work hard enough where my arm felt good and I could just throw the ball and not have to worry about my injury. Last year was a frustrating year for me. But looking back now, it doesn't seem as frustrating."
The Diamondbacks acquired Lyon and three others in the trade that sent Curt Schilling to the Boston Red Sox after the 2003 season.
Once left-hander Casey Fossum was traded to Tampa Bay in February, Lyon became the most visible Diamondbacks player involved in the swap.
That fact rarely crosses Lyon's mind.
"I can't put that extra pressure on myself," Lyon said. "It's just great to know that the players around here and the coaches feel highly enough about me and have faith in me to do the (closer's) job."
General Manager Joe Garagiola Jr. said anyone who thinks Lyon was not a key ingredient in the Schilling trade is mistaken.
"He was much closer to being a deal breaker than a throw-in," Garagiola said. "(Boston) knew what they had in him, and it was not easy to get him in that deal. Ultimately, we said, 'Look, this is the guy we want, and he has to be in the deal. You guys have to decide. If you want Schilling, well, we have to have this guy.' "
Lyon wowed Melvin with a 0.69 ERA in 11 spring training outings and with his unflappable demeanor.
"He hasn't shown a whole lot of emotion one way or the other," Melvin said. "I haven't seen too much emotion out of him even just talking to him so, you know, you can't tell if he's bothered out there or he's feeling confident or whatever. I think that's a good attribute."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0411dbside0411.html
