azdad1978
Championship!!!!
His RBI single helps out, too
Jim Gintonio
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 6, 2005 12:00 AM
The triple-whammy was staring Russ Ortiz square in the face.
Not only was he trying to pick up his first win with the Diamondbacks - one sorely needed after an embarrassing Opening Day loss - he was working against a future Hall of Famer, one with 305 career wins, almost triple his number. And add to that the fact that he was coming off a poor start in his last spring training effort.
Ortiz not only outdid Maddux on the mound, he also drove in a run in the Diamondbacks' 5-4 victory Tuesday night over the Cubs.
But it was his gut-check in the sixth inning against Derrek Lee that shone through. He fell behind 3-0 with two on and a 5-3 lead, and got the slugger to fly to center.
"Russ pitched great," manager Bob Melvin said. "That was probably everything he had left in him, that last pitch to Lee. He was done . . . He wouldn't have faced the next guy. That was it, right there."
Ortiz, no stranger to pressure situations, threw three straight balls to Lee, and then he gave himself a talking-to.
"I just stepped off the mound and said, you know what, I'm just gonna do like I've been doing all day, go one pitch at a time and just trust it's gonna be there.
"The last two pitches, I said I've just got to suck it up and give it all I got and believe I'm going to make my pitch. On that last pitch, I didn't necessarily make my pitch, but a fastball does what you want it to do. It has that extra life when just trust, and that's all I tried to do. It had enough late life for him not to hit it maybe as hard as he should have, or maybe he would have on a different count."
Ortiz breezed through the first inning, but things got a bit out of control in the second when he threw his only bad pitch of the night, and Todd Hollandsworth lined it into the right-center field stands for a three-run home run.
"He hung one to Hollandsworth for the home run, but every time after that when he had to make a pitch he did," Melvin said. "He was able to dig in make a big pitch, and was no bigger one than coming back from 3-0 against Lee."
He settled down to work six innings, allowing five hits and striking out three. "It was great," he said. "For me last year, my first start wasn't very good, so this time around I said, 'You know, a new uniform, a new town . . . ' Fortunately, I had pitched here quite a bit . . . to get the first one out of the way for everybody, it was great. It's a great feeling when you win."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0406dbside0406.html
Jim Gintonio
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 6, 2005 12:00 AM
The triple-whammy was staring Russ Ortiz square in the face.
Not only was he trying to pick up his first win with the Diamondbacks - one sorely needed after an embarrassing Opening Day loss - he was working against a future Hall of Famer, one with 305 career wins, almost triple his number. And add to that the fact that he was coming off a poor start in his last spring training effort.
Ortiz not only outdid Maddux on the mound, he also drove in a run in the Diamondbacks' 5-4 victory Tuesday night over the Cubs.
But it was his gut-check in the sixth inning against Derrek Lee that shone through. He fell behind 3-0 with two on and a 5-3 lead, and got the slugger to fly to center.
"Russ pitched great," manager Bob Melvin said. "That was probably everything he had left in him, that last pitch to Lee. He was done . . . He wouldn't have faced the next guy. That was it, right there."
Ortiz, no stranger to pressure situations, threw three straight balls to Lee, and then he gave himself a talking-to.
"I just stepped off the mound and said, you know what, I'm just gonna do like I've been doing all day, go one pitch at a time and just trust it's gonna be there.
"The last two pitches, I said I've just got to suck it up and give it all I got and believe I'm going to make my pitch. On that last pitch, I didn't necessarily make my pitch, but a fastball does what you want it to do. It has that extra life when just trust, and that's all I tried to do. It had enough late life for him not to hit it maybe as hard as he should have, or maybe he would have on a different count."
Ortiz breezed through the first inning, but things got a bit out of control in the second when he threw his only bad pitch of the night, and Todd Hollandsworth lined it into the right-center field stands for a three-run home run.
"He hung one to Hollandsworth for the home run, but every time after that when he had to make a pitch he did," Melvin said. "He was able to dig in make a big pitch, and was no bigger one than coming back from 3-0 against Lee."
He settled down to work six innings, allowing five hits and striking out three. "It was great," he said. "For me last year, my first start wasn't very good, so this time around I said, 'You know, a new uniform, a new town . . . ' Fortunately, I had pitched here quite a bit . . . to get the first one out of the way for everybody, it was great. It's a great feeling when you win."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0406dbside0406.html
