	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: BLUE JAYS VS ROYALS

October 16, 2015

David Price

Kansas City, Missouri - Pregame One

Q. How out of routine are you right now after not having started in a while and you'll be on your regular day, but after only 50 pitches?
DAVID PRICE: I don't think I'm out of routine. I've still got my work in, whether it was in the bullpen. I threw a lot of bullpen yesterday. It doesn't change. Like I said before, the dimensions that I'm throwing are still 60 feet 6 inches. That stuff doesn't change. At this point in the season you know where home plate is. You have a good feel for what you're trying to do out there.

I don't think my routine has changed at all.

Q. Would you have preferred to start this game tonight? What's your overall view of how you've been used in the first series and going tomorrow?
DAVID PRICE: It doesn't matter. I mean, whatever this team wants me to do to try and help them win, I'm all about it. I knew I was going to be starting one of these games.

I think tomorrow might be my normal day's rest for when I threw Game 4 in Texas. So Marco has been throwing the ball extremely well all season long. I completely get it. And I'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. You've had to face Jose Bautista a lot. What's that like, especially in big moments?
DAVID PRICE: He's tough. He's always on the fastball. And that's what the best do. They're always on it.

It's extremely tough to throw a fastball by that guy, especially late in the count, whenever you've shown him a couple. He might take some funny swings on some breaking balls, but that let's you know where he's at in his head. There's a saying in baseball, you can't sneak cheese past a rat. He does a really good job with that. That's what all the best hitters in baseball do, they sit on a fastball and they react to a breaking ball. He does a really good job with that.

I'm not calling Bautista a rat (laughter).

Q. Yordano is in his second season in the majors, he went through the postseason last year. What have you seen in him that you like as a young pitcher, and how could you compare him to the young pitchers you've seen coming into the League?
DAVID PRICE: He's never scared. He's not the biggest guy. You wouldn't know that by his velocity and the stuff that he possesses on the mound. He pitches without a chip on his shoulder. It's like Stroman, and it's you against the world. I don't care if you're five foot five or seven foot on that mound. You have to have kind of that mindset and he does a good job of that.

Q. I know you put a lot of pressure on yourself every start, but given how this playoff has gone for you, do you feel right? Do you feel under any extra pressure? Do you feel like it's going to come?
DAVID PRICE: No, I know it's going to come. I have a hundred percent confidence in myself. I know my teammates do, as well, and our coaching staff. This is part of it. You've got to be able to live in the moment. I want to be able to step up for my teammates and this organization and all our fans in Canada.

But good things are coming, I know they are. I've got confidence in that.

Q. When you faced the Royals earlier this year, back-to-back starts and one of them went really well and the other one not as well. What did you take away from those outings and how you're going to attack the Royals?
DAVID PRICE: They do a great job of putting the ball in play. They have a lot of team speed. They can cause a lot of trouble for pitchers, whenever they have runners on base. You don't want to allow the Royals to get free 90 feet. Whether it's at first base and they steal second, or they're a single away from scoring, or stealing third base where they can produce runs with outs.

They do a really good job of putting themselves in scoring position and allowing them to kind of push runs across home plate with outs. That's something you definitely want to stay away from. Just get that leadoff guy out. If you can do that you can kind of manage that running game a little bit better and just take it pitch by pitch.

Q. Is there anything you gleaned from the time in Detroit about the Royals that maybe you wouldn't have learned, because you saw them so much more when you were in the East?
DAVID PRICE: I don't think so. This is kind of a different team than what it was. They've got some guys at the trade deadline. I feel like they're healthy now. Their entire team is healthy. So that's a good thing to have at this point in the season. But I knew they had a lot of team speed. I guess they don't strike a whole lot and put the ball in play. And I think I kind of would have known that from before.

Q. Do you feel like the Royals, the numbers say that the Royals are a little better against left-handed pitching than maybe they were at the beginning of the season. Do you feel like they're less vulnerable than their reputation has suggested?
DAVID PRICE: I don't know. I don't look into the advance numbers and stuff like that. They run out quite a few lefties, with Hosmer and Gordon and Mous. I feel like those are the only -- Dyson, if he's in there, those are the only straight lefties.

And they have Kendrys Morales, as well, who is a switch-hitter. I don't know, I don't pay attention to those numbers. But their middle of the lineup I guess was predominantly right-handed, so I guess I can see that.

Q. You talked a little bit about the acquisitions that the Royals have made late in the season, one of them you know well, and you know well how much Ben Zobrist has killed the Blue Jays over the years, you've seen that firsthand. How much are you going to enjoy facing him and how are you expecting to deal with him?
DAVID PRICE: It's always tough when you're facing ex-teammates or just facing your friends. It's always tough. But I expect to get him out. He is my buddy. I saw him today when he was driving to the field right outside of my hotel and ran over to him and talked to him for a couple of seconds, played whatever that game is Hopper or Grasshoppers. I watched "Pixels" last night so I should know. Frogger was the game I was playing.

He does a good job. He fits in with his team pretty well. He's a switch-hitter. The matchups with him are always tough. But he does whatever organization he's playing for, he does what's asked for and that's how he's made his name. He's turned himself into a very good player.

Q. You mentioned the team speed of Kansas City a few times. And this year you've barely been run on. I'm curious what your approach is to kind of holding baserunners to the bases and not getting run on?
DAVID PRICE: Get rid of it quick. I mean, that's kind of something I've focused in on. It's something that Joe Maddon and myself talked about three or four years ago. And it's something I talked about that the Royals do really well. They can produce runs with outs. And that was something Joe talked to me about.

And if that leadoff guy gets on you can't allow him just to steal second base, get a free 90 feet. Then you have a ground ball to the right side or two ground balls to the right side and it's a run or a ground ball and a fly ball, or two relatively deep fly balls produces a run.

Try to mix up your holds, just be quick to the plate.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297