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AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX VS INDIANS

October 6, 2016

David Price

Cleveland, Ohio - Pregame one

Q. How much did the postseason really sting you and how much do you want to make up for your past disappointments tomorrow?
DAVID PRICE: I want to help this team win, that's the bottom line. That's the mindset I want to take out there on the fifth day. And that's the mindset I want my teammates to have, as well. I take the mound, I want us to win. And tomorrow I want to go out there and win. I want to be dominant. I want to have that really good postseason game, and I know that I'm capable of doing that and I'm excited to pitch tomorrow.

Q. How much was that important to you and how prepared do you feel having done that?
DAVID PRICE: It feels good. Being on a five-day rotation, you know, your body knows when it's that fifth day. When you have that extra day or two extra days sometimes you can feel too good. And whenever you're out there on that fifth day, your body knows that, it's ready to go. I enjoy that. I want to be on five days for 162 games. And that was what we did I think right after the All-Star break. And I enjoy that.

Q. How would you describe your regular season?
DAVID PRICE: Inconsistent. I didn't throw the baseball the way that I know I can throw it. Over the course of 32, 33 starts I didn't do that. I got off to a very bad start after Opening Day. It took me a while to rebound from that. But I felt like I did -- I threw the ball a lot better in the second half of the year. And I feel good. I feel good mentally, physically and I'm excited to pitch tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel you've put a lot of pressure on yourself given that you signed here for that contract and even now in the playoffs that you have to be the guy? Does that enter into it at all?
DAVID PRICE: Honestly, it doesn't, to be completely honest. I haven't applied more pressure to myself this year as opposed to last year. Last year to me I felt like was a better year, that was my free agent year. I felt I handled it extremely well. And this year, as well. I just didn't throw the baseball well. And that's all on me. It's not the added pressure or pitching in Boston, anything like that. Trying to pitch up to my contract, it wasn't any of those things. I just didn't throw the baseball well. And I moved forward from that and I don't think about that stuff.

Q. What's then, going into tomorrow, what's the most important thing for you to do to come out with a win and a team win tomorrow?
DAVID PRICE: Fastball location, on both sides of the plate, on both two-seam and four-seam. If I can establish that fastball to both sides of the plate early on, it just opens the door for everything else that I want to throw. If those hitters know that I'm commanding my fastball on both sides of the plate, they have to respect that. And it makes my changeup a lot better, it makes my cutter and curveball, it makes all those pitches better. It turns an average curveball and average changeup into a plus-changeup whenever they have to respect that fastball.

Q. What would be some of the keys in facing the Indians batters? Are there any one or two batters who you have to be careful of?
DAVID PRICE: It's a very balanced lineup. They all have extremely good at-bats. They'll take their -- they run the bases well, they steal bases, and especially with Raj and Lindor, and those kind of guys. They do a lot of things really well. This is a very balanced team we're playing against right now.

Just trying to keep them off base, just do what I do, control the game. When guys do get on base, control that running game. That's something I've worked at extremely hard over the past couple of years and it's something I've done a lot better job of.

Key hitters for me, Santana, he's a big bat in their lineup. He's a guy that will take that walk. He swings at strikes. Very rarely does he chase out of the strike zone. Napoli, as well. You have to be able to control the guys in front of those two, to not let those two guys get a key hit.

Q. Just hearing you depict your season as not throwing the ball well and others maybe also saying that you didn't have the usual David Price type of year, yet you won 17 games. You led the league in innings pitched, in strikeouts, is that kind of a bad depiction of your season? It seems like you excelled at many things.
DAVID PRICE: Not at stopping the runners from crossing home plate, and that's the name of the game. I definitely -- I love having the innings, strikeouts are big in certain spots, but my WHIP was -- I don't know what it was, but it was way too high. And my ERA, as well. I know that I'm a lot better than what I did this year. And this is a new season right now. So I want to start that new chapter.

Q. Just in past experience, what is it that makes playoff baseball feel so much different than a game in the regular season?
DAVID PRICE: Every atmosphere you play in is going to be huge. I don't know, it's just the feeling out there on the field. You have it in the clubhouse. You have it at the practice before. Everybody at this point in the season is a little bit tired. Whenever you get to playoff baseball it feels like Opening Day all over again. Everybody is refreshed. Everybody has got that extra adrenaline. And to be able to just calm those emotions and go out there. You can't try and do too much. You have to understand that what you bring to the table is good enough. And you have to be one of those pieces to that puzzle. You can't be the whole picture. And that's something I need to do tomorrow is just do my part and I know my team is going to be there for me.

Q. You tinkered with your mechanics a little bit over the last month, how comfortable do you feel with them going into tomorrow?
DAVID PRICE: Very comfortable. Playing catch over the past three and four days I feel really good. Just having those days of catching between starts, just being able to work on different things. It's good. I feel good being able to make adjustments on the fly. That's something I feel like I've done very well in my career, being in the Big Leagues. This is a tough level to try and make adjustments at. If you don't get that good result it's easy just to kind of throw those adjustments out the window and move forward. But you've got to be able to stick with it and that's something that I've done. And I look forward to continue to do that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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