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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DODGERS VS CUBS

October 15, 2016

Clayton Kershaw

Chicago, Illinois - Pregame 1

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. I guess just physically how are you and how much are you looking forward to this start?
CLAYTON KERSHAW: Yeah, I feel fine. I feel good. I'm excited. It's been a little bit since we got to do this, and Wrigley Field, it's going to be pretty exciting. The fans, everywhere you go, people are talking about it, so it will be fun tomorrow, for sure.

Q. Thursday you would have thrown seven pitches plus whatever you threw in the bullpen. How typical or less or more is that compared to what you usually do between starts?
CLAYTON KERSHAW: Yeah, I guess number of pitches-wise it's probably pretty close to the same. Intensity might have been just a hair different, but I think I would guess just the quantity was probably pretty similar, I would say.

Q. How different is your in-between starts routine as compared to other pitchers? I've heard stories that you tend to go a little harder than a lot of other pitchers.
CLAYTON KERSHAW: I can't speak for other pitchers. Just the guys that I've been around, I don't really know. I don't think you can compare guys' routines. I think at the end of the day we're just going to do whatever we think we have to do to be the best on the fifth day. So, whatever I think I have to do is probably completely different than somebody else, and that's just kind of the way I look at it.

Q. What's your take on the Cubs' lineup? And neither you nor Maeda or Hill pitched against them this year. Is that any kind of a factor?
CLAYTON KERSHAW: Yeah, the Cubs' lineup is pretty solid, obviously. They got some guys in there that had some pretty amazing seasons, and they're the best team in baseball for a reason. They had a really good pitching staff and the offense -- I think the one thing that stands out is just the on-base percentages of those guys. I think that they're constantly working counts, getting into good hitters counts, getting on base. And that's something that is difficult for a starting pitcher. You got to -- you want to limit the damage but at the same time you can't go for four innings, a hundred pitches. So you got to figure out how to get these guys out with quality pitches quickly. And it's not an easy task. Maeda -- I didn't know Maeda hadn't faced them. So I think that would probably help, because he probably hasn't seen them ever. So that's probably a good thing. Just familiarity is never great for a pitcher. But I faced a lot of those guys a lot, and so I think one year off's probably not going to make too much of a difference for me.

Q. You've had some unusual usage in the last week, but are you going into this start as if it's a normal start, expecting to throw a hundred-plus pitches?
CLAYTON KERSHAW: Sure, yeah. Yeah, I'm not going in with any restrictions or -- yeah, there's no -- no excuses at this point. So we're just going in trying to get a win.

Q. So no matter what happens the rest of this month, that Game 5 performance is something that all of us are going to be talking about for a long time. For you personally, what keepsakes, either physical keepsakes or memories that occurred that night, will you carry with you, do you think, forever?
CLAYTON KERSHAW: Yeah, I'm thankful that it happened, thankful that we got to do it, and it was a lot of fun. Just crazy just two nights ago. But Charlie Culberson saw the ball lying on the ground, so I got my first save ball, which is pretty cool. But as far as reflecting on it or anything like that, it's just -- you just can't do it right now. It doesn't really matter at this point. I know the Cubs don't care. They know that we're trying to beat them just as bad as they're trying to beat us, and that's what we're focused on right now.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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