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MLB WORLD SERIES: CUBS VS INDIANS

November 1, 2016

Corey Kluber

Cleveland, Ohio - Pregame 6

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Corey Kluber.

Q. The other night Kipnis was campaigning to make you a household name. I don't know if you heard what he said, but do you appreciate that? Did you give him grief? I'm sure it doesn't matter to you.
COREY KLUBER: Yeah, he tried to give me a hard time about it, I told him, "Don't waste your breath. It doesn't matter to me." It's nice to obviously hear your teammates say positive things about you. But I think that probably any of us would say that about any of the guys in the clubhouse.

Q. Back at the All-Star Game when the American League won and you got the victory, did you ever think that that win could lead to you pitching with home-field advantage in a Game 7 to win the World Series?
COREY KLUBER: No, I never connected those dots at that point in time. Obviously looking back now the American League did win the All-Star Game, so we have the opportunity to have home-field advantage in the World Series, which if it does get to a Game 7, then hopefully that works in our favor.

Q. Does it matter to you, do you get extra motivation? Are you more focused at home versus on the road?
COREY KLUBER: No. I think especially in this instance, if it were to be Game 7 of the World Series, I don't think you'd need any extra motivation, whether it be home or away.

Q. Your two-seamer obviously is a big, big pitch for you. When did you realize that that pitch would be so important to your arsenal? And what makes it, from your vantage point, what makes it so effective?
COREY KLUBER: I try not to be that deep about it. I try to just grab it and throw it. But I think probably once I finally started getting comfortable with it, I was in Columbus in Triple-A when I first started messing around with it, because just throwing four-seam fastballs wasn't going very well for me. So it was kind of almost a desperation thing. We had to try something different. And for whatever reason, the ball felt better in my hand that way, and it was just kind of something, a new pitch to kind of work at.

I don't know if I could say when it became comfortable, but I think it was just something that through repetition, it was just learning to command it, kind of figuring out how it was going to move, things like that.

Q. I guess the other night you were the first since Jose Rijo to win Games 1 and 4 in the World Series. And I wondered if you even know who he is, and can you at least appreciate the historical significance of that?
COREY KLUBER: I know he pitched for the Reds in the World Series. I'm guessing that's what it was. But as far as appreciating the historical significance, probably not. Those are things you'll probably look back on after the fact and not during the middle of it.

Q. Given this has been your first postseason experience, how valuable do you think this month has been for you just in terms of overall development even moving forward?
COREY KLUBER: I think first and foremost it's been a blast. I think that we've all really enjoyed ourselves. I think we can take a lot from the way we approached it, and not treating it more than just each game is another game and trying to go out and win that day. Not trying to look too far ahead or things like that. I think there's value to taking that approach throughout the course of a season, too.

Q. For years and years, the regular routine was to have starters pitch on three days' rest, and then in seven days it became four days. For you, what is the difference now that you've come back once on three days and might do it again tomorrow?
COREY KLUBER: I mean, I guess for me personally I spend a little more time doing the different methods of recovery and stuff like that that we have available to us.

But I still get in the same amount of work in between, it's just a little bit more condensed. I haven't, for me personally, I haven't found much of a difference yet in the way I feel when I go out there on three days' rest as opposed to four. And I don't know if that's just doing the extra recovery stuff to where you get as close to normal as you can possibly get. But that's really the only difference for me is spending more time trying to recover on those three days instead of having four days to do it.

Q. (No microphone).
COREY KLUBER: Just getting in the pools, trying to flush stuff out. Things like that. Nothing top secret.

Q. All season long you knew when you were going to pitch, and tomorrow obviously you don't know if you're going to pitch. So what is your mental frame thinking about tomorrow as of right now?
COREY KLUBER: I mean, doing all my work in between the last start, and if it gets to tomorrow, that start. In doing all my work it was the same trying to get myself prepared. I'll be rooting as hard as anybody for us to win tonight. But I think that my mindset was I'd rather be prepared and not have to pitch than try to will us to not get to a Game 7 and then not be ready when it comes.

Q. Did you have any particular pitcher you admired growing up? Either just the way they did it or that you tried to pat he were yourself after?
COREY KLUBER: Not anybody specifically. I think that I just generally liked watching baseball and watching good hitters, good pitchers, whatever it be. I think that I don't -- I don't know if I ever saw myself being one of those pitchers. But I never had one guy that I said, "I want to be like that."

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