	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 DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS INDIANS

October 10, 2017

Corey Kluber

Cleveland, Ohio - Workout Day

Q. Corey, how do you think pitching Game 7 in the World Series last year will help you -- or what do you draw from that going into Game 5 tomorrow?
COREY KLUBER: I think they're different years. I think that, to me, it's a game in the postseason. A lot of adrenaline, emotions are running high for both sides. Boils down to the loser goes home.

So I don't know if experience of last year's World Series will really make a difference or not. I think we'd take that approach regardless, either way.

Q. Is there anything in particular from Game 2 that you need to correct to pitch better tomorrow?
COREY KLUBER: Everything. I didn't pitch well, didn't have good command, didn't throw the ball where I wanted to. So that's kind of what it boils down to.

Q. Corey, both your team and the Yankees were good on the road in the regular season. So talk about why home field advantage has been such a difference in this playoff series.
COREY KLUBER: I mean, looking at a pretty small sample size. It's four games, so I don't know if you can necessarily consider that a trend or that it's been -- I mean, the home team has won every game so far. But I guess that's why you try to get home field advantage throughout the course of the year is to hopefully -- if it does come down to having a deciding game that you're able to play it at home.

Q. Corey, obviously, you've pitched in elimination games before. What's the difference between pitching in a game like that and pitching in any other kind of playoff scenario?
COREY KLUBER: There's the obvious that the winner advances and the loser goes home. I think aside from that, it's still the game of baseball. You've got to go out there and you've got to, as a pitcher, execute your pitches. And hitters are going to try to take advantage of your mistakes.

It boils down to it's still the same game, still 27 outs, all that kind of stuff. There's a little more, maybe, emotion, things like that. But when it comes down to it, it's still the same game.

Q. You've got really good numbers in starts after giving up four runs or more in your career. Is that a matter of just being able to implement things you identify, be it video or scouting or coaching tip, what have you?
COREY KLUBER: Probably. Hopefully, it shows that the four-plus ones are outliers too. But I think it's just identifying when things go wrong and trying to address what you need to do to correct them and then going about using those four days, or whatever it is, to address them and try to get things back on track.

Q. Corey, do you think a little too much was made over the last week about your routine, your rest, and all of that by maybe guys like us, and now you're just set to worry about what you need to worry about, coming up tomorrow?
COREY KLUBER: Yeah. I think that throughout the course of the year, there's numerous times where you're not on your regular five days. I mean, the beginning of the season, everything's jumbled up with all the off days, things get moved around.

At the All-Star break, the roster expanded in September, things can get moved around. There's numerous times where you're not always on that five days, so we're used to not being on our normal routine.

We do it enough to where we have ways to try to get ourselves to where we want to be that day we pitch, and I don't think that had anything to do with the last time I pitched. Like I said, I just didn't pitch well and I look to correct it tomorrow.

Q. With all you've accomplished this year in the regular season, how much importance is there just for you personally on tomorrow's game and that outcome just for yourself, for that accomplishment?
COREY KLUBER: Nothing for me personally. I mean, all that matters tomorrow is that we get a win as a team. That's the only goal in mind.

Q. If you don't get that win, does that kind of take away from what you did do during the regular season?
COREY KLUBER: I don't care if I get the win, as long as our team wins. That's really all I care about.

Q. Corey, you're different pitchers, but as you're sitting in the dugout, are you able to learn anything from your teammates, the way they attack the Yankee lineup? Are you able to pick up anything as you're watching?
COREY KLUBER: I think we do that constantly throughout the year. That's part of being a starting pitcher. The way we approach it is you get to pitch once every five games, but those other four games, you're learning, you're trying to pick up on tendencies, things like that.

We talk a lot amongst the starters about other teams and their lineups and maybe the way we want to attack them, what they're trying to do, things like that. So I think it's no different now. That's kind of the way we always go about it.

Q. Corey, after the season that you guys have had, at this point, win or lose tomorrow, is this still a success?
COREY KLUBER: I don't know if I can answer that now. I guess we're not looking at that big of a picture, at least in my mind at this point. We're just approaching it, trying to win tomorrow's ball game and trying to keep moving on.

Q. Is this something you relish, to be in this situation? I mean, you guys had a 2-0 lead. Now it's down to an elimination game for either team. I mean, is this something that you like to -- do you like to be in this situation when you're thinking about getting ready in Spring Training and thinking ahead? Is this something you savor?
COREY KLUBER: I mean, I think we would all have liked a lot more to have won the third game in New York and not be here in Game 5. But if you think about it, talking about Spring Training, every team wants to get to the postseason and that's where we are right now. This is what everybody plays for, to have a chance to play in October and move on. That's what we'll try to do tomorrow.

Q. Having lost the last three to the Cubs in the World Series and the last two to the Yankees, is that weighing on the team at all about the lack of ability to close out playoff series?
COREY KLUBER: I don't think so. We closed our first two playoff series last year pretty well. I guess that's the way it is, but I don't think it's weighing on guys. We haven't talked about it at all. Don't necessarily see guys trying too hard, anything like that. We just didn't play well enough to win the last two games.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297