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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RED SOX

October 6, 2018

Steven Wright

Boston, Massachusetts - pregame 2

STEVEN WRIGHT: We saw last night, I mean, we're never out of the fight, and it's fun to watch. It sucks not being able to go in there and help them, and be a part of it, but I have every confidence in our ability to do it as a combined team from starters and relievers. And it's the playoffs, you know, crazy things happen in the playoffs. You saw last night, you see with other games going on. You never know what to expect. But we're all ready for the grind.

Q. Steven, you've been a very successful starter and obviously this past month in September you were very successful reliever. In that respect did you have any insight to offer to Rick or even to Eduardo about the process of transitioning into the bullpen?
STEVEN WRIGHT: Not really. I mean, me and Eddie talked a little bit. Yesterday I think with Rick I think it was kind of thrown on him kind of last minute because of what happened with me. He's a veteran, man. He knows what to do. He knows how to get himself prepared in any situation.

And we know as pitchers when it comes to the playoffs, roles are kind of obsolete. It doesn't matter what your role is. Sale started but as far as that, everybody else is available. Maybe not DP but everybody else is hands on deck, because it's about winning today worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

As far as Eddie, everyone talked to him when he came down. He came down earlier a couple of weeks ago and he came out of the bullpen in the regular season, and we just -- for me my biggest advice is telling him, you have to figure out a way to keep your body going, so when the phone rings, you're already mentally locked in. Physically you can get ready. It's the mental side of not having all day or four days to get ready to pitch out of the bullpen.

And I mean, the same thing with Rick. He's a grinder. He's a competitor. And it's one of those things. Like you do it once, you figure it out. After that you kind of know what to expect. The experience kicks in and then you -- but you still have to go out there and compete. You still have to throw strikes, you still have to grind out at-bats, pitch to pitch. He's been doing a great job.

Q. Has it gotten any better? Can you move around now? Was it a real scramble to get the MRI yesterday? Physically what has it been like since it happened?
STEVEN WRIGHT: It wasn't a scramble at all. The doctor looked me over, he was like -- we set up an MRI within 30 minutes. We had time to go over there to MGH to get it.

It feels all right. It just feels stiff right now. It's a weird feeling. That's the hardest thing to explain to people is the feeling of it, because sometimes it feels stiff. Even when I was pitching well, there's days where it's just a little bit stiffer.

But as far as there's no pain. And that's kind of what kept us going was we can monitor stiffness and kind of get things out. But now it's just a different feeling. It's like there's certain movements where it's just a little sharper, and that's what we have to get answers to is why. Why all of a sudden do you go from having a little bit of stiffness on a day-to-day basis to now we have pain, to figure out what happened, how it happened, why it happened. I mean, it's something that is tough. Lost a lot of sleep last night playing the "what if" question. What if I had done this and why -- what if we did this different.

There's nothing we could have done different because we were ultra-conservative the second time going through the rehab process and come back. They monitored everything I did. From pitches thrown to playing catch to workload, running. I mean, everything was monitored to make sure that we were staying on a clean line to where nothing was spiking. Pitch two games in a row, two days off, it was always this plan. Very good strategy. We still don't know what we're doing but taking all the information to try to make sure that everything was being as conservative as possible. And then all of a sudden it starts hurting.

So I think that's the hardest thing. As you sit there and you play the "what if" question. But at the same time it's like you can't walk on eggshells. You have to stay aggressive. That's what we did and it's unfortunate.

Q. Steven, I apologize if you said this, but you said the MRI showed something. What exactly did it show? Do you know?
STEVEN WRIGHT: Honestly, that's what we're going to go try to find out. It showed something. There's definitely some loose bodies in there, but you know Dr. Asnis is a great knee surgeon, but he doesn't deal with these surgeries. And so that's why we're going to see Reilly, because that's his specialty. So we're going to try to figure out what exactly is going on.

There's definitely something going on as far as loose bodies and there might be something else. But you know, Asnis told me this morning that's not his specialty. He doesn't do these type of surgeries, which is humbling for him to say because he's a great surgeon with knees. He's the one who recommended we need to go see Reilly to make sure that whatever I'm seeing is kind of what he's seeing, and after that we'll have a game plan on what the next step will be after that.

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