NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 10, 2022

Mike Clevinger

Dodger Stadium

San Diego Padres

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Hey, Mike, has it occurred to you that this is what you were brought in to do in 2020, was to --

MIKE CLEVINGER: I feel like that's kind of been the mantra for the last few weeks of the season, so yeah. I like it.

Q. How are you feeling about that? Like finally getting this opportunity healthy.

MIKE CLEVINGER: Yeah, it's been a long time coming. I know 2020 was -- we tried to almost tape my arm together to get me out there, and it just didn't last. It will be good to go out there with a fresh and healthy arm.

Q. How would you describe your season this year, all the things that have happened?

MIKE CLEVINGER: A roller coaster. Ups and downs. There's some mild injuries. There was illnesses. It's just good to finally be here and be in this environment right now.

Q. Mike, you mentioned two years ago, this was the first game of the NLDS against the Dodgers, and you're doing everything you can to try to get through that game, and you come out. It's kind of -- have you thought much about full cycle here? Here we are with another opportunity to do that again, and now are you healthy to sort of redemption-type time?

MIKE CLEVINGER: It's definitely felt that way. I knew I had my back against the wall last time, and didn't know how long I was able to last.

These are the moments you dream of when you are sitting in the offseason, that a year and a half ahead to just rehab this elbow. It's for this opportunity right here.

Q. You've thrown the ball pretty well the last three outings. Seemed like you got yourself in a nice rhythm and got some stuff going. With the time off with the illness, are you still feeling like you've got what you had towards the back end of the season?

MIKE CLEVINGER: Yeah. I feel like it's -- that was a good little rest. I think that might have been even necessary. I think it did me more benefit than it would hurt me.

Q. The outings against the Dodgers this year didn't go as you would have liked. Were those outings where just didn't have your stuff going into them and you were battling, or are they outings where you had your stuff and didn't make the pitches that you wanted to? Is there anything to be learned out of those outings?

MIKE CLEVINGER: It was a combination of both. You can look back at both outings. Even the one here, you get that slider down to Muncy in the 6th inning with one run, or whatever it was, and then -- kind of seemingly it's been like one mistake, and they're a team that's -- they capitalize on any mistakes. They don't miss those. They kind of put a spotlight on those mistakes, I guess you could say.

But I felt like I had good stuff against them the last couple of times.

Q. I know a couple of starts ago you were dealing with some stuff, maybe it was your knee, and you said you kind of overhauled training, your between starts, what you did with the training staff and that kind of thing. Have you kind of kept on that progression generally, and how much has that -- your kind of new between-starts routine helped you?

MIKE CLEVINGER: It's been a lot of different therapeutic resources we've used on this knee, but yeah, I feel like I'm in a good spot, and I feel like we've been maintaining the same exact -- once that one kind of week plan worked, it was let's mimic that the best we can and tinker with it, whatever may be needed.

Q. When you were rehabbing, you said like this is obviously the goal, did you put yourself in the frame of mind that -- of this -- maybe this exact situation?

MIKE CLEVINGER: Yeah, I feel like I almost knew before the season that if we were going to go in the postseason, we were going to have to get through the Dodgers to advance further in the postseason. So I think we all kind of had that idea in our head.

Q. Not to kind of belabor the 2022 start, but can you kind of take us back through -- you said you were kind of piecing things together, like you weren't sure where your arm was but you wanted to go it. What do you remember going into that start and how badly you wanted it? Do you think in hindsight maybe you pushed it too much there, or did you just really want it that bad?

MIKE CLEVINGER: It was both. I don't think I pushed it too much because nothing worse came out of it. It was just a high-risk, high-reward kind of scenario.

We knew going into it I had a torn UCL. I opted to pitch. So it was almost like how can we figure out a way to pitch? It was different things. Working with different guys in the weight room and then really almost had my arm taped into this spot.

I was able to go out there, and I threw a bullpen, and my bullpen was electric a couple of days before that. And after that, that's when I literally beelined it over to A.J.: A.J., I'm taking the ball Game 1 if you will give it to you. I felt very confident that I was going to be okay.

Looking back, not saying I that would have lasted much longer, but even going back and looking at the video, it was that second pitch to Seager, and I threw a changeup, and my elbow comes down and hits the inside of my knee on that changeup.

And it was after that, it was like my stuff ticked down, and then once we went back in the dugout and tried to do our oil change where I was putting the Marc Pro on, trying to pump the arm, it was like I went back out there, and it was like first pitch with Bellinger was 89 and almost at his head, and then next slider in the dirt, and it grabbed. That's when I knew it was like, all right, it ran its course.

Q. In hindsight, that was obviously a division series start. You're comfortable with kind of the decision you made to really try and push it there?

MIKE CLEVINGER: Yeah. This is what it's about. This is -- regular seasons -- it means a lot to get here, but this is like everything you play for.

Q. Heading into that series against New York, there was a lot of talk about Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, and then you see what you did on Friday night, what Joe did on Sunday. What do you feel like those performances say about the potential of this rotation, this group as a whole, and what you guys could do here in the deeper parts of the postseason?

MIKE CLEVINGER: I think it says a lot about the team we actually have. You get to see it kind of come together on both sides of the field, and I felt like that's where in a lot of the season.

We had a great season, a lot of wins. I feel like we had a lot -- everyone I think feels like we had a lot more potential in that locker room.

It was just one side of the field was working; the other side of the field was working. Then when you see it finally come together, and that's what I've been saying about the squad the whole time. The resilience. The dropping three to teams we should have beat and then coming back and beating another team in a three-game set.

That's what's carried over, and I think that's what even got us going into the series. We knew who was on the other side of the field, but it was just another day for us at the park.

Q. You get pretty amped for a start in May. Your recollections of 2018, your start in the DS for the Indians at the time, more amped?

MIKE CLEVINGER: This is a totally different animal, and I think I learned something in that one going into it trying to almost pretend it's another day, pretend it's like another start, and then it was impossible to ignore the magnitude of that game.

I think the more I kind of accepted the challenge and accepted the fear that you are going to have in wanting success and dancing with that, it was I think how I'm going to handle this next start. It's understanding the magnitude of it and not denying that it's a huge, huge game for the Padres and myself included.

Q. I know that you came from the second Tommy John surgery. Everyone say it's not easy from coming back from second one. But, anyway, you came back. When you look back at the rehab process, what was the biggest challenge, and how did you overcome it?

MIKE CLEVINGER: To be completely honest, this process was a lot smoother than my first Tommy John nine years ago. I think the biggest process was the mental hurdle of trying not to look at statistics, trying not to listen to the outside voices, and understanding that this is -- I'm my own person. There's guys that came out of this.

I think the biggest was the fear of not being able to throw or not have my stuff again. I think once I got to throwing and seeing like, oh, I'm still me, that's when it all started clicking.

As far as the process and the rehab, it was light-years better than my first one. It took me probably a year and a half, if not longer, to get back to seeing any kind of the same potential I had before Tommy John. And this kind of has been a roller coaster, but I can have a lot more feel for what's going on right now.