NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 14, 2022

Joe Musgrove

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Joe, as soon as you guys won that second game in LA, I'm sure you're looking at your outing and saying, man, this is going to be a clinch opportunity for us or do-or-die situation, and it seems so appropriate that you would get that start. Your thoughts of how excited you are to be that guy once again?

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, really excited once we won that first, kind of guarantees me an opportunity to throw and to throw in Petco.

I know the fans are all extremely excited about this. As a team we're definitely at the maximum level of excitement. The energy is going to be high, and I'm excited that I get the opportunity to somewhat decide our fate one way or another.

Q. The outing that you had in New York, it was a do-or-die situation. How much did just getting that experience under your belt of your first postseason start maybe help tomorrow?

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, I think it'll help settle the nerves a little bit. By no means am I going out there expecting to go seven with one hit again. It's a little bit different of a lineup. I know they're very patient. We've seen them enough now; they've seen me enough to know what the attack plan is here now. It's just going to come down to execution and being a little bit unpredictable.

Yeah, I expect them to get a few runners on base. I know they like to run. They've got some guys in there that can steal bases, and obviously they handled that pretty well throughout the course of the season. I think Nola threw out the first guy that we've gotten all year against them up in LA.

We've thought about that. We've kind of created a game plan to manage that. But yeah, it's going to come down to making big pitches in big moments throughout the game. And I think that outing in New York, a high-leverage moment and crazy atmosphere and big market like New York, I think that'll pay off a little bit come tomorrow.

Q. In the games that you've been able to watch from the dugout, what have you seen from your team that maybe has been different or better than the regular season?

JOE MUSGROVE: You know, I don't know if it's the game that brings it out or the moment that brings it out, but the amount of focus that we're putting into every single play, every pitch on both sides of the ball is the best it's been all year.

I think you're seeing a little bit less selfishness. And not to say that there was times in the year where you need to lay down a bunt and sacrifice an at-bat, but in the playoffs, especially in that New York series, you saw a couple times -- I think Nola pushed the guy over to second, and we ended up scoring him; Soto gives up an at-bat, a guy that we brought on here to hit home runs and to drive guys in is sacrificing an at-bat to get a guy over, knowing who he's got hitting behind him; Manny hits a ball in the gap and scores, I think, Profar, whoever it was, from second base.

Just really good baseball all around. Some of our guys that weren't big producers during the season are stepping up big and getting the job done in the postseason.

I think you're just seeing a group of guys that can elevate and rise up to the big moments. There's going to be a lot of big ones coming up, not only in the first couple days but whatever happens after that.

Q. What have you learned over the first two years? What have you learned pitching against the Dodgers?

JOE MUSGROVE: It's a dangerous lineup. They have a lot of power in that lineup, a lot of guys that can change the score in one swing. So there's always that threat.

But with that comes a lot of opportunities to control the count. Those guys are going to be patient. They're going to sit in their zone until they get in a two-strike count, and then they'll expand a little bit.

I think for all of our starters, especially for Blake tonight, it's going to be about getting strike one. This lineup and this team turns into a completely different threat when you're ahead in the count and controlling the count as opposed to falling behind 1-0, 2-0 and having to work back in. It allows them to see a lot more pitches and ultimately do more damage on you the third time around having seen 10-plus pitches in those first two at-bats.

It's going to be about attacking the zone, being aggressive, not being afraid to challenge them in the zone. There's a lot of guys in this lineup that don't chase heavily, but they'll give you strikes on the edges. So you've got to be fine with your pitches but be willing to make some chances.

That's where you kind of hope that you get a lead early in the game. It allows you to go out there and be a little more free with taking those chances as opposed to being in a 0-0 game where that one homer might hurt you.

Q. Jake Peavy was pretty outspoken in defense of you about what happened on Sunday against the Mets, and he's going to throw out the first pitch tomorrow. What does it mean for a guy to have that kind of respect for you?

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, it's pretty cool to have the support of -- there's a lot of guys that -- I saw Mike Lowell stepped up to defend me, Ripken, a lot of those guys on that network really had my back in that situation. Those are all guys that have played the game and been around. I don't know how much baseball Brian Kenny has played, and I feel like I take the opinion of those other guys a lot more than his.

Yeah, it was a little bit hurtful what he said, but to have a guy like Jake stand up for me and a guy that's pitched in those moments and knows what that's like and knows how certain moments can elevate you to a certain level, the same way I'm sure that Brian gets when he goes on TV, it's a lot different. You elevate and you rise to the moment, and it was nice to have a guy like Peavy have my back, especially with the connection I've had.

Q. Has that soured your playoff run so far, what happened there on Sunday? Has it taken it down a notch?

JOE MUSGROVE: No, the guys in the clubhouse and the guys that I'm playing for, they all know what it was. They believe me, they trust me, they know what it takes to perform in those moments. That's the ultimate thing that I want is the respect and trust of those guys.

The outside world is going to have their opinions one way or another, so I've kind of moved past it. I'm not really hanging on it too much.

Q. I would like to know what were your thoughts about the umpires when they went to check your ears the other day.

JOE MUSGROVE: I don't know. Not much thought really. It kind of surprised me for a minute, but at that point in the game, I'm six innings in, I'm so focused and I know I'm coming up on the end of the line within the next inning or two.

I saw it as a chance for them to try to throw me out of rhythm. So I really try not to get too emotionally involved and attached in that moment and let them do their check. I know they're not going to find anything, let them do their check, let it pass and get right back to work.

At that point in the game I felt so confident and I was so dialed in, they were not going to hit me that night, and I think that check kind of motivated me a little bit more and pushed me a little bit. And I think my spin rates and everything went up even more after the check. It really fired me up to finish off the outing and kind of stick it to them.

Q. There has been a lot of noise around that, and I know you said you saw the opinions of some guys. How have you managed to tune out that noise, or have you?

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, you can't completely eliminate it. Everyone has got feelings and emotions, and I was pretty offended and hurt by him going on the biggest platform in baseball in MLB Network and spewing the things that he did, especially without the evidence and proof that he had. It was more so the passion in his voice and the drive and determination to win his side of the argument when he didn't really have much to stand on.

That bothered me, but you can't get attached to it. As much as it offended me, I'm moving past it. That was one outing, and I've got a bigger task in front of me right now tomorrow. Trying to remove those emotions and just focus purely on the task at hand is what I'm trying to do best.

Q. In New York you said you embraced the moment. Tomorrow will be even bigger, I assume, given the situation.

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah.

Q. Embrace it? How do you temper your emotions tomorrow?

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, it's a different atmosphere. Being on the road, you can try to act as if the cheers and the loud noise is for you, but you know it's not. You hear all the comments and the things that fans are screaming.

Tomorrow I know it's going to be a lot of positive cheers and a lot of screaming for me and the team. It's probably going to be a little bit more emotional, so that will be something I'll have to manage, but that's stuff I'm going to make myself really aware of tonight when I'm prepping and getting ready for the start tomorrow, is going over any situation, the excitement, the joy, the struggle, whatever it might be that I'll encounter, I feel like I'll be ready for it.

Q. Have you had a chance to meet Jake or talk to Jake over the years?

JOE MUSGROVE: No, no, I haven't. I think we've probably exchanged a few messages through somebody else, but I haven't gotten to sit down and talk with him and visit, but I'm thinking that he'll be around today or tomorrow maybe, so hopefully I get a chance to say "what's up" to him.

Q. I asked you this the other night, but maybe a couple more days' recollection. Do you remember where you were, what you were doing the last time the Padres were in the playoffs or what the city was like or anything like that? I think you may have been 12 or 13 at the time.

JOE MUSGROVE: No, I was pretty young at the time, and at 12 years old I had a lot of things going on I was interested in, so I don't even know how extremely passionate I was. I know I was excited about the Padres being in the playoffs, and I more remember celebrating moment with my dad at home watching the game than I remember what the jitter and the excitement and the noise was about around the city.

Q. I wonder if you have any vague recollection of the first time and how old you were when you yelled "beat LA" and whether the city can get behind that whether they follow the Padres closely or not.

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, I remember at Qualcomm I had -- I think it was a Dodgers series, but Phil Nevin was hitting BP, and I had gone in early with one of my buddies to watch batting practice. My parents had walked me in, got me situated, and then I think somebody ran back to the car to grab the rest of the people and come in, so we were sitting in the outfield watching BP.

Nevin hits a ball in the cup holder a few rows to my left, and me and this other kid are staring at it from side to side, and we're both waiting for someone to make the first move. It was like a mad dash to get to the ball. I think I got to it first. He tried to pull it out of my hand. We ended up getting in this little tussle, and I punched the kid. I think it might have been the first kid I ever punched. (Laughter.)

I punched the kid, and I kind of looked at him like, oh, my gosh, what did I just do. I got booted out by one of the security guards. I think that was my first Dodger game was getting kicked out.

I was able to come back in with my parents and whatnot, but he wasn't too happy about us getting into it. No one had parents around, either, so just two kids fighting in the outfield.