AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 14, 2022

Lance McCullers

T-Mobile Park

Houston Astros

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for Lance.

Q. If I counted right, this will be your eighth appearance in a playoff game where the Astros are a win away from clinching a series. I guess what excites you about that and what do you think makes you such a good big game pitcher, a guy that can rise to the occasion in situations like this?

LANCE MCCULLERS: I don't know, I think these are the moments you want to be in, as a team, as an individual. We put a lot of hard work, beyond the start of spring, but of course spring training forward. These are the moments you want to find yourself in.

So I really enjoy these moments. I think pitching in big games is it's an honor, it's a privilege, it's something that you grow up as a little kid dreaming to do. So I got no doubt it will be rocking tomorrow. But I'm excited to feel the energy and go out there and give it my all.

Q. I don't know if you read or heard what Dusty said about you last week. He said he felt like if they had had you in the postseason last year they might be world champions now from last year. What does something like that mean to you?

LANCE MCCULLERS: A little bittersweet. It makes me a little sad. But really nice words and thoughtful words from someone that myself and baseball in general has just such a high admiration for and a lot of respect for what Dusty's done in this game. He's a baseball lifer. He's a heck of a manager. We're lucky to have him.

But you don't want to take too much credit away from Atlanta, what they were able to do. They had a great team. But I was throwing the ball well and I felt like I was coming into my own last year and, unfortunately, didn't get to see the story all the way through.

But I'm happy to be back and happy to be in a position where I can continue to pitch for this organization in particular and in big postseason games.

Q. Given the uncertainty with which you entered spring training, not knowing how much you would pitch this year or whether you would be able to. You have allowed yourself at all to reflect about the endurance and kind of what you went through to get here and now being on this stage, given what it was like in March when you didn't know?

LANCE MCCULLERS: Just very grateful, really. Like you said, I think you put it well, the question marks were large in spring training for sure, and then even through the season, we got to almost a point in June where we didn't really know. It was like, do we just throw the towel in and we just have surgery and keep kind of pushing through with the rehab because we didn't want to sacrifice the following season.

But I have a heck of a rehab staff here, Jeremiah, what he's been able to do. He's our head athletic trainer. The strength staff here, they have just been really supportive of me, done a great job with me. I have a great support system.

To be able to make it back and to be able to make it back and keep pitching well, I mean, I don't want to just be out there and giving up balls all over the park. So I'm very grateful and being able to pitch in these moments I think is kind of what you were talking about, where those are the times where you're just trying to reflect. You're like, wow, I got to make it back here and could be sitting in a sling right now.

But we're out here with our cleats in the dirt. So, yeah, it's been a weird journey this year, but we made it back and feeling good with where I'm at today.

Q. Is this sort of a full-circle moment getting the ball back in the ALDS, chance to clinch? That's where you were last year when you got injured and sort of the same situation.

LANCE MCCULLERS: Baseball players are superstitious beings, so I don't like too many parallels drawn. But we'll go out there tomorrow and we'll give it our all.

Q. Chandler talked about the pitching in clinch situations. I think you were 21 when you first threw in the postseason. You've had so many opportunities to pitch in front of that crowd at Minute Maid Park. Tomorrow, here it's the first time in 21 years they get a home game. Does it make you appreciate what we're seeing in Houston with all those home games through these years?

LANCE MCCULLERS: Yeah, actually, I believe I threw the first game at home in 2015. We had played two in Kansas City before the game at home. So it was a 10-year streak for us when we came back to Minute Maid and we've had a lot of amazing postseason moments in that building and as an organization since our playoff drought, so to speak, kind of came to an end and we've been on this run.

So I know kind of firsthand as a player what it feels like as being able to have a fan base back kind of in the building and in big postseason moments. So I'm sure it will be amped up. I'm sure that the crowd will be rowdy, ready to go. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to -- I'm a baseball player but I'm a baseball fan. It was kind of very similar last year in Atlanta. I grew up watching all those amazing runs that they made in the '90s, early 2000s. And I made a remark on one of the broadcasts that I was doing about how cool it was just as a baseball fan to see the Braves being in action and see their fans so into the game because I'm a fan of the game and I want the game to grow and I want people to love the game.

So moments like these where the fans get to come back out and watch postseason baseball for an organization that hasn't been there in a while I think is really cool.

Q. You and Bregman, Altuve, you guys have been through this a lot now, 50, 60, 70 games, seven years in the playoffs. But some of these guys, like David Hensley, I mean, everything is new for him, and he's enjoying this for the first time experiencing that. What's it like when you're able to kind of get some new guys in and specifically Hensley and he can be a part of this, contribute, and really just enjoy everything about the first time being in the playoffs?

LANCE MCCULLERS: Yeah, I mean, we do have a quite a bit of first-time guys. We have Hensley, obviously Peña, and those two guys right there alone have been at the front end of the rally in Game 1 and the rally in Game 2, just absolutely putting up fantastic at-bats.

We have Neris, who it feels like, he's been around for so long, he's never had the opportunity to play in the postseason, comes in his first postseason opportunity, bases loaded, two outs. I believe he got the win. So just really cool still to be able to see guys, even though we do have a lot of guys that have been here and have done so many amazing things in the postseason, it's great to see guys, whether they're new to the team or they have been around for a long time, experience those first postseason moments. So hopefully they get to experience more.

Q. You talked about that start against the Royals. Obviously we know what you did against the Yankees in 2017. How much different of a pitcher are you now than you were in those first few outings in the playoffs?

LANCE MCCULLERS: Oh, man, I've probably have gone through three or four different pitching life cycles. I joke with Verlander a lot and some other guys. I've been a four-seam curveball guy. I've been sometimes a lower velocity changeup curve. Kiko used to mess around with me, call me Tim Hudson.

And now I'm more of a sinker, slider. I'm more of a complete pitcher now, I would say. But yeah, just because of the way the baseball art goes and how things come and go in the game and trends and injuries and things of that nature, I've had to become a lot different pitchers in my career to continue to grow.

So I'm night and day from that guy who stepped on the mound at Minute Maid when I was 21 for our first postseason game back, I'm way different than even 2017. Like I said, it's really just, I know I keep saying it, but to be able to be back and be pitching in October on a great team kind of coming just off the injuries the last few years, never truly been able to break through and just kind of be able to take a deep breath and not have to go through rehab, I'm just really grateful.