AL DIVISION SERIES: GUARDIANS VS YANKEES

October 15, 2022

Cal Quantrill

Progressive Field

Cleveland Guardians

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Cal, first of all, what were your emotions like watching the game yesterday and is that kind of what you guys dream about when you dream about postseason baseball?

CAL QUANTRILL: Yeah, I mean, it was a wild one. I don't think we dream of winning in extras. We'd like it to be a little easier than that, but that's postseason baseball. And obviously it's been two pretty exciting games now, extra-inning games. Continue to find any way we can to win a baseball game.

Q. I know you've been asked some version of this a hundred times before. What is it about this building that's so comfortable for you?

CAL QUANTRILL: I like the routine that we've built here. You know, I think that it can be easier to prepare at home. Doesn't have to be.

I think some of it's probably a little bit of randomness, but I do enjoy pitching here. Like I said, I just enjoy the routine of working here and preparing and, you know, things have gone well.

Q. Cal, last week, you were saying the team is going to stick to who you are and be who you are throughout the postseason. Easier said than done. Was there a genuine comfort yesterday during that game, knowing that if you guys kind of just stick to the plan, good things are going happen?

CAL QUANTRILL: Yeah. I do believe we've played our baseball so far. We would have liked to do a couple things better in the first game, myself included. But I think for the most part, we've done what we said we were going to do.

We know there's a good chance we'd play tight baseball games. I think the guys have performed exceptionally under pressure late in games. Our bullpen has been special, and we've really stuck to the plan.

I think we're still playing a fast game, difficult to defend, a leadoff bunt. We're doing things the right way. We haven't changed and I'm super proud of all our guys for doing that.

Q. I'm just curious, before you started this home streak, were you a superstitious guy?

CAL QUANTRILL: Not particularly. Or I don't -- at least relative to my peers, I would not say I'm a superstitious player. I still try not to be. I feel like this one's getting forced on me a little bit.

But, yeah, I guess -- part of playing this many games in a year, there's naturally some rhythm that gets created, and then I think we start turning that rhythm into superstition.

Q. Judging from the crowd for the last series, how crazy are you just expecting these next two days to be?

CAL QUANTRILL: I think it's going to be great. This is a sport town. I think they love their teams, and we expect Progressive Field to be packed and loud.

Q. You'll be pitching in an elimination game tomorrow. Do you have any idea how your emotions or mindset or anything like that might change depending on whether you're up 2-1 or down 2-1?

CAL QUANTRILL: I think you probably feel those things in the moment a little bit, just like the first game. That being said, the preparation doesn't change. How I want to be ready to go tomorrow doesn't change, whether we win tonight or not.

And in the end, you leave it all out on the field. In a regular season game too. Nothing really changes. All of the extra is just perceived. It's written down. It's in the media. It's made up. It's just another game. Yes, it has consequences, but so does every game leading up to this moment.

I'll be prepared and I'm sure that there will be a little extra pressure and I'm sure it will be exciting and the fans will be loud. That's stuff we look forward to. That's why we play this game. I'm thankful for the opportunity and I'm going to go out there and do my best.

Q. With so much delay between Games 1 and 2, and now all these games scrunched together, does it kind of put everybody in a situation where you're just kind of reacting, don't really have time to think about too much?

CAL QUANTRILL: Yeah, I feel like we've kind of dealt with this a little bit all season. We've been -- I don't know this to be true, but I have a hard time believing anybody got rained out more than we did this year. We played a lot of doubleheaders, a lot of stretch of games in a short amount of time, then we'd miss two days. It is what it is. We can't control the weather. We're playing in two stadiums without domes.

I like to think this is -- you can choose to look at anything advantageous or disadvantageous. I'm saying we're young, we're excited. We don't care if we have to play four games in four days. We're ready to rumble. Hopefully the weather holds off. We'll play through if we have to.

Q. Cal, can you compare this to facing a team in back-to-back series, or is this a little more intensified? Obviously, a little more intensified, but due to such a short time frame.

CAL QUANTRILL: Yeah. I know the schedule, how we schedule games is changing a little bit next year. For most of us, but we have -- at some point in your career, you face a team twice in a row, just due to scheduling or how the rotation lines up.

I don't put too much stock into it. I think that that's a professional team over there. I'm sure they've watched hours and hours of me throwing a baseball. I wasn't going to surprise them with anything in Game 1, and I'm unlikely to surprise them with a new pitch in Game 4 either.

So I think, if anything, you just learn -- both sides learn. I learned from the first game, you know, what worked, what didn't work, what I want to try to do better. They do the same and it's kind of a little bit of a chess game back and forth.

But I don't read into it too, too much. If you play in the same division as a team, there's a chance you face them four or five times in a season, right? This is no different. I guess it's a little bit of a shortened window, but they'll have seen five, six, seven pitchers between me anyways.

Q. You kind of just answered it, Cal. You mentioned a lot of, like, sticking to the plan and having seen these hitters recently, that your plan of attack doesn't really change much, seems like you're saying. You're going to mostly stick to what you've been doing already.

CAL QUANTRILL: Yeah. I mean, I'd love to tell you I have this whole second version of myself I could just throw at them, and it's so nasty and it will be great. I do my best every time. I throw all my best pitches. So I'm going to throw those same pitches again.

Obviously, we'll watch video. We'll see if we felt like there was something that was working better than another. But in the end, Hedgy and Maile and myself, we're playing it as we see it. Sometimes one pitch is working better that day and one pitch isn't. But we're not going to try to drastically change just because they've seen you before.

You have to believe that if you do your job and you execute well, that it should work.