AL WILD CARD SERIES: RANGERS VS RAYS

October 3, 2023

Zach Eflin

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame Press Conference

Q. How do you think last year's experience being through a postseason will help you this year, and where do you think it will help you?

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah, obviously it prepares you. We had such a great postseason last year, getting in by one game and going on that magical run. It kind of just gave me the experience of knowing what it takes to make a deep run and how collective of a unit you need to be able to make a big run.

I believe that's something that we have here. We've had so many injuries, and a lot of people go down, but it's been the chemistry and the collectiveness that has kept us going and kept us winning games, so it's going to be huge for us in the playoffs to continue that.

Q. Do you view the postseason as a bigger stage or are you one of those guys who tries not to treat it differently, and how is your mentality for what will be a pretty cool opportunity tomorrow?

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah, it's clearly a bigger stage, but I'm not necessarily one to overthink or get overanxious about really anything.

I have different definitions of anxiety and stress, so it's always been so much fun for me just experiencing that last year and all the crowds and the energy, and it really just fuels the fire for you.

It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a lot of fun for the young guys, too, experiencing this for the first time. I think the thing that's special about our team is nobody really takes it too seriously. Like we have our agenda of what we need to do to win baseball games, and we stick to that and we don't really overthink or overexpand or try and throw too hard. We do the little things right. We're excited for the run.

Q. I'm curious, given all the injuries this rotation dealt with, how proud are you of the workload you were able to take on this season and how are you feeling physically?

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah, obviously heartbreaking losing all those guys, but we've had people step up and fill their roles.

I think I had 70-something innings last year, and coming into this year I threw like 177.

I'm really ecstatic that I was able to stay healthy for as long as I did this year. Not saying that I didn't believe in myself, but just being able to go out there and pitch every fifth day and do everything I need to do to be prepared for that fifth day. So it's been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot, and I look forward to continuing that and being a factor next year, too.

Q. What do you remember as a kid about the Rays playoff runs that you may have rooted for? Did you come to any games, and what was that like for you as a fan? Also, what was this round like for you last year in terms of just the immediacy of a two-out-of-three kind of series?

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah. I remember most of that '08 run when, what was it, Dan Johnson hit the game-tying homer, and then Longo came up and hit the walk-off. I remember watching the Red Sox game and hoping that Papelbon was going to blow it so the Rays could come back. I'm pretty sure the Rays were down 7-0 early in the game and ultimately came back and ended up winning it.

I remember a good amount in that run, then being traded over to the Phillies and hearing about the '80 World Series and stuff like that. It was just a magical run for the Rays and was a big part of my childhood.

What was your second question?

Q. Just about what this round is like for players, two out of three, the immediacy of it.

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah, it's a sprint. I was in this position last year when we went to St. Louis in the Wild Card series, and it's a full-on sprint. You've got to throw everything at it and hopefully win in two. That's the goal.

But it's going to be a fun series. Texas is a really good team. It's going to be an awesome matchup for us, and we're looking forward to it.

Q. You haven't faced Texas at all this year. Preparing for a playoff game, is it better for you to have faced them in the regular season so you kind of have a feel, or do you take from what someone like Glas or Civale or someone else that's faced the Rangers and work that into how you throw?

ZACH EFLIN: Yeah, it goes both ways. It really depends on what kind of pitcher you are. For me personally I like going out there with simple goals, execute, get ahead of guys, get weak contact, so we have a really good game plan going into tomorrow, and take it like that.

Q. Going back to your memory bank as a kid here, and then when you signed here, you talked about that. Is this kind of what you had hoped and expected when you signed here, that you would be sitting here talking about pitching in a postseason game at Tropicana Field?

ZACH EFLIN: Absolutely. That was probably my biggest goal this offseason was to sign with a team that wins consistently in the playoffs, and it just helped that I grew up a really big Rays fan, and I live two hours away.

This is exactly the scenario that I wanted to be in. I'm really happy with everybody on the team and all the perseverance that we've had this year to get to this point. Like I said, we're really excited, really stoked to get going.