AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 6, 2023

Justin Verlander

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Justin, how do you feel physically going into these playoffs compared to other years, considering you were out for the first month of the season?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: I feel pretty good right now. Most of this season's been a bit tough, kind of starting behind the eight ball with the injury and then trying to find my mechanics a lot of the year.

But it seems to have slowly gotten better and better, and last few outings I felt pretty good.

Q. Entering the playoffs this season, does it feel any different since you didn't start the season with the Astros? Is there anything similar to like whenever you first came here from the Tigers?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Not really. Not similar to that. It feels like I've been here -- it doesn't feel that different. It was really, obviously, a weird season, just going to New York for a few months and then coming right back. Best analogy that I've heard is I did a summer abroad. It's kind of funny. That's how it felt.

Obviously knowing most of the guys here as well as I do, when I came back in the locker room, it just felt like not much time had passed.

Q. Kind of following up on that, the circuitous route you took from this setting, this scene a year ago to where you got, is it gratifying? Satisfying? How would you describe the feeling?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: I don't know, hard to describe. It's been a journey, that's for sure. I'm just kind of always somebody who tries to gather as much information as I can and make an educated decision. Just kind of go with whatever happens.

Yeah, circuitous, nice word. Led me on quite the trip this season, but like I said, to find myself back here, funny how things shake out. I'm happy to be here, happy to have this opportunity, and just see what happens.

Q. How about the opportunity to be a Game 1 starter, again, to start the postseason?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Obviously honored. Dusty gives me the opportunity, obviously you want to get off on a good foot. I have the utmost faith in every guy in this locker room. You want to go out there and set the team off on a good foot, too.

Hopefully can rely on a lot of the experience I've had in the past and just go out there and do my job.

Q. You talk about that experience, Dusty said you probably -- you probably answer this every postseason. You're probably not scared, but you're nervous. Talk about -- is that a fair way to describe it? And what are those feelings, and how does your experience help?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: For sure. It kind of just starts building up, the anxiousness, nervousness. You know, you care, and when you care and you put this much time and effort into something and you don't know what's going to happen, what the outcome is going to be yet, obviously there's nerves there.

You want so greatly to be successful, not only for yourself, but for the city, for your teammates, for everybody. So if I wasn't nervous or anxious, something's wrong. I think that's where the experience comes in. You just kind of embrace it, use it, hopefully use it in the right way. And just understand what's happening. Like I understand my emotions. I can tell two days ago that, all right, things are starting to get a little more serious. I'm not as jovial around the locker room with guys and stuff. You just start to focus in a little bit more.

Then that all kind of subsides once I start playing catch, which is my favorite part, to get out there and go do what I do. But up until that moment, it just slowly builds and simmers until you're finally there.

Q. You had your highest fastball velo of the season average in your last start against the D'Backs. Are you saving some velo in the tank? At this point in your career, do you have a game plan that allows you to go deeper into October?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Not necessarily saving, no. It's just been a tough year for me. Last year seemed like one of those years where just kind of everything, you hit the ground running, everything goes well. You feel good from the beginning and don't have to tinker a lot.

This year was quite the opposite. Obviously started the season injured, and it was really difficult to find my mechanics all season long. You're just kind of always searching for something, which creates -- it's a hard scenario. It's not like I'm a golfer. I can't sit there and go take a thousand swings a day and come back the next day and do it again. My arm is kind of a natural motion. So I have to throw to find what I want, but you can't throw too much because you take some and you give some.

So that's been difficult. There's been times this year where I'm sure my pitching coaches from both the Mets and here would say I probably threw too much, but this is really the only way I know how to do things. Just kind of as things have started to settle a little bit, I've started to find some stuff mechanically that freed me up a little bit, particularly in this last start. I found something just kind of mobility-wise that freed up my body a little bit and allowed me -- I wasn't sure how it was going to work. I told a couple guys in the locker room that I thought I found something, and I always say that, so they would kind of joke with me.

But it seemed I did when the velocity jumped a little bit. Hopefully I can carry that into the postseason and through the postseason. We'll see.

Q. Justin, with embracing the nerves, did you have to learn to do that this time of the year? Was that something that only could come through experience to not let the routine get out of whack and things like that?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: I think you learn to do it your whole life. When you care about something, whatever it is, whether it's sports or a big test or whatever. You get nervous about things. If you put the time and effort in beforehand and you want to be successful, you're going to have those nerves.

Along the way, I've had good games. Whether it's a 12-year-old AAU game, in my life, at that time, that's the biggest game I ever pitched in. So you just kind of learn as you're going through it.

I think at this level, the feelings that I have internally, the emotions are no different than when I was younger. Now, as a more mature man, I've learned to deal with them a little bit better. I think you learn to embrace your routine. That helps a lot. I think the routine of things for me, and probably a lot of athletes, really helps kind of let your body kind of just be calm. It knows what it's doing. It knows the routine. You just kind of try to stay out of your own way.

Q. Tomorrow's your 13th Game 1 start in the Majors. How do you approach those when you have a chance to set the tone early in these short series?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: That's where the fear of the unknown comes in. You don't know how you're going to approach it. You come up with a game plan, and as the famous saying goes, the best laid plans. We'll see what happens. You just go out there and see what their approach is and try to adjust, and that's the chess match that's happening.

Really the only end goal is to have a good result. How you get there is undetermined yet.

Q. You hadn't seen the Twins yet this season. Does anything stand out about that lineup?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Very dynamic, a very good lineup, can cover a lot of different pitch shapes, pitch types.

Obviously they're hot right now, so a great challenge. Obviously, like you said, I haven't faced them this year, so I don't know who that advantage is for, me or them. I think we're in for a tough series.

Q. I think you've been more successful against lefties than righties. They can run like six or seven lefties out there in the lineup. When that happens, do you look at it as something you can take advantage of even though it's opposite splits?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Not particularly. I just wait and see what the lineup is on a given day. I obviously prepare for each guy. I don't know what their game plan is. Yeah, I don't think that's an advantage one way or the other.

Q. Not to add to the nerves, my friend, I remember 13 years ago that first press conference. We've been around for a while now. But in this one in particular, you have the chance, this team has a chance of doing something not even you have done in your glorious career, two World Series appearances in a row and the possibility of winning two World Series in a row. Does that change the way that you see this postseason? Does your preparation on an LDS series change in comparison to an ALCS and a World Series preparation?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: First of all, I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself there. I think what you learn, I think, from the experience of this, is that -- and to allude to your second part of the question -- is that you don't take anybody lightly at any stage. You prepare the same for this series as you would for a World Series. You take nothing for granted.

There are no givens in this game, and we've seen it time and time again. Wild Card teams come in really hot off of just playing a series when we've had four or five days off, and you just don't know what can happen.

So to answer the question, no, I don't think we treat this any differently. Obviously we understand that the opportunity's there to do something special, but don't take that for granted and prepare just like this is our first time in the playoffs. I think that's what's so magical about this team is these guys don't take a day off. They don't take anything for granted and come with desire.

I know that sounds weird being in the playoffs, but when you've been to the playoffs as many times as we have in a row, I think it's harder to not take things for granted, I guess, but we surely do not.

Q. Are you going to explain a little bit about what the mechanical adjustment was that you found that you felt freed you up a little?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: It just had to do with how I was kind of gathering on my posterior leg. Some weight distribution stuff, some mobility stuff, particularly in my foot, kind of allowed me to stay engaged on the rubber a little longer, deliver some more force through my hips and through my body.

Q. Justin, since you've rejoined the team and rejoined pitching with Martin, how does the extra preparation that he's known for and he does help you, and what are those sessions like between you guys who both obviously like to extra prepare?

JUSTIN VERLANDER: Yeah, I love being back with Maldy. I think, when you have somebody else who does that much homework and you kind of are out there armed with a lot of information, but at the same time can trust your baseball instincts, that's really fun. You have this back and forth chess game with the hitter.

Information helps, but you're never boxed into one way of things, if that makes sense. I feel like in this analytic age of baseball, a lot of pitchers, teams, catchers can kind of get stuck in one way to approach certain hitters. Look, these hitters are really good at making adjustments and they make adjustments quickly.

Any time you're kind of boxed into only one way of doing things, I think that can lead to some failures when the hitter makes an adjustment. So to be able to have somebody back there who sees the game similarly and thinks similarly and will adjust on the fly, I think it's a great benefit to everyone, not just myself, but also the rest of the guys on our staff and on our bullpen. It's a great attribute.