NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS DODGERS

October 10, 2023

Lance Lynn

Chase Field

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Lance, you've been through this before many times in your career. Being down 0-2, does it change anything for you?

LANCE LYNN: No. I mean, when it's all said and done, when you take the ball you try to go get outs and give your team a chance to win. But you know what's on the line. If you lose, you go home. So we've got to come out, play better as a team and try to win a ball game.

Q. How big of a believer are you in that, being a starting pitcher, we've heard from the Dodgers about deploying 13 guys. Are you intent on going as deep as you possibly can without any interruption?

LANCE LYNN: No, I mean, in the playoffs they give you the ball. No matter where it's at you take it and you go get as many outs as you can until they take it from you.

Q. When you got traded over here you talked about being in the postseason kind of reinvigorated you. How have you felt this experience has gone? Do you feel like you've been able to have sort of what you expected since coming over here?

LANCE LYNN: Yeah, just the opportunity to play in the playoffs is why you play the game. So I'm getting that opportunity. Hopefully I get a chance to help the team win, get back in the win column so we can try to make this as a series.

Q. Talked about sort of just trying to get the life back on your fastball. You feel like you've gotten it the last month or so. Where do you feel like you are with some of the adjustments that they've been looking to do with you?

LANCE LYNN: I'm in a good spot. So I'm looking forward to showing it on the biggest stage.

Q. Dave has talked couple times about with you trying to go deep into games versus emptying the tank early. Do you approach this start, the stakes here differently kind of through that lens of going as hard as you can just as long as you can?

LANCE LYNN: You know, during the regular season there's different things that are needed, different starts. Like I said, in the postseason, when they give you the ball you go get as many outs for as long as you can. That's the only thing that matters.

Obviously there's no saving anything. So you're just trying to make pitches, make quality pitches and not letting them score. It's that simple.

Q. How different does this park play when the roof and panels are open versus when they're not?

LANCE LYNN: I've never seen it open.

Q. Do you think that will matter tomorrow if it is open?

LANCE LYNN: I don't know. Does the roof open? I heard it didn't. During the WBC it was broken, right? There we go. So I don't know. I don't know the difference.

Q. You do have pretty good career numbers here. Is there anything that you like about pitching here?

LANCE LYNN: It's a good ballpark. The fans, they're always into the game. For me, the mound's got a good feel to it. So when you get on the mound you feel comfortable with, you've got to make pitches, execute. Out here I've done that for the most part.

Q. We're going to be speaking with Ryan Pepiot after you, and Dave made it clear he'll have some part in the game tomorrow. Does that change how you perceive your role knowing that Pepiot is going to have some sort of role here?

LANCE LYNN: No, you look at it like Pep and I are the only two that haven't thrown a pitch for our team yet. So we need to get some outs for the boys.

Q. Now that you've seen the first two games and those first two innings they've obviously been devastating. And to see the approach that the Diamondbacks have taken, has that caused you to make some sort of adjustments in your game plan?

LANCE LYNN: No. We knew what they were about.

Q. I know we've talked just a bit about kind of the approach that you've had kind of with, first coming to this team, kind of going deeper into the game, eating up innings, and the last couple of outings being really aggressive, emptying the tank. Did you find for you, whether it's with mechanics or your execution, was there any kind of difference in how you kind of approached whether it's I guess mindset, body, anything like that, just kind of getting going a little bit earlier?

LANCE LYNN: To be honest with you, there's not been a whole lot of change in the approach or anything like that. It's just Dave wanted me to know, hey, in the postseason we don't need you to throw 100-plus pitches and all that; we just need to you get as many quality outs as you can.

There's times during a regular season throughout a start where you make sure you lower your pitch count. You make sure you get deeper. And he just told me not to worry about that, just keep attacking hitters, keep doing your thing, not trying to make sure you have quick outs or quick innings or try to put the ball in play.

That's pretty obvious when it comes to this time of the year, though. That was something that he reiterated moving towards, into the regular season just to kind of get the mindset going in that direction, which comes at this time of year anyway. So it was just a little warm-up before.