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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS v PHILLIES

September 30, 2011

Kyle Lohse

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Workout Day

Q. The excitement for you and the challenge of being the Game 1 starter versus Philadelphia?
KYLE LOHSE: Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. We were just here like two weeks ago, so it'll be tough. I know how tough it is to pitch here. I've been here before, and it's definitely exciting having Game 1, and I'm just going to try to approach it just like any of my last four or five starts because they've all been pretty much must-win games.

Q. Coming off of the rest or whatever, the relocation, whatever we're calling it, you kind of sped to the finish. Do you think that did the finger good? Do you think that provided motivation for you? Do you think it just was a continuation of what you had going on earlier in the season?
KYLE LOHSE: You know, it's tough to -- my year was kind of three parts. I started off hot; middle, kind of cooled off a little bit; and I started getting moved around a little bit, and I don't know whether -- apparently it gave me the rest that I needed. I didn't feel like I needed a whole lot of extra rest, but I was struggling a little bit with the finger issue, and it kind of went away and I finished strong. There wasn't really something that I looked forward to getting skipped and pushed around, but it definitely helped out, I guess.

Q. When did you know you were going to get this start? And was it something like, hey, if we play Thursday, you're going Thursday; if we play Saturday, you're going to go Saturday?
KYLE LOHSE: I got the official confirmation about ten minutes ago, 15 minutes ago. I kind of figured heading into it if I was going to start that play-in game or whatever you want to call it, I figured I might get this assignment, and I wasn't counting on anything because Tony wasn't letting any secrets out.

Q. Having faced the Phillies before, what are the challenges you face against them, in this ballpark especially?
KYLE LOHSE: Like I said, I've pitched in this ballpark for half a season, and the dimensions are very favorable to the hitters, so you've got to keep the ball on the ground. My main -- I'm not going to give away too much, but my main focus is going to be keeping the ball on the ground as much as I can, because with this lineup they can -- they've got a lot of guys all through their lineup that can put the ball out of the park. I've just got to work on keeping it down.

Q. Just considering not only some of the times this year when some weird things happened, considering the past two years, what's the level of just kind of personal gratification to be sitting here starting Game 1 of a playoff series?
KYLE LOHSE: There's a lot. I've told you guys how proud I am of being able to put the last two years in the past and come out and have a pretty strong season. For it to come to this point where I'm starting Game 1 of a playoff series, that's pretty special to me and something that I've worked hard for going through the injury and having a surgery that no one has heard of and all this stuff. It's pretty personally gratifying to be able to come to this point and be where I'm at right now.

Q. I was just wondering if you could kind of make any correlation, if there is one, to where you were a month or so ago when you were dealing with that finger thing, had to go back, come back, your starts get staggered. To what extent is your improved performance related to anything rest-wise or health-wise, or is it all just coincidence the way the second half ended and flowed?
KYLE LOHSE: I think the finger thing played a big part. I had a couple starts cut short because Tony was trying to save me. I felt like I was pretty close to full strength and they ended up being five-inning starts where I threw 70 or so pitches. Right around then, I felt like I was all right, and then I had one hiccup against the Dodgers. I felt like after that I was back to full strong and put up some pretty good numbers after that.

Q. I asked Tony this and I'll ask you this: Are you guys the underdogs in this series? And how do you view that?
KYLE LOHSE: I mean, I guess if you ask anybody, they look at us as the underdogs. These guys coming in, you look at their rotation, their lineup, and they've won 100-something games. It's a definite case where I think you could look at them as the favorites, but I think we've shown that we don't care who we're playing.
We've traveled a long road to get to this point, and we've played about a month's worth of must-win games to get to where we're at right now. I don't think we view ourselves as underdogs, we just -- we are what we are. We're going to go out there and try to win tomorrow and try to win the next day just like we have for the last month.

Q. How do you view the match-up when Halladay is on the other side of it, and obviously you're out there to throw zeros. Is there more of an intention to not give up any runs?
KYLE LOHSE: Yeah, I faced him our last series here against them, and he had an uncharacteristic day where he gave up some runs. I was out there to throw up as many zeros as I could. I know runs are going to be at a premium in this series, and I'm not putting any more pressure on myself in this game than I have my last four or five or the whole season for that matter. It's a ballgame. We're going to go out there and do what we are going to do, put a game plan together. And I can't do anything about what our offense does unless I get a hit or something. It's not really up to me how we approach them. I've just got to do my job against their offense.

Q. You played a number of high profile -- you've played a lot of games for your playoff lives basically to get here. Now that you've gotten here, where do you think this team is mentally, physically, given the amount of games and the level of intensity you had to play those games?
KYLE LOHSE: I think mentally we're pretty sharp. I think we're -- I don't think anybody is worn out about what we've gone through the last month. I think we're pretty excited and happy that all the hard work paid off. Physically obviously I don't know where some of the guys are physically, but Holliday and Furcal and those guys, you'll have to ask other people about that. But I think everybody feels pretty strong for the most part about where we're at. We're not worn down or anything like that.

Q. Happy to be here obviously, but talk about how this team is nowhere near content with where you guys are, as well.
KYLE LOHSE: Yeah, we are definitely very happy that we got into this thing. I don't think anybody was just happy just to be here. I think several of the guys in the clubhouse, I don't know if any of you guys were in there, but Yadi stood up and was like, hey, we're happy to make it, but our job is not done. I think that's the mentality of our team. We're thrilled to be here, but it's -- the work is not done yet.

Q. You mentioned a few times that tomorrow's game is essentially a repeat of what happened here a few weeks ago. Does that give you any sort of edge or are you of a mind that sometimes hitters can see you too often in a window?
KYLE LOHSE: I'm not taking too much out of that last game. I know they had just clinched, so -- I know I've been on teams where you kind of hit a little lull after you clinch, and I'm not expecting it to go exactly the way it did last time.
Howard wasn't in the lineup last time, so I got a different look. It's going to be pitching. You know, just try to figure out what they're looking for and try to keep it away from them.

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