Oct. 6 Corey Kluber pregame interview

October 6th, 2016

Q. How are you feeling?
COREY KLUBER: Good.

Q. Hamstring tight?
COREY KLUBER: Everything was fine. It was more precautionary, didn't want it to turn into something serious. Everything is fine.

Q. How do you view the Red Sox and what will be the secret and key for you in pitching against them tomorrow?
COREY KLUBER: I don't know if there's a secret. I think that they know what I want to do, I know what they want to do. They're a very good hitting club. It comes down to executing. It's not a matter of coming out with a secret or trying to trick one another. It's a matter of going out there and I'm going to try to execute pitches and they're going to try to hit mistakes.

Q. You didn't get to pitch in 2013. For you, personally, you've won the Cy Young. What does it mean for you to be on this statement stage?
COREY KLUBER: I didn't have a chance to pitch then. I was in the bullpen, so I think there were still some of those -- but obviously it will be my first postseason game. So I'm sure there will be some errors, but at the same time I get nerves, if it's a live practice in Spring Training, but it just means you care what you're doing. I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Are you over your disappointment of not pitching today?
COREY KLUBER: I don't think there was disappointment. I think that it was -- we talked about it as a group and came to the decision that if it comes to a point where somebody has to pitch on short rest, Trevor is better equipped to do that. And I'm not disappointed in him pitching. We have confidence in him. I'm looking forward to having an opportunity to pitch tomorrow.

Q. What's the biggest game you've ever pitched in your life in your opinion?
COREY KLUBER: I don't know. I don't know if I really have one that stands out. I try to take each one as the biggest game. I think obviously there's stages everybody goes through, but I think as far as the game itself I try to take each one as the most important game.

Q. Your thoughts on matching up against ?
COREY KLUBER: Yeah, it will be the second time this year we've faced each other. Hopefully the weather cooperates a little better than the first time. But I think obviously he's a great pitcher. I think when you're facing somebody that's a pitcher of his quality I think that mistakes might happen more, but I think that goes back to my thought process of taking a pitch at a time and trying not to get caught up in the moment or who you're pitching against. Most of it is trying to go out and execute your game plan.

Q. Just to be clear, when you said it's better now for Trevor to pitch on short rest, is it because of the injury that you're talking about when you say that?
COREY KLUBER: No, I think it's a matter of the fact that I haven't pitched and I think it's ten days, by tomorrow comes around. So trying to bounce back on three days rest after not pitching in ten days is -- first of all, neither of us can pitch on three days rest, so we can't tell how we're going to respond to it. With all those factors in, we thought it was better for him to bounce back after short rest.

Q. You said that you haven't pitched in ten days. Do you think that could be a beneficial thing to you, just having that time off after a year of pitching almost every start?
COREY KLUBER: I think it potentially could. My body feels good right now. I think the ten days did other parts of my body good, as far as not necessarily pitching in a game or skipping a start, so to speak. We won't know until we get out there tomorrow. But I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about being rested. I think I've had a good couple of bullpens, so I'm not worried about the ten days rest.

Q. How do you feel the team's mindset and the atmosphere was in being an underdog, did they seem pretty loose?
COREY KLUBER: Yeah, I don't think it's any different than it has been all year. We have a good group of guys, and I think we do a good job of keeping our expectations within what the guys in the clubhouse expect. I don't think we necessarily take too much stock in outside predictions, expectations. I think that's where we're going to continue to be.

Q. Considering all the things you guys have had to overcome this year, did even the resiliency surprise you, a lot of people wrote you guys off?
COREY KLUBER: I think any team over the course of an entire season goes through ups and downs. I think in my opinion we've done a great job of overcoming different obstacles, whether it be injuries or whatever it is. But I think that it's something that we can take pride and build on is the fact that we've overcome those obstacles, we've stuck together and not really had that moment where people are pulling in different directions.