Q. It's been five years since you started a playoff game. How much can you rely on that and draw on that experience at this point?

COLBY LEWIS: I think, for me, I'm not really too concerned with Postseason appearances or anything like that. I'm just going to stick with my game plan. You guys know me well enough to where I'm going to go out there and compete and have a good time.

I don't feel like anything changes for me. I gotta go out there and get outs and be productive.

Q. The way the situation fell last year, you did not get a start in the series against this club. Did that or has that motivated you, does that continue to motivate you as you go into this game?

COLBY LEWIS: No, like I said last year, I felt like in whatever the team aspect that they wanted me to be put in, if I got put in the pen, it is what it is. I wanted to contribute. I wanted to be on the roster. I'm fortunate enough this year to get the ball here tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Q. You know where you guys are in the series. I'm sure you won't take that to the mound, but do you like having maybe this burden on your shoulders?

COLBY LEWIS: I don't feel like it's a burden. I feel like it's an opportunity. I feel like anytime I talk to young kids or anything like that it's about opportunity. And just like going to Japan or anything like that in my career, I feel like it's an opportunity for me to go out, perform, see what I can do, embrace it. So there's no extra added pressure or anything like that.

I feel like it's baseball, it's something I've done since I was five years old. Is just go out there and enjoy it. If you want to have any types of pressure, I felt the biggest pressures that I have in life are raising kids and making them grow up with the right morals and values that I would like them to have.

So for this it's another baseball game to me. I've got to go out there, like I said, compete, keep my team in the game and make my pitches.

Q. How would you assess the progress you've made since returning from the disabled list?

COLBY LEWIS: Really good. I felt like each start I've gone out, accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish. The last one was going up over 100 pitches. Felt really, really good. The last two times I went out, everything was fresh. So, yeah, I wouldn't take it any other way. I feel like I made all the leaps and bounds that I needed to make to be ready for today, or tomorrow, I should say.

Q. You were having an outstanding season before the shoulder muscle sidelined you for a while. There was some thought that you might not even make it back this year. Did the idea of pitching in the playoffs spur you on during the rehab to make you come back quicker than was expected?

COLBY LEWIS: I think the timeline was always in September, right at the beginning of September. I think we were just kind of basing it upon how close the games were and how many games up we were, how fast I was going to try to come and push back. And the team did a great job enabling me to come back a couple days later than I needed to which allowed me to get a little bit more rest. But, yeah, the ultimate goal is to be on the stage helping your team and contributing.