“A change of scenery can help everything.”
“It’s pretty frustrating waiting for anything.”
“Every outing is a learning experience.”
“When you don’t have one that you throw for strikes – they are good hitters – they can cancel out one pitch and go to another. Now I have four pitches. If one’s not working, I’ve got three others. It makes the game totally different.”
“I’m 5 o’clock lightning, for sure.”
“My dad taught me really early so I could take a lot of pressure off my elbow. Because the way I throw it, it doesn’t crank up my elbow like everyone else’s curveballs.”
“No one wants to be known as a six-inning guy.”
“Every time is a learning experience, and you pick up a little bit, and you learn things and try not to repeat them the next time.”
“I was 11 years old and have the same curveball I have now. So I was literally striking everybody out. I always threw hard, and I was bigger than all the kids, so I would throw hard and throw that curveball, and no one could hit me.”
“I was a thrower. I think I’m more of a pitcher now.”
“Six innings, you’re doing your job. That’s a good target to have, but I’m always looking to improve. There’s three more innings of improvement left.”
“I just want to pitch well enough for us to win. In my mind, that’s what it’s all about.”
“I was in the big leagues my first year in pro ball – pretty fast. I really don’t think I had an understanding of what it meant to be a pitcher at that level at that point.”
“I’ve got four pitches now. I don’t have to use them all the time, but I’ve got them in my pocket now for when it’s necessary.”
“At the end of the day, it’s me versus you, and I’m trying to get you out. If I can throw you six curveballs in a row and get you out, I’m going to do it all day.”
“I don’t mind walking guys as long as I don’t give up runs.”
“The cutter has really helped me stay in the game longer and helped me get past the five, six innings a little more consistently.”
“Repeating my mechanics was difficult. I was always trying to do something different to make it click.”
“If you don’t feel right, you’re going to try to tweak every pitch, every little thing, things that probably don’t even need tweaking.”
“I have to do a better job of learning how to adjust.”
“I’ve had the benefit of doing pretty much everything. So I’m really pretty comfortable in any situation.”
“After the first time I got traded – I was in the bullpen warming up for a game in Double A, and I got called back in and got traded – that was probably the, like, most crazy it could be. And once I got traded, the next time it got a little easier, and I got traded the next time – it’s just part of it.”
“It’s hard to be a two-pitch guy. People tell you that, but you don’t really believe it.”
“You can be a two-pitch guy and be successful, but your room for error is very small.”
“Seven innings, three starts in a row, that’s an improvement for me, and that’s what I want to do: be out there in the game longer.”
“It hasn’t been very normal in my career, but that first year in pro ball was the craziest year ever.”
“Ten minutes before starting a game in Akron, they said, ‘Sit down, you’re done.’ Then I went to Arizona and sat there. There was no one to tell me what to do. I just had to wait.”
“As a pitcher, you can’t afford to get too ticked off.”
“Just flush it if something bad happens. That’s the way I was raised to play baseball.”
“My dad was a really big baseball guy who helped coach me and thought the game should be played the right way.”
“There is stuff going on inside me. But I have always been told to go out there and pitch like you can’t tell if you just struck somebody out or just gave up a home run. If something bad happens, I don’t dwell on it. Just give me the ball and let me pitch.”
“It’s hard to tell yourself to get ready when it’s like, ‘I need to make this freaking team first.’”
“The big thing will be having two pitches you can throw for strikes and developing a change-up, too.”
“I threw a lot of fastballs in college.”
“In my bullpen sessions, I’m just trying to feel comfortable, throw strikes, and not get too complicated.”
“All I can focus on is my performance, and that’s going to help me be successful, no matter where I am.”
“You can work this hard and sometimes not get recognition for it.”
“I’ve done literally everything there is to do on a baseball field as a pitcher.”
“I’m pretty prepared for anything. You could shove me out there in any situation – I’ve done it.”
“I’ve always been fastball-curveball and really relied on that pitch, and when it goes away, it just totally changes how you attack hitters.”
“Getting my curveball back and finding another pitch just helped me figure out how to pitch.”
“Pretty excited to get to Boston. Great city and great team; they’re in the race. They want to win here, and that’s what I want to do.”
“I don’t think much. I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. Adjust on the fly if I have to.”
“My goal is to go out there, make every start.”
“I can pretty much take anything that comes at me.”
“My whole career’s been kind of crazy, so you can’t really surprise me.”
“I haven’t been on too many winning teams – in Oakland, we were in first place most of the year, and it was pretty fun, pretty exciting.”
“I don’t think I put too much pressure on myself.”
“Just trying to go out there and do the same thing I do every time, take it one pitch at a time and give us the best chance to win.”
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