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NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: CUBS VS DODGERS

October 14, 2017

Rich Hill

Los Angeles, California - pregame 1

Q. You guys have talked a lot this year just about sort of how you need to step up when guys go down. What was your reaction to hearing that Corey wouldn't be on the roster this series?
RICH HILL: Obviously, it's a big blow. That guy's fought with us the entire year. It's just an unfortunate thing that happens, obviously, in sports when you get an injury. It's something where now we're looking for the other guys to step up with Charlie and C.T., which is great.

I think it's going to be one of those things where we don't know where the next guy's going to come from that's going to be, you know, supposedly the hero of a game or however you want to put it. But you can definitely kind of see that story line building, I guess.

Q. When you found out you're going to face the same opponent in the same series again, did you go crazy?
RICH HILL: No, not yet (smiling).

Q. How did you feel?
RICH HILL: It's great. Anytime you get the opportunity to play and compete against the best, I think it's something that everybody who is a competitor wants to do. You want to challenge yourself against the best, and they're the defending champions, and that's the club that we wanted to play and the team that we want to beat to get to the next step, which is the World Series.

So it's something that I'm looking forward to. It's a great challenge to go out there and, again, just focus in on taking it one pitch at a time and staying in the moment.

Q. To pick up on that as a snapshot in time, how would you describe maybe any differences in you as either stamina or stuff compared to the NLCS last season?
RICH HILL: I can't really compare years. I did that when I was younger. I used to try to, okay, I want to have the same year as I did last year or do a little better.

But you can't do that. You can't try to compare yourself to any game that you had. Because as you get -- as I've gotten older and realize through experience, I realize every single opportunity is different. No matter if it's against a similar team, it's still a different circumstance, a different year, a different day, whatever it might be.

So understanding that the only constant for me is bringing that effort every single time that I go out there and making sure that's consistent.

Other than that, everything else is really out of my control.

Q. That said, what do you remember from your Game 3 start last year, and what, if anything, can you take from that, at least into this year?
RICH HILL: It was a great game. Obviously it was here in L.A., and I think it put us up 2 games to 1, I believe, against the Cubs. Other than that, I think it's, again, a similar situation to where we were last year. But at the same time, these guys are now the defending champs, so it's actually -- last year we wanted to beat the best, and we thought the Cubs were the best. Unfortunately, we didn't get through that round.

But what we gained in experience was huge to get to this point. So a lot of guys that were on that roster last year with the Dodgers are back again this year, and we're able to feed off of those experiences from last year and understand that where we got to, it wasn't such a failure. It was more of a learning point in moving forward.

Q. I know you don't want to compare years, but last year coming back from the blister, you had a shorter leash than usual in September. This year, healthy the entire second half. Do you think you will have a longer leash now compared to the NLCS last year?
RICH HILL: I don't really know, because you can't -- these playoff games, as we've seen throughout the entire playoffs, are completely their own animal. Every team has to -- you have to win that game. So you do whatever it takes to win that game. Depending on how many pitches that might be for the starter, for the bullpen, however we play the chess match moving forward throughout each game really is going to kind of depend on how the game is flowing. Understanding that it's all hands on deck from here on out.

I don't look at it as a longer or shorter leash from last year. It really depends on how the game is going to ebb and flow.

Q. Can you talk about how your connection with Austin Barnes has evolved over time and try to explain why your numbers are so strong with him?
RICH HILL: Well, we're really fortunate to have two great catchers with Yasmani and Austin. It's been incredible to work with both guys and to see, you know, the development of Austin this entire season, just from Spring Training through the beginning of the season, All-Star break.

And then the second half has been something that I can reflect back on and look at two different positions, but career-wise your experiences and learning over the course of your career and how you become a better player as you move through your career. Not much a better player, but it's more of an efficient player. Understanding what your routine is on a day-to-day basis. A guy who works every day, who wants to learn, who talks to pitchers and understands the strengths of each pitcher and where they want to go in the situations when it means the most.

That's something that I've seen from Austin, and has been really a huge learning experience for him to grow as a Major League player.

Q. Have you had a chance to speak to Corey? And if so, how does he seem to be taking this? And maybe what have you told him to maybe kind of console him, I guess?
RICH HILL: Just in passing, not a ton of rhetoric back and forth. But I think, you know, he's disappointed. Everybody in the locker room is obviously -- obviously knows it's a big blow.

But we can't sit there and worry about that certain situation. He's going to take care of himself and do everything he can to get himself right and get himself back on track. The training staff is unbelievable here, so we're really fortunate in that department to have the best of the best. Obviously, if they need to outsource, they get the best people in to outsource to get guys right.

I know he's disappointed, and I think it's something that he is such a competitor and he loves baseball so much that it is hard to see when you have a guy who has that level of passion for anything. But to see it happen in these circumstances, when it is heightened, when the stage is at its highest, a guy who wants to be out there every single day, it's tough. But I know he'll obviously be there with us for the rest of the way.

Q. In the regular season, when you get prepared for a start, you're thinking about how am I going to get this guy out the first time, the second time, and the third time. In the postseason, when the hook is quicker, how does that affect the starter's mentality, knowing what the margin of error is?
RICH HILL: Well, I think you've got to look at it from experience standpoint, right? So if you take a guy who is younger, he may be thinking about the hook quicker. If you take a guy who is more experienced, it's a pitch-to-pitch process, and all you're thinking about is executing that pitch that you have on hand, and that's it. Whether it's your first pitch and your last pitch, you have no control over that. Only thing you have control over is your effort and the intensity that you bring out there on the mound.

Other than that, that's out of our control.

Q. Rich, obviously no human body is the same, and not everyone throws the ball the same way. But how would you compare the three lefties in the rotation? And specifically how you would compare like Alex Wood who -- maybe if you were teaching a young kid, he seems like a herky-jerky, like don't throw like this, but it somehow works for him?
RICH HILL: Again, everybody gets to a certain point in their delivery where they are going to be -- match them up with release points, and everybody will get to the same release point at some arm angle. But it doesn't matter how you get there, it just matters that you get there. When you watch Alex and watch him pitch, if it was my own son and that's the way he threw, I wouldn't change it because that's what he feels comfortable doing, and that's how he is built.

So there is no real one standard way to pitching or hitting. If you look at a guy like Hunter Pence, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't teach that swing. But it works for him. If you have an athlete, baseball player that is comfortable with that type of swing, then that is something you push and you cultivate instead of trying to make it so generic.

There are certain points in mechanics that you have to hit, I believe, to be on time for your hand to get out front and your release point to be consistent. But how you get there is really irrelevant, as long as you get to that point of the consistent release point, with all pitches.

Q. Knowing that the Cubs will probably have a similar lineup against lefties on back-to-back days, how much will you read their swings tonight and then have that influence your approach tomorrow?
RICH HILL: Well, I mean, they've done enough video and enough homework on all of us, right? But my approach isn't going to change as it has been all year. It's just attack and continue to throw strikes. Make them swing the bat.

I think that's something that I feel comfortable in and I don't really mind sharing because them knowing that or any team knowing that that's faced me all year, they'll come up to the plate saying, He's going to be strike one, he's coming right at you, so you have to be ready to swing the bat.

That's something that, for me, that's what I enjoy, is that aggressive, attack mentality, where you can see it reciprocated from the hitter. Two people out there just competing.

I will be watching and paying attention, obviously, pretty closely tonight. But, again, it's not going to really change my approach as far as pitch sequencing or how I'm going to attack these hitters because I'm pretty plain and simple: Here it is, hit it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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