	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MLB WORLD SERIES: NATIONALS VS ASTROS

October 24, 2019

Anibal Sanchez

Washington, D.C. - Workout Day

Q. The Astros have a history of picking up tipped pitches and sort of being able to get an edge on pitchers in various ways. How much do you have to adjust how you go about things when you know the team on the other side is particularly good at picking up on those things?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: I don't try to pay attention too much about that. I think they pretty smart on those situations.

Cover your signs or protect your pitching is part of the everyday pitching situations. So I don't want to say if you tip your pitch, it's something that they're going to pick right away and they're going to do some damage. But if you protect all the kind of stuff, you don't have to worry about it.

Q. It's been a while since you last pitched in a game. How do you need to adjust or do things differently, if you do, when it's been nearly a two-week layoff between starts?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: Back to the outing when I threw against Dodgers, was the same amount of day that I didn't pitch before that day. I threw against Phillies two weeks before that game so now we understand the same amount of days.

I just think most of the time, like right now probably you need to rest because I've been throwing baseball since February, probably January. So right now it's not something that's going to affect you.

So for me, I'm fine with the rest.

Q. When you struggled with Detroit in '16 and '17, was there ever a point that you were worried about the state of your career that you would even get a job in 2018?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: Yes. Those years wasn't easy for me, wasn't a great moment. Something that, I don't want to say I don't want to remember. I working hard those years, too.

But you know what, the result wasn't there. And for me, I just taking one more year was last year, 2018. And they give me the opportunity to be here right now. For me, my offseason '17 and '18 was, I don't want to quit if I don't try my best.

So I remember I sign with the Twins and I got released, and after that I say, Okay, whatever happens is going to happen, I don't going to force anything. I got an opportunity with the Braves and show that I can still pitch on this level, and now I'm here.

Q. Some Latin players throughout the Major Leagues at times have taken issue with the Trump administration's policies. With President Trump's announcement today he plans to come to Game 5, do you have any issues or do you think any players will have any issues with that?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: He's the president of this country. If he want to come to the game, it's something that he want to do. Of course everybody has to respect that situation.

I don't want to attack him like I got something against. I'm following the president, like you say, I'm from Venezuela, I'm out of this country, but then I respect all those situations. And like I say, he's the president and if he want to come, why no?

Q. When you pitched in the third game of a series, how much does it help you to see the Astros live in Houston? Does that help you prepare for the third game as it would maybe in the regular season?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: For me always baseball is really hard especially because it's no, like, you spend three days watching this guy. I think I spend like a month watching like everybody on the playoff situation to see who is going to be the matchup.

It's not about a specific day. Tomorrow is another day. Everything is going to be different; weather, field, many games, end of October, pressure, exciting. All those situations it's really hard to control every single day but tomorrow it's going to be my day. I just prepared like big -- like focus and try to execute every pitch to give a good game for the team.

Q. You're coming back from tough times, and finally you are going to the mound in the World Series. What do you think of this opportunity?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: Blessing. I feel really, really blessing. Thank God that I got this opportunity. Without him I don't think that I was here. Yeah, it was tough moment of my career but most of the people think for me 2016 and '17 was tough for me. Before that like ten years I go after '16 and '17 for me I wasn't on the top situation of my life. And it's no compare. Lose a game. Win a game. It's part of the pitchers. It's part of the game. Some you have to lose, some you have to win.

You carry for a year, so you see what the adjustment you have to make for getting better. But at the end, yeah, thank God that I got this opportunity right now.

Q. You've obviously played for a lot of managers, just wondering what's maybe the strongest skill that Davey has. Also he's a guy that learned Spanish later on in life. How impressive is his Spanish? Is it good?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: It's good. It's really good. He's got really good Spanish. He can communicate in that language perfectly. I think he can express better than in Spanish than I am in English. He's really good. He's really good. Dave, he's special. He's special.

Q. Were you and Max Scherzer aware of the history that you were repeating going deep in a postseason game with a no-hitter intact. I'm curious how you were watching his start the other night gutting through in Game 1, if that puts extra pressure on you or anything you were thinking about in the dugout?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: Like am I going to feel pressure for tomorrow? I answered that question the other day. I don't feel pressure right now. I don't know what going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is a day when you've got a game situation, like a game plan and everything. Everything change so much.

Right now I'm anxious to get on the field. But at the moment the game start it's another thing. You focus on what you have to do, what pitch you have to execute. What hitter you're going to face. And back to the way the check Scherzer you pitching back-to-back games, no-hitter for six-plus innings, is something we'll talk about that later after the whole situation. But we didn't imagine that we'd done that.

So at the end for me has to pass a lot of things back to this situation, like I'm in the Game 1 and he in Game 2. Because if I don't remember -- if I don't mind -- if a reliever was a reliever on the Game 2 on the Dodgers, I don't pitch the Game 3. So he going to pitch the Game 3. So everything change after that. So I don't think it's coincidence. I think it's something between Scherzer and I on those kind of games.

Q. We talked about '16 and '17, but this year didn't start exactly how you wanted it either. And you land on the IL. What was your mindset when you hit the IL and what has allowed you to have such a successful rest of the season?
ANÍBAL SÁNCHEZ: If you watch the whole game that happened early in the season when I was pitching, everything was there. Everything was the same, until I came to the IL. Couple of errors, couple base hits, couple situations, couple running on base. Those little things change a lot. Like I remember that I lost four games, 2-0, 2-1, so those games. But I got like an injury with my leg. I remember I didn't pitch for like 10, 12 day before my first game of the season. I got hit on the leg. A lot of things going on on the team early in the season for me to compete harder for the second half. But I didn't do something like special, like I try to figure out what I had done before the IL and after. Everything was the same.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297