NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 7, 2022

Yu Darvish

Citi Field

San Diego Padres

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego - 7, New York - 1

Q. You said you wanted to come in as calm as possible and not get amped up, but you had some situations you wanted to pitch out of early, a couple of balls to the wall. How do you kind of navigate that, not just pitching-wise, but kind of mentally as you try to keep everything under control in those early innings?

YU DARVISH: So during the warmup, as I was warming up to go into the game, I had my headphones on. I basically try to block all the noise out of the crowd of the stadium. So that was good going into the game.

But once I was in trouble in that inning, the stadium was so loud that it felt like basically someone was screaming into my ears. I just kind of reminded myself that it's just noise and just go out there and do your thing. So that's kind of how I got through it.

Q. Given the postseason, where does this rank given the situation, it's a three-game series, you're on the road, you're facing Max Scherzer, loud crowd, all those factors. Where does this rank in terms of your postseason career?

YU DARVISH: Just for me going into this game, you're facing a pitcher that's most likely going to go into the Hall of Fame. It's a special pitcher that you're facing. Just being on that mound, being on that field today in this game, it's just an honorable thing for me.

So just wanted to go out there and give my best.

Q. How good was it to -- I have two questions. How good was it to get that run support, seeing all those home runs?

YU DARVISH: It obviously gives you a little bit of breathing room, but I think I was more shocked of the fact that Scherzer giving up that much runs because you don't see that very often.

Q. Also, you had a personal three-game losing streak, and one of them was to the Dodgers in Game 7 of 2017. Do you think today was redemption?

YU DARVISH: Actually, I don't remember. It's a little bit long time ago, so I don't remember that.

Q. It's been, like he said, five years since you last won a postseason game. How have you changed and matured as a pitcher over that time?

YU DARVISH: I think the mental side of the game and also the preparation of going into the game, that is completely different from how I was back then. So those two would probably be the big factors.

Q. How specifically? In what ways the preparation and the mental side are different?

YU DARVISH: For the mental side, meditation. It gives you a sense of what I need to focus most in that moment. Also, as far as the preparation goes, you dig into the data. You look into the hitters and all of that type of preparation going in.