AL WILD CARD SERIES: MARINERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 8, 2022

Luis Castillo

Rogers Centre

Toronto Blue Jays

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Luis, you've been described by your teammates and your coaches as a big game type pitcher. Where does that come from, and what gives you such confidence when you go out and take the hill in such important games?

LUIS CASTILLO: It's just something that's come natural to me. It's just who I am. Just a positive mentality. Just stay calm out there and go out on the mound and do the best I can to do.

Q. Luis, Scott was just in here, and he talked about since the trade that he thought your stuff has played up a tick, whether that means an increase in velocity or maybe sharpness of the secondary pitches. Does he agree with that, and does his stuff feel and look a little different than it did when he was with Cincinnati in the first half?

LUIS CASTILLO: Well, the first thing is I'm happy to be healthy. That I'm healthy, that's the most important thing.

I think the main key here is confidence. I've had a lot of confidence in my pitches, and I think, yeah, maybe my pitches have been a little better in all due to confidence, which has helped me keep that repertoire and just improving on myself.

Q. How have the Mariners helped impact that? Have they helped you tap into it, whether it's their analytics department or Woody, the pitching coach? Just how have they kind of helped you?

LUIS CASTILLO: Most of that comes from me. Like I said before, confidence. The confidence of just throwing these pitches. The more you throw, the more confidence that gets built up.

Fortunately for me, I was able to come to this team, and they're in a good position, and I was able to step up my game and just do the best I could to help this team advance as much as I can.

Q. What do you remember of facing the Blue Jays with Cincinnati here earlier this season, and what will you take from that outing and apply tomorrow?

LUIS CASTILLO: Well, first of all, you know, it's a different game. Last time I was here, it was a regular season game, and now it's postseason where confidence can play an important role here.

And, like I said, when I go up on that mound, I'm very confident. My mind is always positive. So, like I said, I'm going to treat it as a normal game, go up there, keep my positive mind, and just do my job.

Q. Luis, when you pitched in the postseason for the Reds, there were no fans in the stadium. Did it feel like a postseason game when you played in that, and now you're going to have 48,000 people here. You seem to like pitching in front of big crowds. I mean, how much difference will this be?

LUIS CASTILLO: Unfortunately for us, last time I did it, we were in a whole different situation where the stadiums were closed, but now we're lucky enough where the stadiums are back open.

The fans for me is very important because the cheering, the noise is something that I really feed off of. It's something that gives you a little more energy, that little more something when I'm up on the mound. So, yeah, it's going to be different. It's going to be a lot different than my last game.

Q. What are some of the best environments that you have pitched in over the course of your career and, obviously, including this year as well?

LUIS CASTILLO: Probably the best environment I've ever been was my first game when I first started in Seattle. That was one that really stuck out to me.

It was one that I remember just being so electric and me feeding off of it and giving me that little more energy while I was up on the mound.

Q. The Mariners acquired you at the trade deadline to make starts like this, and there were a lot of other teams that were interested in you. Can you kind of take us back to what your reaction was when you found out that you were going to be pitching in Seattle after the trade deadline?

LUIS CASTILLO: I felt good. I felt good because I remember the time there was teams interested, but when I heard about this, obviously, I had Suarez here and Winker and then Casali joined later, who I all played with in Cincinnati, so that was helpful to kind of adjust here.

Like I said, it's been great being around this group of team, and I'm just proud of them.