NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 9, 2022

Joe Musgrove

Citi Field

San Diego Padres

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego - 6, New York - 0

Q. We were just talking to Buck and Bob about this, but what was going on on the mound there? What were they looking for? You had to take off your hat. They checked behind your ears. What was going on there?

JOE MUSGROVE: I think he was checking for some kind of substance that was helping me spin the ball or something. I've seen it before. I think he's done it before.

Yeah, I don't have much to say about it. It was at the point in the game when it happened, I was so dialed in already. All my pitches felt good. I felt like I was executing. So it almost just kind of lit a fire under me.

Came out, told me Buck wanted to check my face, my glove, my hat. Yeah, at that point, I was so dialed in and so focused on getting outs, it didn't really affect me too much.

Q. You seemed to just pick up after it happened right where you left off.

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah. I mean, it's a win or go home game, so they were having a lot of trouble squaring me up. I feel like that was his last attempt at trying to push me out of the game there.

They took their shot. I don't know, the only thing I have to say is you'd better be very confident that no one on your side is using anything if you're going to call out someone on our side.

Q. Joe, what's the feeling of coming through in such a big way in such a big game?

JOE MUSGROVE: It feels great. It feels a lot better now than it did before the game. I was sick to my stomach all day leading up to this.

I don't know, it's just something I've been preparing for for a long time. You go over in your head so many times as a kid about getting the ball in the biggest moment on the biggest stage. This is something we do a lot of visualizing on in the off-season is moments like this.

Me and Nola spent the whole off-season together throwing to each other. Well, him catching me, I guess, not throwing to each other. Him catching my bullpens, training together, working out together.

No one outside of that group that was there. Clev was part of that. Stammen, Croney for a little bit. No one is going to know what was put in there, the amount of effort, focus, and attention to detail. No one is going to know that like we do.

That was something we talked about on our walk in from the bullpen to the game, now it's time to trust everything that we did. Everything that we prepared for is this moment. Last thing I told him is I'm going to go pitch the game of my life, and I believe that.

If you don't believe it, no one else is going to. I feel like I learned a lot about myself in here tonight, through everything that happened throughout the course of the game and the severity of the moment.

Q. When they came out to check you later on that inning, you struck someone out and made a motion towards the Mets dugout. I'm just curious if you could walk me through that. Obviously you were pretty fired up.

JOE MUSGROVE: Yeah, I like a lot of guys on that side. I have nothing against those guys. It's just the competitor in me trying to find an edge there. They came out to get their edge and get me out of the game. I took that as a chance to get my edge and use whatever I could to motivate me to push through that last inning or two.

At that point in the game, what was that, bottom six? I don't know how many pitches I was at, but I figured I was coming towards the end of the line. We've got a really strong bullpen and a couple of guys that were really fresh.

I knew if I could get it through the sixth or seventh we could go to those guys and, honestly, going into the game, I wasn't thinking about trying to go seven innings. I was just thinking about being as quality as I could for as long as I could. If that's four innings, if that's five innings, so be it because we have a really strong bullpen. The runs early in the game, a couple of good defensive plays allowed me to get through seven.

Q. Just quickly, your ear, I know there was a lot of discussion on it. Andrew McCutcheon went on Twitter and said he thought it was hot sauce. I'm curious to ask you straight up, was there anything you put on there before the game, whether it was illicit substance or anything? Or was it just an effect from the lights on TV?

JOE MUSGROVE: No, maybe it was just an effect. I was sweating my ass off out there. I don't know what they saw. I didn't see any video. They came out and checked me and didn't find anything.

Q. Even if there was nothing going on, does part of you think that the reason they asked to be checked was to disrupt you?

JOE MUSGROVE: I don't know if it was the timing or anything. Maybe they thought that that would rile me up and get me a little bit outside of my game, but I'm aware of that stuff. I think about every possible situation I could be in the night before a start.

I go through from the start of walking out of the dugout to the bullpen to warm up, what that's going to sound like and what it's going to feel like if I get runners on early in the game. What's the energy going to be like? What's my mind going to be thinking? Where do I want to go? I try to combat those things the night before I start so when I get out there, whatever happens is something I've been through before and I know how to manage that.

Anything like that, that's not something I visualized was them coming out and checking me, but, yeah, I feel like I'm ready for any situation that goes on.

Q. What's going through your mind when Alfonso's plucking your ears almost like he's trying to pull a quarter out?

JOE MUSGROVE: He's not going to find nothing.