AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 8, 2023

Pablo Lopez

Minute Maid Park

Minnesota Twins

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Twins - 6, Astros - 2

Q. Pablo, congrats for today. You are the second pitcher in Twins history to win seven scoreless innings in a game in a playoff. The last one was, by the way, Johan Santana. Besides you are the fourth Venezuelan pitcher with the same results in the playoff. How do you feel about that?

PABLO LOPEZ: I feel extremely honored and happy. These are moments that sometimes as players we don't understand that we have to cherish them because sometimes they're short, sometimes they don't come again.

I'm truly honored to be on a list. I'm always honored to be on any list that includes Johan Santana's name and just really, really happy with it.

We were able to come up with a good plan. We knew that today's game was extremely, extremely important after losing the first one. We came up with a good plan. We still wanted to be aggressive.

What happened yesterday already happened. We were just going to try to control what we could control today. The end became about execution, and things were going well, and I was able to execute the pitches that we needed to. And if we needed to make any adjustments, we were also able to bring that to the table.

Q. Pablo, what does a guy like Carlos Correa do for the team before the game, but then after he performs the way he does?

PABLO LOPEZ: He brings so much experience and knowledge to the game. I think he is the kind of player that sometimes it's amazing and surprising that he sees things that no one else can see.

When he's on defense, he just makes the unbelievable plays. When he's on offense, he wants the big moments to make something happen. He can really hype up a team. A lot of guys in our clubhouse maybe don't have the most playoff experience or like these big games, big moments experience, but he's such an incredible source of that kind of information, and he keeps you accountable, he keeps you honest, and he keeps you on the attack.

He kept telling me like think about it as a 0-0 game. You're the closer of every inning. Then just like that's a lot of things that no one can see that he can do. He keeps you like on the attack. He keeps you engaged into the game.

When you see it takes a guy to be engaged into the game to keep everyone like that. So Carlos Correa is as good as it gets as a leader, a player, and a teammate.

Q. You mentioned before the game yesterday that you're going to be watching Game 1 as closely as possible. How much did that help in your game plan today? You mentioned the game plan. How much did the adjustments in the game help you?

PABLO LOPEZ: Obviously I paid a lot of attention. I was trying to watch every single pitch live and went back and rewatched it on iPads. It was about really understanding what kind of adjustment batters do.

As pitchers, we want to make adjustments pitch to pitch. Well, batters want to do the same thing. So like when you expand to a part of the zone, like what is the batter trying to do on the very next pitch?

So those are the kinds of things I try to pay attention to. I knew Jeffers catching yesterday and catching today as well was going to be a huge help because then we were able to maybe like really harp on some things that maybe we didn't yesterday.

So he did such a great job of mixing and matching, trying to remain as unpredictable as we could. Again, you have to do that against a lineup as deep as the Houston Astros lineup.

Q. Pete Maki made a mound visit in the fourth inning, they had two guys on, Chas McCormick on deck. Kind of what was the message, and what did it mean to you that you got McCormick to strike out on three pitches?

PABLO LOPEZ: It always is a little breather. Like give you a couple extra deep breaths under your belt, make sure that you're still controlling your emotions, controlling your breathing, like you're staying engaged in the game.

Then he just gives you a little like -- he talks about, again, places you can go. And then he's like see you in a minute. I love that because you want that kind of confidence to come from your coaching staff and the pitching coach. I'm like, yeah, you will.

Q. How comfortable were you there on the mound? And just studying film, how did that help?

PABLO LOPEZ: I felt really comfortable on the mound. Yeah, we came up with a good plan. It was all about executing after that and really like trying to remain unpredictable. Again, against a lineup like that, you want to keep a level of like not being predictable and then like really use the pitches you want to use to work on the areas you want to work.

So I was able to really pay attention to the game last night and understand what are the pitches that can help me use this part of the plate. Then like if we were able to notice any adjustment, then like really just like shift our eyes to the other side of the plate. We just wanted to like -- as pitchers, we want to get in the good counts, like the 0-1s, the 0-2s, because those are the counts we're able to use every option that we work as pitchers.

Q. You're up to 97 miles an hour with your fastball today, which you hadn't really done since July. Is that just a sign of how well you're feeling at this time of the year or the adrenaline?

PABLO LOPEZ: I think it's a good mix of both. Obviously like the adrenaline I knew was going to be there. You know that every pitch matters a little bit more. You feel the juices going. You feel the crowd going against you. You want to find the perspective that will allow you to like flip that a little bit and maybe use it to juice you up.

Then obviously like just the routine. Like the day in, day out, doing the little things, like making sure that I have a good routine that I know will put me in the best position, the best physical and mental position to go out there and perform.

So I try to take it as seriously as I can. I feel like routines like sometimes they become kind of like a ritual, especially if you see that it allows you to, in my case, take the ball every five days and try to go out there and pitch with conviction.

Yeah, like I was feeling really good today. The adrenaline was high, and I was having fun on the mound.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

PABLO LOPEZ: I would 100 percent say that it's been the biggest career -- biggest start I've had in my MLB career so far, and just the recovery, like it starts right away. As soon as you're done pitching, you're always doing something to make sure that you're taking care of all the stress that you put on the arm, like the BFR, or blood flow restrictions, it's compression on your arm that allows the new blood that comes through to speed up the recovery.

Q. How does this win help you guys in the way that momentum-wise going into Game 3 back home in Minnesota?

PABLO LOPEZ: Yeah, I think it was very important to like come into today knowing that we needed to do everything and anything we knew to try to win a ballgame. Unfortunately, we couldn't take Game 1, but going into Target Field, going back home knowing we were able to take one of these games at their place, like it just lets us know that we have what it takes to put up against the Astros or against anybody.

We have all the pieces that we need in our clubhouse, and I think that momentum is going to carry over to our next game at home.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

PABLO LOPEZ: I think the fastball, fastball was the pitch that I feel -- Ryan Jeffers and I came out before the game knowing it was going to play a huge role, a huge part, on today's plan. Everything works off the fastball. The fastball is what makes all the other pitches a little more deceptive. It's what keeps batters thinking what's he going to throw next?

When you think of a four-seam fastball, you think of one pitch. But if you are able, you have the ability to locate it and move it around, it could play as different pitches kind of.

We knew that going into the game, expanding the fastball, move it around, up, down, in and out, was going to be able to work in our favor when we needed to use the other stuff.