A lot of these dips that you go through in the season, it's about persisting through the process and trusting it.

You can only control so much.

Nobody's immune from getting beat. If you're not aware of that, you really don't have a great perspective.

When you start lifting weights in the offseason in like November, you're like, 'Ah, I'm going to get this thing up so I can get to the World Series.'

For me, it's more about having fun out there and competing and trying to make a difference in the game in every aspect that I can.

I've always just kind of prided myself on just taking the ball and just trying to give your team a chance to win, and I really don't try to make it any more complicated than that.

What I've been able to do is pretty cool, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

When you dream as a little kid, you dream about storybook endings and storybook players and scenarios like that.

The most rewarding thing to me is going deep into games, knowing you stood up, and did your job.

I just like to leave it out there and feel like I put in a good day's work.

You try not to pay too much attention to the hype before the game, because you never know what's going to happen.

When they have the lead, you don't want to fall into too predictable counts because they're playing with house money at that point. You want to try to be creative and keep them off-balance as much as you can.

A lot of my friends at home call me 'Chef G.'

I think that's kind of the common theme when you talk about any good team. Not only do you have the talent and the type of players that allow you to win that many games, but you have to win the ugly ones.

You have to win the easy ones.

You have to win the grinders.

Verlander is a guy every right-handed power pitcher looks up to since the beginning of time.

You get into a tough spot where you're not feeling good and you can't do what you're typically accustomed to doing, you just keep grinding.

Health is key.

If you can constantly just put pressure on all four quadrants, it gives you a little more leverage to be able to fill the zone up with breaking balls and fastball counts - or with breaking balls when guys are maybe sitting on the fastball that you've established.

The season is long. You go through aches and pains with your brothers. When it's on the line, you just want to give them - you know, you want to perform. You want to give them a shot to win the game.

Base runners in postseason games are kind of tough to deal with at times.

It was a pleasure to play in Houston.

Altuve is just so good at that. He can decide halfway to the plate where he's going to place the ball. I've never seen that kind of talent before in my life, and I don't know if I'll ever see it again.

You get into a situation where your back's up against the wall and you don't have any option but to go out swinging, so you might as well go for it.

I've obviously learned a lot, a lot of mental toughness, learned how to deal with some adversity. Hopefully I'm better for it.

I feel like, by now, if you don't understand that the playoffs can be somewhat of a crapshoot sometimes, then you don't watch enough baseball.

We're out there pitching for wins, not for stat lines.

Trying to get better, always, is my goal.

I don't think I'm going to dwell on one pitch. You've got to be able to shake that off in the middle of the game.

It wouldn't be any fun if you didn't fail sometimes.

You figure when you match up against other clubs and you go through the lineup one through nine, you get to the nine hole, if you can put together an at-bat or you can see some different pitches that helps give you an advantage competitively, it can make your lineup stronger.

I feel like sometimes I'm in a position to really do some good, so I try to do that.

Any opportunity to throw against the Cardinals is going to be a good one.

There's hard work to be done, which I'll do. I'll continue to do it.

You continue to try to hammer out fastball command the best you can.

You've got to go out there and play your tail off every single day and at times during the year it can be tough to do that.

There's going to be ups and downs throughout the whole year. You can't get frustrated.

Family is everything.

It would be irresponsible for me to comment on somebody else's opinions.

I try to show up and do my job and get my work in every day, keep pressing forward.

I'm a sucker for Wrigley, so I feel I'll probably be a sucker for Fenway, too.

As a competitor, you want to pitch against the elite guys and really good guys.

There's a human element here you start to lose when you start rattling off the best mathematical equation to get the out.

I certainly wouldn't pay for a ticket to watch a math equation.

It doesn't really matter who you're playing. You just have to keep going at them.

You're always just so inspired to get in the game and try to contribute any way you can.

When you're more comfortable out there, you start seeing different things, relaxing more, being able to trust your pitches more and not try to overdo things as much.

I think there's a quiet aggression that you need to have, that presence that you have on the mound, the poise, you know.

You don't want to let the other team feed off your outward physical demeanor. But at the same time, you can't go out and play this game and not expect to just be angry and be competitive and be excited and have that fire in your belly.