Well, I mean, I like to be pretty athletic off the mound in terms of taking care of my job, which is covering first base, fielding bunts in certain situations, fielding slow rollers to the first base and having to communicate and direct traffic.
When you're spinning a two-seam, getting on the side of the ball to get more run or sink can be good, but it can really be detrimental to your four-seam.
Cleaning up that lack of the definition between the two, and then leaning on the four-seam, having it become my primary fastball over my two-seam, it's just benefited me as a whole.
I mean, our job is - we're baseball players, we have to go to work. But when it all boils down, we're just a bunch of kids out there having fun trying to entertain people.
Any time you can get in a position to start to get some of the quality work in as early as possible, I think it gives you a leg up or at least gives you the opportunity to be really prepared for the first time you take the ball.
Every start is an opportunity to get better and to learn how your body is feeling and what you need to do moving forward. It's been an evolution throughout the year.
You can have really good statistics, which are really good, and it's a serious advantage, but when push comes to shove, it's about players communicating and players playing together.
I was hurt in 2016, and it made me look at longevity and sustainability. The stuff that I was doing wasn't working for me long term. So, I had to make a change.
David Price comes and finds me out in the lobby and says, 'Dude, I really enjoy watching you pitch.' I'm just like, 'What's wrong with you? Watch your own games, bro. I just throw fastballs inside. You're painting all over the place, striking the world out.'
You never want to be in a bases-loaded, no-outs position, but dammit, when you're there, you better enjoy it. You better not sit there and sulk about it. You better rise up and figure it out.
You never want to have Yadier Molina up with the bases loaded in the World Series, but, dammit, you wouldn't want a better hitter up. Maybe that's not the way most people think, I don't know. That's how I think.
I think if we just stay focused on what we focus on, which is ourselves, playing good ballgames, trying to win every day, don't take wins with us, don't take losses with us, if we just stay with that approach the results are going to be what they're going to be.
Strikeouts are something that just happen. You don't go for strikeouts, because your pitch count gets too high. When you do get that opportunity, you have to put them away with whatever is working that day.
There's a lot of pageantry involved in opening day, flyovers, extra long TV breaks and stuff. To say that it's not important, more so than some other ones, it is. It's the first game of the year. but I got 30 starts to make. Each win or loss is equally as important.
If I'm not going to make the pitch, then so be it. I'm not going to try to manipulate the ball or muscle the ball over the plate where I want it to go.
You have more of an opportunity than people think to impact a game through the tone that you can set. You can't control everything, setting that tone is important.