Oct. 31 Josh Tomlin workout day interview

Q. Josh, I think you’ve only pitched on three days’ rest once before in your career. The fact that you threw less than 60 pitches in your last outing, how does that impact you tomorrow? Also, how has your preparation changed, if at all?

JOSH TOMLIN: The preparation on the field really doesn’t change that much. You listen to your body a little bit more on days like today and days like the couple days leading up to it just because you know you don’t have that bullpen day or that longer bullpen day. And you probably don’t get in two lifts, but I think you just listen to your body. Do what you’re capable of doing in the days leading up to this. But I think that’s the most important thing is just kind of — the 58 pitches is, yeah, it’s 58 pitches. So it’s obviously a little better than throwing 100 or 110, but in this environment you’re still get up and down four or five times and a little more stressful than a regular season start. But the body’s feeling good. Everything’s feeling the same as it did last start, so hopefully that bodes well for me.Q. I know professionally you’re conditioned to treat every game the same. This game’s not the same. There is a great opportunity here. Is it very difficult to separate the moment and the opportunity from the everyday function that you try to bring to your game?

JOSH TOMLIN: I know the atmosphere of this game is not the same, but it’s still the same game. Between the lines it’s still 60 foot, 6 inches. It’s still 90 feet to first base. It’s still baseball. In the grand scheme of things it’s still the baseball game whenever the umpire says “Play ball!” So that’s how you have to treat it. I know it’s a Game 6 and we have a chance of winning a World Series, but you still can’t have that mindset of trying to go out there and win the game in the first inning. You have to go out there and take each pitch as it is and start living in that moment until Tito comes and gets the ball, and then see what happens.Q. You’ve prepared to face the Cubs with National League rules in their ballpark. I wonder now that you’ve prepared to face them in your ballpark with them adding a DH, how different you view their lineup? How different it looks with that added bat?

JOSH TOMLIN: I mean, you’re essentially taking out the worst hitter in the lineup and putting in one of the better hitters in the lineup. So it’s definitely different. But you’ve got to know — we’ll figure out who is in the lineup tomorrow and we’ll go with the game plan and try to execute pitches to him. I understand that whenever the pitcher’s in there, you probably have a situation where they’re going to bunt. You can probably pitch around the guy in the 8th hole to try to get to him, but that’s a little bit different now. But I’ve pitched in the American League all year long, so that’s essentially been what we’ve done all year long. So you just have to have the same mindset and go over the guys that have been in the lineup, and try to execute pitches and get them out.Q. What did you take away from the last time you faced this lineup in terms of what you’re hoping you can do again tomorrow?

JOSH TOMLIN: I think for me it’s just about executing pitches. Kind of understanding the game plan going into it, but making in-game adjustments as the game kind of rolls on. I think the game kind of dictates what you do to certain guys in certain situations. It’s about …

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