Q. I know you have plenty of experience, but a situation like this, how do you balance your nerves and stress and try not to make you succumb to that?
MATTHEW BOYD: The goal is to get outs, right? That's my job. Like, I know what I'm going to do out there. I know what I'm going to do. Whether it's starting a game, relieving a game, whatever, your job is still the same.
So you feed off of those, right? I mean, it's what you want. It means you're alive. It means your heart is beating. So it's all energy. You just use it for good, and yeah.
Q. Pitching against the same team just five days apart, does that mean anything for you or for the hitters, or how does that work out?
MATTHEW BOYD: I mean, to me it's -- pitching is pitching. The hitter is going to tell you what needs to be done. And, I mean, at this point in the year, right, they have a good idea what I do, I have a good idea what they do, and it just comes down to execution and whatnot.
So they got a good lineup. So it'll be a fun time.
Q. Two things. One, what was it like when you're a competitor, you want the ball? What's that moment like?
MATTHEW BOYD: It's always exciting. It doesn't get old when you hear that. I was really grateful for Vogt giving me the ball, and I'll just go do my job until he gives it to somebody else. I'm excited about it.
Q. Would you change anything that did you the first time around?
MATTHEW BOYD: No. I mean, I gotta say I've done the same thing for the most part going through my rehab starts to today, right, in terms of how you prepare.
When it comes down to the game, it's just execution. And you have a game plan. You go out there and do your best to execute it and just go pitch to pitch after that.
In terms of that point, you don't change anything in the preparation of it. You trust the work you put in and know what you expect of yourself when you go out there on the mound.
Q. Tarik really wears his emotions on his sleeve and really uses that passion to fuel it. Have you had conversations with him about that?
MATTHEW BOYD: Yeah. He asked questions about it early on. I think the biggest thing that you can -- you don't want to -- there's so many ways to look at it, right? Last thing you want to do is try to fake something out there. If you got that emotion, you let it out sort of thing.
Like being a parent, you get this a lot. You don't want -- you want to be able to talk, whatever -- I'm going down a different rabbit hole with that one.
What Tarik does is awesome. That's perfect for him, right? He's got that emotion. He's got that fire. He feeds off that stuff, and like that's him. You wouldn't want him to be somebody else, right? And I think that goes for everybody.
Q. Do you use social media to kind of scold him about his language?
MATTHEW BOYD: No. I did not. I did not. I gotta say I'm kind of off of social media for here. It ebbs and flows for me. So, no, I did not, but that's good. Yeah, Tarik is awesome, man.
Q. When did they tell you, Matthew, that you were going to start?
MATTHEW BOYD: About, what -- Vogter I think told me about five minutes ago before I talked to you guys. The plan has been to --
Q. Were you surprised?
MATTHEW BOYD: No. No. No, no, no. I was going to be ready to throw in some capacity. So like I said, at this point in the year, it's your job, is to get outs. It's whatever -- like our goal is to get 27 outs, and if you need more than that, you go get more than that.
The cool thing about our team is our egos are checked at the door and we have one goal, and that's to get a W. I was going to be ready to do whatever I needed to, and if it starts at 1:08 as compared to later on, so be it, but my job doesn't change.
Q. Does that bother you? Does that change your plans, the early start at all?
MATTHEW BOYD: No. The plan is exactly the same. We've been going down that course, normal five-day routine.
Q. What are your emotions like being back in Detroit the last few days?
MATTHEW BOYD: Oh, man. Detroit is always going to be a special place to our family. It was fun. It's always fun to be back there and see people you know. When you're around an organization of people for eight years, right, whether that's walking by the same parking attendants or clubhouse security or whatnot, you make friendships that last a long time.
So fun to be back there and see everybody.
Q. I know you can't be two places at once, so you don't know this. But from hearing from your wife, what's it like for your kids to watch you win? Have you seen videos of what it's like for them in the ballpark?
MATTHEW BOYD: Well, we got that age gap from seven, five and twins that are going to turn three this month. So it varies for each one of them. My oldest, the seven-year-old, she's dialed in. You know, she understands it. She wants to learn how to keep score.
My five-year-old loves it, but he's more enamored with everything else going on, like the fireworks and whatnot. And I think the twins like the hotdog race. That's what the big thing is every time that they go to the game. They told me that there wasn't a hotdog race during my last start, and that was the biggest news for them.
So it varies by age, but it's kind of cool to see them as time has gone on, right? My oldest, Meira, she didn't really understand it until a few years ago, and then it was, Why aren't you playing baseball? I'm hurt, honey. You see that evolve and whatnot. And they got more and more dialed in as the years go on. So it's fun to see it through their eyes.
Q. Off-season project to teach her how to keep score?
MATTHEW BOYD: Yeah. You need a game to -- it's a little hard to find a baseball game in the off-season. I probably gotta put Papa on that and sit her down with him and go through it pitch by pitch.
Q. Did you ever think when you signed here that you'd be pitching two games in the ALDS? I mean, I know that's a silly question, but, I mean, does that kind of -- how do you take that all in?
MATTHEW BOYD: I mean, just gratitude. Like, you know, all those days -- man, you're making me cry. I don't know why. This is ridiculous. I mean, you're in the gym, right, and this is what you dream of, this is what you want, and you go do it, and it's like, yeah, right? Gosh, Paul.
I don't know where that came from. But you're excited about it, and that's what you want. Like this is what you dream about. You dream about everything leading up to it.
I said when I got back that was a step. When you get to the point like five days ago, it's just another step. Tomorrow is just another step. You know, the script is still being written regardless of what the result is, but it's like that's what you want, and it's the cool part about it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports