Q. How would you describe your feelings right now ahead of first postseason experience in front of this crowd, this ballpark, and does it feel more real now? I know we've asked you a lot about the lead-up?
MICHAEL BUSCH: Yeah, it feels good. Obviously excited just to be able to get an extra day to roll into the park to play this game, to spend some more time with some guys we've been spending a lot of time with.
Just excited about it. Excited to kind of get out there and feel the energy. Just driving here, you could feel a sense of energy in Chicago. So yeah, excited.
Q. What have you heard from a guy like Happ who played in the playoffs here, other guys who have played in the postseason elsewhere? What have you talked to them about or what questions have you had about winning in Chicago, playing playoffs in Chicago and then just playoffs in general?
MICHAEL BUSCH: Not too much about, like, what it's going to be play to like in it. I think as a player, you hear from a lot of athletes who have played in there that you just kind of keep doing the same thing, stick to your routine.
Through the course of the season, you learn a lot about yourself, a lot about what kind of makes you click, and then especially in this game, I think it's just super important to hone in on that and just go out there and try to do the things that make you the best player possible.
But I think just from the moment that I got here, there's a lot of conversations, there's a lot of people that talk about what Wrigley is like in the playoffs. It's hard to believe it's even better, seeing some of the regular season games that I've been a part of. But just excited about that.
I think as an athlete, as a player, as a fan of the game, it's something I look forward to, the competition, being able to go out there and perform on this stage and with some of these guys. It's something you look forward to as a player and a team.
Q. Obviously stats reset when you get to postseason, but you had such a strong finish to the year. What do you think can carry over from that?
MICHAEL BUSCH: Yeah, exactly. I think how I try to look at it, and it doesn't often go that way, is every game, no matter if it's Game 61, if it's Game 3. It kind of resets. You've got to keep doing it. You've got to keep doing it throughout the course of the season. It's so long.
To be honest, just kind of keeping that same mindset, stepping into next season of the game, it's like, just try to keep doing what I've been doing, keep trying to learn from the things that kind of make me click, things that don't, and then just -- that's kind of how I'm going to roll and how I'm going to kind of continue to roll throughout the course of my career.
Q. Building off that, in the last couple weeks, you saw Seiya heat up down the stretch, you've got Kyle Tucker back in the lineup, Pete kind of heated up, you heated up.
Is there something to mentally feeling that sense of team momentum as you're entering the playoffs?
MICHAEL BUSCH: I think for sure. I think as an athlete, I think no matter what sport you're playing, I guess I can speak for baseball, you kind of go through ebbs and flows. You fell like there's times where you're checking off everything, you're hitting everything, and then there's times where you might not.
To be able to feel that, to be able to go into the season maybe feeling that is probably a good thing. But like just I talked about before, it's kind of like a reset. Nothing that we've done in the last couple weeks will help us today.
I think individually, kind of whatever gets that person right, whatever gives them the best chance to go succeed I think is kind of the things that I look forward to just sticking to and going out there and doing whatever it takes to win.
Q. I know you've faced him before, but what do you think will be the key against Pivetta and the staff in general, including the Padres' pen?
MICHAEL BUSCH: Yeah, I think obviously Game 1 starter for them. He's had a great year, and he's a great pitcher.
I think just kind of sticking to what we've been doing all year and managing him in the zone, and I think he's got a good heater, plays with it up a little bit, so I think we're going to have to get him down. He's got a good curveball, make sure we get that in the zone. I think consistently putting together good at-bats and getting him in the zone will be pretty key for us.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports