From the Locker Room: Dallas Keuchel is Ready to Roll
As you'd expect, Dallas Keuchel sounded just like a veteran today in speaking with media before teammate Lucas Giolito takes the mound in the playoff opener on Tuesday afternoon.
Keuchel, who starts Game 2 on Wednesday, feels really good after his late-season IL stint, as he approaches yet another playoffs start in his storied (and postseason-laden) career.
"[It helps] getting to six innings [my last outing], knowing if I need to I can push it to six-seven innings, 110-115 pitches," Keuchel said. "It’s a comfort to know my body will let me push it as much as I need to."
As for the sage advice offered his teammates, who are (mostly) playoff newbies, Dallas was mellow.
"I didn’t really share too much," he said. "This group seems calm and collected as it is...At this point it is about pitching. If we score five runs, that will be nice, but postseason baseball usually comes down to pitching and defense."
Watch the entire video, as it's chock-full of great stuff from the vet.
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Dallas Keuchel video courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.