From the Locker Room: Kid Keuchy Spreads Some Sunshine

While not dismissing the heavy nature of the four game sweep in Cleveland and 1-6 road trip after clinching the playoffs last Thursday, Chicago White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel saw a lot to love about his team on Thursday.

"It’s a little somber," he acknowledged "We take all losses hard. Heck, we’ve ran into playoff arms, and for the most part we’ve been grinding our tails off and putting ourselves in position to win… give a lot of credit to the Indians, they know how to do things the right way ..."

After six innings of stellar pitching his his final tune-up before his start in Game 2 of the first round next Wednesday, Keuchel was downright proud of his charges postgame.

"I’m not one to push the envelope late," he said. "Even though it’s 60 games, it feels like about 120. I said what I needed to say early in the season because I felt a lack of emotion and commitment, but man, we’re grinding now. This is playoff baseball before the playoffs. We knew we were drawing playoff matchups the whole end of the season. You hope to go 500 against those teams."

At every turn, the veteran spun the sickening outcome of a four-game sweep in Cleveland into something sunnier.

"We’re not going to make any excuses [but] we’re in the playoffs," he said. "So that’s a huge stress level off our shoulders ... We’ve shown the ability to weather strorms. It’s going to be fun more than anything. We’re going to be the same team we were for the four games here. We’ll see if we’re good enough to host [in the playoffs]. If not, we’ll go on the road and do our thing."

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Dallas Keuchel video courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.