Strikeouts are part of my game.

If I got hurt or anything, I was going to need a college degree. Nothing was going to stop me from getting that.

I really wanted to go to college.

You have to find a way to improve yourself.

You have to look back on everything that you've done and critique yourself and find the holes in your game that you can continue to get better.

You've got to get better every single year, it doesn't matter.

Look, the umpires behind the plate? They're human. They're doing the best they can to try to call balls and strikes. I understand that there's a lot of calls that kinda are 50-50. They can go either way. And as a starting pitcher, you try to manage, 'Alright, if you didn't get that call, maybe you'll get it again here a few innings later.'

That's been kinda my secret. You use everything off the field to help make you better on the field.

I take a great deal of pride in pitching deep into ballgames.

I grew up with dogs. My wife really loves dogs.

I need to eat a large meal before I play, and the one thing that was kind of consistent in every single clubhouse at least in the minors was a roast beef sandwich. So that kind of stuck there, and it just kind of stuck in the big leagues as well.

There's so many great things I learned at Mizzou. I took a sports psychology class. It was kind of eye-opening on certain different ways to look at things.

When you allow stolen bases, that changes the game.

I don't worry about infield shifts at all - you play where you're gonna play. I'm just gonna pitch my game.

I understand what sabermetrics get across, and what they're getting across is to keep it simple. Especially for me, as a pitcher, that's something that helps me - finding ways to keep it simple. Numbers can only tell so much.

My slider's been very, very good to me.

Sometimes you have to throw 120 pitches to figure yourself out.

I've had a better 2017 than I've had 2016, just like a better '16 than '15 and '14.

It's my goal every single year. That's the only goal I really set for myself is to make sure I'm better every single year.

I expect to pitch well and pitch efficiently.

I relish pitching underneath pressure.

Put as much pressure on me as possible. I have no qualms handling that, because I expect that out of myself.

Being in the clubhouse, talking to the veterans, talking to guys who have been here, getting to know everybody, getting the personalities, you can actually learn a lot from the other players in the league.

I know how to pitch.