 Hi Michael when you got in there you walked better you gave up a single and you ended your outing retiring 16 straight. What were you able to do that allowed you to get so many betters out. I ended up just kind of attacking the zone. The first four pitches were a little scary. I felt like I was kind of hitting my lanes and everything and then I just felt like it didn't have the run on the baseball so I just was missing glove side and then I Was able to lock it in and I don't know I was able to get ahead of almost everybody Throwing both sinker cutter for strikes Had some pretty good change up So I was just able to kind of get ahead of the count and get into the dugout as fast as I can So it's good. You mentioned that cutter. How improved is that pitch for you? Yeah, it's been it's been good I last year I always struggled with making my slider It was too slow and so throwing the cutter kind of brought the Velo back and what I want to get it I know I can get it up like 91 92 But I also feel comfortable kind of making it bigger and that was today I was I was using it as more of a like a slutter slider type pitch that was 84 86 and and Was able to get some some pretty good takes and some some ugly swings and misses Still early in the season, but what does an outing do like this for your confidence against a team with a pretty potent offense? yeah, I Faced the Blue Jays a lot all those like younger guys in the minor leagues a lot so I've seen them a lot and We had a pretty good game playing going into it and then I was just kind of able to take the Confidence I had in spring training over into the end of the season I felt like I was in a pretty good spot towards the end of spring training and then was just able to execute out there on the on the stage We'll take the next one from Tom Mariam Michael, how important do you see the role of the long reliever on this team throughout the season? It used to be not such a significant role, but it seems to have gained importance. Yeah, I think a lot of teams are gonna Kind of gain some importance with long relievers Whether it's that or a six starter even seven starters, whatever it is Just to kind of keep the bullpen healthy But also make sure that you're not having three four starters go 200 plus innings this year So yeah, I mean I my goal was to get a hundred innings this year and impact the team and I guess I'm six down so far Next one from Jordan Harobin Hey Michael Aaron Boone said that you've come a long way I think he's just reflecting sort of on your time obviously not just today, but in your career so far How would you kind of reflect on? What it's taken for you to get to this point? Yeah, I Kind of underestimated how tough it is to come back from an injury and so in 2019 when I got hurt I just kind of totally got out of my mechanics totally got out of my mindset that I had previous years and I Showed spurts of it in 2020 And then even like my first outing this year in spring training was back to my my bad ways But because I've been able to kind of Have a few good outings under my belt I don't know if that's what's given me the confidence or I was able to get the the right feeling in my mechanics and get it back but Blake Harkie and I we made some pretty good tweaks to mechanics to pitch sequencing to just even just different pitches that Have allowed me to have success at this level so Kind of all those little tweaks added to to the confidence that I've gotten And then just in terms of your role Aaron mentioned, you know you being able to do a lot of different things for this team What do you view as sort of your ideal role if you could try to I ideally I'd love to be a starter I always picture myself as a starter, but I mean we got six seven eight studs on this team so I also pride myself in being versatile where I could go out there in a relief role and still go six or I Don't know whether it's get one out and try to get a ground ball out double play whatever it is If I'm versatile, I feel like then I'm able to be used in in any Circumstance, and then hopefully I just kind of get the confidence of the coaches to put me in those in those situations extra time We can take a final question from Max Goodman And Mike do you recall ever retiring 16 in a row before so that's something you've done in your career I mean in the minor leagues. Yeah. Yeah, I had a couple I would say my best minor league outing was actually against New Hampshire, which is the blue J So it's that's one of the games that I always go kind of go back to and I'm like alright if I'm in a bad way I go back to it was like July 6th. There's something against the against New Hampshire So that's where I've kind of seen these hitters a lot where it's not just me facing them But then I also watch a lot of video on that so yeah, I've had a couple that Have been have been pretty good, but not none of the big league level obviously