LOS ANGELES — There is a blue hippo in the room, now whatever you do, don’t think about the blue hippo.
Good luck.
The blue hippo in baseball is the win-or-go-home game. Really, good luck finding the discipline to not let that into your mind and heart and blood stream. Good luck steadying your nerves, focusing your thoughts, treating this like just any other game.
Of course, that is what all the players will say, that they have the Zen principles or Navy Seal mentality to ignore the stakes and goat-or-hero implications that can be riding on every pitch, every ground ball, every swing.