	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS BLUE JAYS

October 11, 2015

Jeff Banister

Arlington, Texas - Pregame

Blue Jays - 5 Rangers - 1

MODERATOR: We will get started with Jeff Banister if anyone has a question to start.

Q. Banny, the decision to stick with Martin there, what factored into that, and then the decision to bring in Chi Chi when you did, just kind of your thinking as far as your pitching moves were concerned tonight?
JEFF BANISTER: Well, I still feel like the decision to stick with Martin, we were still getting balls on the ground really that what got Martin in trouble was a couple walks, still had good life on the fastball. You know, he was -- they weren't getting great swings off of him, still hitting the ball on the ground. Really, the ball that Navarro hit early on was really the one ball that got barreled. And then Donaldson. And the rest of the way, it was ground balls. Just felt like he still was our guy in that situation. As far as Chi Chi's concerned, he's another guy that keeps the ball on the ground. These guys did a really good job at limiting the damage, got the double play balls when we needed them. Really the big blow was, I think it was a change-up to Tulowitzki that in that situation probably like to stay with our best pitch with a base-open situation. But the margin of error in these type of games is so slim that one pitch typically can get you, and that's really was the story tonight with Chi Chi and that situation. Still felt like the ball on the ground was our friend, really. It was a situation that -- make a pitch there, execute a pitch. If he doesn't, if he walks him, we probably go in a different direction.

Q. Your two, three and four hitters went 0 for 12 today. What did they do pitching-wise that kept those guys off base?
JEFF BANISTER: I really felt like Estrada kept us off balance with a change-up, just enough breaking balls to get us off the change-up and the fastball. He moved the fastball around. He was throwing fastball up in the zone enough that when he threw the change-up down and fastball down, we weren't getting good swings. That's what Estrada does, I've seen him before. Sometimes you have to tip your hat to a guy that pitches very well. And felt like Estrada had good command of what he wanted to do and we just couldn't seem to find the barrel off of him.

Q. How much did Tulowitzki's performance up until that point in the series factor into your decision to pitch to him in that situation with a base open?
JEFF BANISTER: Well, I mean, again, he had not found the barrel until that point. And more than anything else, I felt like it was a pitch and he put a good swing on it, he found the barrel. Looked like, again, looked like a center cut, change-up that -- non-executed pitch. So I mean, wasn't going to walk the bases loaded there, not going to. I'm not going to put the bases loaded on my -- for me in that situation. I felt like we were still making good pitches. One pitch had got him.

Co: it's to

Q. With Chi Chi, does he show poise that lets you go right to him without hesitating?
JEFF BANISTER: Chi Chi has shown poise all year long and pitched some significant innings for us and thrown the ball very well. And he's thrown in that same situation for us down the stretch. Has shown up very well, got the ball on the ground and has gotten significant outs in that very same situation, yes.

Q. What are your thoughts on Prince and his approach at the plate and how he's looking to you?
JEFF BANISTER: Listen, I'm not going to start on Prince. The man barreled a baseball tonight also. This is a guy who's been right in the heart of everything we've done all year long. Yeah, do we need for Prince to find the barrel? Yes. He has. At points he's actually carried this club for a significant amount of time. What I know about guys like Prince, for every 0-fer, they're one more closer to getting hot.

Q. What made Estrada so effective tonight?
JEFF BANISTER: Just talked about that, the mix of pitches, the change-up, the fastball, just enough breaking balls to get us off the fastball and the change-up. He elevated the football when he needed to be able to throw the football down and mix the change-up in. That's what Estrada does, we've seen him before and it's a challenge to pick up the change-up off of him. It's a plus-plus pitch for him. He had a going tonight, and again there were a couple breaking balls that froze us. Really, it was the fastball change-up mix that he typically stays with. Again, there were just enough breaking balls in there to keep us off both pitches.

Q. Jeff, I want to get your comments on Holland on tomorrow, what can we expect and looking forward to him brings him in tomorrow against Dickey?
JEFF BANISTER: Yeah, Derek has been a key pitcher for us. Felt like Derek is ready for this stage, for this game. Nothing that he hasn't done before. He's been here before, he's been in these type of games and has shown up very well in the fast. We expect Derek to come out and throw a quality baseball game for us. Again, we expect our guys -- we've been in this situation before. This is not new to this ballclub, and we knew that Toronto was going to be ready to play today. That's a quality ballclub in that other clubhouse. They know how to play, they know how to play very well. They have won a lot of baseball games this year. We knew that tonight would be a tough ballgame. We know that tomorrow's going to be a tough ballgame and we've got to come out and play well. We've got to continue to play well. This is -- we knew it was going to be a tough series. No stretch of the imagination did we think that this was going to be a ballclub that was going to do anything other than what they did tonight, show up ready to play. We'll show up ready to play. Derek will show up ready to pitch. We'll be ready to play the game of baseball tomorrow.

Q. Not a must-win tomorrow, but I'm sure you would like to avoid a trip back to Toronto, and with that in mind, how persuasive will Adrian Beltre attempt to be tomorrow?
JEFF BANISTER: We'll check in with Adrian tomorrow. I'm sure with each passing hour he has gotten better. We feel like if Adrian comes in and says he's ready to go, then he's ready to go. Again, this is -- I'll reiterate this: We knew that this was going to be a challenging series. We went into Toronto, played two really good ballgames, a 14-inning ballgame that was tough on both teams. We came away with two wins because we played the game of baseball well. We'll show up tomorrow. If Adrian's ready to go, then Adrian will be in the lineup. If not, then we'll post up with the players that we have available to us and play a game of baseball at the level we typically play. Didn't feel like that we played the game poorly tonight. There were a couple pitches that got away from us tonight. We couldn't find the barrel enough and we couldn't get anything going, we couldn't get the leadoff runner on typically, which is really profitable for us in our offense. That's a tip of the hat to Estrada and what he was capable of doing. We felt like that our guys, Martin Perez was throwing the ball very well, was keeping the ball on the ground. It was the walks that kind of led to some tough situations, a leadoff runner getting on base. We make a mistake behind him that allowed a leadoff hitter to get to second base. But we made some nice plays behind him. We got the ground balls when we needed to, to limit some of the damage. We still had an opportunity down two runs. Again, it was, like we talked about, the margin of error in these games are so significant and so small that you've got to continue to execute pitches. We missed on one pitch tonight.

MODERATOR: Thanks a lot, Jeff.

JEFF BANISTER: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297