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October 9, 2016
Toronto, Ontario - Pregame three, Canada
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Adrian Beltre.
Q. How do you think your teammates have been handling their situation over the past 48 hours?
ADRIAN BELTRE: Well, obviously I don't think that we are happy where we're at right now, but it's reality. We're going to have to find a way out of -- get ourselves in a better position and find out how to beat these guys here at home, I mean at their place, and take the series back home.
Q. The first two games, you guys win 95 games, holds the best record, first two games didn't go your way. Do you feel like that's not -- it doesn't reflect who you are? Do you think people watching the Rangers for the first time didn't see who the Rangers are?
ADRIAN BELTRE: When you get to the playoffs it doesn't matter what you did in the regular season, it's what you've done lately. Obviously we haven't played the way we wanted to. The last two games, they've been way better than us -- pitched better, hit better and even played better defense so we have to clean up our game and find a way how to be more consistent, the way we were in the regular season. That's the bottom line. Those guys are too good, and you have to play better than me.
Q. What have you seen from Rougned Odor the past several days, and what have you told them about potentially dealing with a very vocal crowd directed at him?
ADRIAN BELTRE: He's fine. We have talked obviously, but he's fine. He's learned that if the fans decide to throw stuff on the field, he's not going to be bothered by that. He's played in an environment like that before. We were here last year. So we know how it's going to be. But they are going to have a good crowd here. But besides that, if the fans keep it clean without throwing stuff on the field, we're going to be okay.
Q. What have you seen from him?
ADRIAN BELTRE: He's fine. He's swinging the bat well, just missed a couple pitches. He's, mentally he's good. He's a kid that plays with a fire, and so far he's done everything really well.
Q. You guys played such good baseball for six months. Is it sort of hard to imagine that it could be over in the space of four days? These series are so quick.
ADRIAN BELTRE: We hope that will not be the case. But there's a possibility, obviously. Like I said, we played them in the regular season, best record in the American League. But you can throw it out the window here. This is the playoffs. We're going to work harder here if we're to win the series. And they play really well. We're going to do everything in our power not to let the series finish today or tomorrow. Our idea is to figure out a way how to beat these guys, that's the bottom line. We're confident that we have a good team to compete, and we have to just go out there and show on the field.
Q. You've had a level of success against Aaron Sanchez this year, what if anything can you take away from that?
ADRIAN BELTRE: Do I? I don't know.
Q. I mean, the team in general.
ADRIAN BELTRE: Us in general. Okay. I don't know. I mean, our team battles and Sanchez is not a nice guy to face. Obviously he has really good stuff. I mean not just his fastball but movement. Obviously he won the ERA title for something.
Our guys have faced him twice this year and we got lucky, I guess. But we obviously are facing a tough competitor. It's not easy to beat him but we'll find a way how to do it.
Q. The club came into this essentially with five days off after you clinched the home-field advantage before you started this series. Do you think that layoff had any effect on the guys. If so do you think it started to go away when if at-bats got better in the second half on Friday's game?
ADRIAN BELTRE: I don't know that. Obviously we did have four or five days off in between. But it's tough to tell. But that's not an excuse.
We've been beat the last couple of games because they played better than us.
Q. How important is it for y'all to get off to a good start tonight?
ADRIAN BELTRE: It's huge. I think it's going to be important for us to get the lead. We haven't got the lead so far in the first two games. Get the crowd a little calmed down a little bit.
Obviously we know how loud those guys can be here. But to give the team a little more confidence, make sure that we continue to put pressure on their pitching staff, create situations and come through it.
Q. As one of the team leaders, have you felt compelled to say anything to your teammates?
ADRIAN BELTRE: I have. I have. I don't want to tell you what I told them. I'll text you later. (Laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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