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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS VS RED SOX

October 13, 2018

AJ Hinch

Boston, Massachusetts - postgame 1

Astros - 7, Red Sox - 2

THE MODERATOR: Questions for A.J. Hinch.

Q. It's 3-2 going into the ninth inning and Reddick and Yuli has a homer and you win 7-2. Alex said you guys finish games. Is that a reminder it takes the full nine and you guys often find a way to finish those types of games?
A.J. HINCH: No, we do. And a lot of good teams do. These guys do too. It's 27-out, use all the ones that you can. Being a tough team to put away is a great characteristic. And we showed again why tack-on runs are really important.

Doesn't make it more comfortable necessarily. It's a five-run lead. Felt good. Got Osuna out of the game and got McHugh into the game and a lot of advantages moving forward but we can be pretty explosive.

Q. Alex just mentioned you can't give a team like yourselves more than 27 outs. The sixth inning, to take advantage of the Nunez error, how big is that and how characteristic is it of your team to take advantage in a spot like that?
A.J. HINCH: You try to give us extra base runners or extra bases. That was a really close game for the way that the game had played out. I mean both sides, if I would have told you Sale would have control problems and Verlander would walk himself into a major jam and the game was still going to be 3-2 with four or five hits between the two teams, that's a lot of odd things happen.

But when you're given an opportunity, specifically in the playoffs and you can capitalize, it's huge. Mistakes happen at all times, but when mistakes happen in the playoffs and the momentum starts to shift the other side that's what you want to do. When you get an extra out, take advantage of it; when you get a free pass, try to find a way to score them and put pressure on the opponent.

Q. What happened with Verlander when he lost control there, and what told you he was going to regain it for the next inning?
A.J. HINCH: Just -- look, he was barely missing. He wasn't a complete mess he was barely missing and just couldn't quite find them. I think what you see there, these two offenses are so good and I know tonight was a little bit of an odd night offensively for both sides. But pitching careful is hard. You still have to pitch to the plate.

And it looked like JV got a little bit careful in that inning and started to spread the ball around. They had some really good at-bats and then he got his way out of it. So nothing really happened. I think the 30-pitch inning made me worried about two more innings. It didn't make me necessarily worried for the next inning.

That got him out of the game in 90, as opposed to pushing him even further. He was cruising along like, this might be a game where he pitches almost the entire game to out of the game because of the way they worked him in that inning.

Q. What did you feel like the most important at-bat was in that inning?
A.J. HINCH: For Verlander? Benintendi. His at-bat is obviously huge because the difference between that being a walk and a punch-out is significant on both sides. One, he may come out of the game. I'm not sure what I would have done with Martinez coming up. And, number two, it just created a little bit of an issue on their side. Benintendi is mad. Cora gets ejected. That at-bat was a huge swing at-bat.

Q. This is the third time in four playoff games you guys held a team to three hits. When your pitching is that strong and that solid from starter through your bullpen, how much of a comfort is that?
A.J. HINCH: Well, it's comfortable as long as you don't walk guys. We walked a lot of guys, so I count those as hits. I know they're not hits on the board. But they're base runners and it's traffic. There was maybe a few -- looks a lot better on paper right now than it felt during the game because of the extra base runners.

But when you're hard to score against -- it's hard to get three hits in a row against a lot of our pitchers. And when we control the running game, we make them singles -- to Marwin makes a great play in the ninth inning; I know it's a game semi in hand, we still have a big lead. Still keeps Bogaerts to a single. Bregman's play at third base.

Just being able to capitalize on opportunities to get outs and then minimize their opportunities of hitting with runners in scoring position, it was huge. Start at the very beginning of the game. Verlander gets a double play. He's not a guy that puts the ball on the ground very often, gets a double play in the first inning and we erase that issue. When you're hard to score or they're hard to piece hits together against, it's a pretty good feeling.

Q. You mentioned that it was a bit of a strange game. When Jake was stealing there and the ball hits Joe West, have you ever seen anything like that?
A.J. HINCH: Last year in the World Series the pick off hit Laz Diaz in the chest. That was advantage us. I'm not sure how that play was going to play out, where Joe was. I'll have to look at the video. But you rarely see it. They're part of play. You have to account for it. But I was not expecting him to get hit.

Q. They hit three of your batters. Looked like Bregman had an issue with his. It looked like they asked for Maldonado's mitt to be checked. What was your view of some of the stuff that went on in this game?
A.J. HINCH: I don't think anybody was throwing at anybody -- if you throw the ball over the plate with Bregman it's pretty dangerous nowadays. And so obviously there was a timeout before Bregman got hit, which just makes it feel a little bit worse. But I think more than anything when you get hit by a hundred, it hurts. And there's a little bit of tension at that moment.

But I don't think there was anything malicious about anything that went on.

Maldonado got hit. Who was the third guy that got hit? Tyler White got hit to lead off the inning which I was happy with.

Q. They checked his mitt at some point?
A.J. HINCH: Joe came over and asked about his mitt. We gave him his mitt and he went on his way.

Q. You got so many Carlos Correa questions over the week he had a walk that set up your first inning scoring. He has a single to put you guys up 3-2. Obviously you're going to keep him in the lineup, but just Correa's persistence and resilience to get back to this point?
A.J. HINCH: That was a good game for him. Really good at-bat, which shouldn't go unnoticed is the two-out walk that set up, three hitters later when George got up with a two-out base hit. Laying off those breaking balls that are back door.

Sale's scuffling, went from a high-pitch-count first inning to what looked like could be a low-pitch-count second inning. Instead he battles, gets himself a walk, sets up the next at-bat and Maldonado gets hit. Reddick works a walk and all of a sudden Springer sets up.

The at-bat that Correa had was just as significant as any of them. Obviously Springer being a huge at-bat. Carlos has had huge at-bats. We talked about it. He had a little bit more results with a couple walks and the base hit with the RBI with two outs. So I'm not panicked about him if you're wondering.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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