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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS VS RED SOX

October 18, 2018

AJ Hinch

Houston, Texas - pregame 5

THE MODERATOR: Questions for A.J. Hinch.

Q. You guys handled this whole 3-1 deficit beautifully, but asking them last night, just what will it take to get back to your brand of clean baseball and letting the results take care of yourself, do you have any feel for that?
A.J. HINCH: I don't think we're playing dirty baseball. I think we're playing a competitive team that's really good, and we're kind of exchanging haymakers, I guess, when it comes to runs and good at-bats and bullpens and starters.

I don't know, I don't think we have to get back to anything. I think we have to win a game. And today's the next opportunity to do it. And the pressure doesn't really change. These are pretty pressurized games to begin with. The consequence is if you don't win. I don't think we have to get back to anything.

Q. A lot of walks in this series by your pitchers. Do you think that's a product of the Red Sox and the way they work the counts? Or do you think you guys need to do a better job throwing strikes?
A.J. HINCH: You've got to be careful what you wish for in the big part of the strike zone. I think you have to get so specific this time of year when you look at stuff like that. I don't think you just put it all in a bucket on walks. When you look at, as an example, you look at what Bogaerts did yesterday, those are some 90-mile-an-hour sliders just below the zone. He takes a fastball down the middle. He takes another breaking ball below the zone, barely.

And that's not an egregious walk or that's not Ryan Pressly not being able to throw strikes. That's kind of man-on-man competition that Bogaerts won. There's the others, obviously, the hit-by-pitches the other day that cost us. Sure, we want to throw perfect strikes. And this lineup will make you be a little more careful than perhaps the 30th-ranked offense.

But I just think it's this time of year where everything is so precise and you make a few mistakes along the way and vice versa. The first part of the series we were drawing all the walks, Game 1 and part of Game 2. So it's a tough league, a tough series.

Q. Would you like to see all ballparks have natural dividers between fans and the outfielders to avoid --
A.J. HINCH: Yeah, if you don't have perfect camera angles I think we have to do something. But it's easier that way, I think. But I think that might be a little more reactionary than proactive. I'm sure the fans love being in that front row. I'm sure those are valuable seats.

But, yeah, I guess being fresh off last night, I'd like to see something different than I saw last night.

Q. Number of fans are still fixated on what happened last night. Any message for them before this one?
A.J. HINCH: Yeah, I love your passion. I imagine fans are going to be passionate, as they should be. And I would imagine the message would have been different from the Boston fans had it got reversed or the call gone in our favor. I love fans for the emotions that they show.

There's nothing more that you can do. From a functional standpoint inside this clubhouse, we've had to move long past that. I've had to answer questions about it. But it's time to move on. But fight the fight for the team you believe in.

Q. Maybe for the layman, could you describe what Altuve is doing and going through to be out there for you?
A.J. HINCH: He's hurt. And if it was any other time of the year he wouldn't be in the lineup or wouldn't be playing. He'd probably be on the DL or under different circumstances. But he's showing up every day good spirits, ready to go, giving 100 percent of what he's got. And he should be commended and appreciated.

And I know it is. I listen to -- when we went out to see him at second base, we knew he wasn't going to come out of the game, but you've got to give him a little bit of a blow there to take a few seconds to let the pain subside and then the ovation was incredible for that. So the fans appreciate him, his teammates revere him. The production that he's doing on one leg is pretty incredible. And he's trying not to talk about it. And therefore I am.

Q. At the risk of beating a dead horse, have you ever been given an explanation as to why the two umpires that are added during the postseason are stacked so closely to the base umps on the field and not moved further back?
A.J. HINCH: No, and it's a good question. I assume it's for angles down the right-field and left-field lines, for them to say maybe into left-center and right-center. Maybe it's to avoid the fans that are down the line. I don't know.

I never went to umpire school and I've never asked the question. I imagine this winter when we get to the winter meetings and the manager meetings, I should probably raise my hand and ask that question to the people that run the umpires.

These guys are really experts at their craft. So -- and they take a beating all the time when it comes to decisions that they make or interpretations that they make. And as much public -- whether it's my decisions or what the players do or how they perform -- perhaps we should open the book a little bit and see exactly what things like that mean and how they're graded on what -- if they're doing the right thing.

I think they're perfectly positioned for how I see it in my time in the game. So I don't think that Joe or any of the other guys are doing anything different than what I've seen in my 20-plus years in the Big Leagues. But maybe we should study that a little bit.

Q. Just some thoughts on Justin taking the mound in a game that you guys have to have?
A.J. HINCH: Yeah, we love having him on the mound. I think when you come to the ballpark and Verlander is pitching, there's a great confidence. And obviously we need it today for a lot of reasons. But everybody that walks through the door today is going to feel like we're going to win the game.

And he sets a great tone. He will come out. I expect his stuff across the board to be elite. I think attacking the same lineup a few days after having to attack him is going to be a great display of pure baseball where you have some of the best hitters in the league facing a pitcher two times in a row in terms of the rotation goes.

But we have all the confidence in the world that we're going to win. You're not going to see a great change in our persona and our personality or our vibe, our belief.

We feel like we're going to win tomorrow. We feel like we're going to win after Game 6 and we feel like we're going to win in Game 7. That's the only way we operate.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, A.J.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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