AL DIVISION SERIES: ASTROS VS WHITE SOX

October 12, 2021

Carlos Correa

Jose Altuve

Guaranteed Rate Field

Houston Astros

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Houston, 10 - Chicago, 1

Q. I know it's just a few minutes after the game, but can you sort of internalize what getting to five straight ALCSs is like for you and the team?

CARLOS CORREA: It's really special. I will never take these moments for granted, and I'm going to enjoy it with my teammates as much as I can. This is a special team, special organization. I'm proud of what the front office has been able to do with the Houston Astros.

And I'll tell you, man, we don't get tired of these moments, so they're special, and we perform our best when October comes. So happy for the guys, happy for all the players that got traded over here that helped us win so far, and we're looking forward to the next series against Boston. It's going to be a great one.

Q. Is part of what's special sort of getting through the negativity that kind of follows the franchise at times?

CARLOS CORREA: Yeah. We don't pay too much attention of that. In the clubhouse, it's all positivity. We love each other and care for each other. We have each other's back, and that's the most important to us.

Q. What is it about you guys that seemed to feed off -- or maybe feed off is the wrong word, but it seems like all the negativity and the booing and stuff like that, you do not seem bothered by any of it. It seems like you guys just play. What is it about you guys that allows you to keep your focus and play your game in those situations?

JOSÉ ALTUVE: We knew that we were playing a really good team. These guys can pitch, and we can hit. So I didn't want to go back to Houston and play Game 5 with them, so I personally show up ready, 100% to play, 100% focused on the game, on the pitcher, on playing defense. I know the boys did the same thing, and we got good chemistry. We talk a lot about how we're going to go out there and play, but, you know, what I saw today was everybody focused on the game and nothing else.

Q. This is a question for you both. I mean, you're both kind of moving up the leader boards on different postseason stats.

Carlos, you tied for six in postseason RBIs.

José, you're tied for fourth in postseason homeruns.

Obviously you have been doing this for a long time, but just to hear your names in conversations with some of the greatest hitters that this game has ever seen, what's that like for you both?

CARLOS CORREA: For me personally, it's very humbling. When you're -- when I'm in Puerto Rico, trying to make it to the Big Leagues with a dream, with a vision, and, you know, you just realize these moments, and you want to be in the World Series, and you want to be in the playoffs, and you want to be able to hit home runs. And when it's actually happening, I mean, it's surreal, and it's special.

Working since I was 5 years old with my dad preparing for these moments, it makes it all worth it. I'm very happy with what we've accomplished, and there's still a lot more to accomplish. So we're staying hungry. We're staying focused, and we want to strive for more.

JOSÉ ALTUVE: Like Carlos said, this is a dream come true, and it feels good to be next to great names in RBIs and home runs because at the end of the day, what you're trying to do is help your team to win, so you get some RBIs, get some homers. You are helping your team to move on, and I'm happy to do that.

Q. I guess for either of you, you both had big hits in this game. Alex did as well. How big is that for the big names, the kind of cornerstone pieces of this franchise to come through in those big moments?

CARLOS CORREA: We talked before the game, and we said we got to come through today for the team, and that's what we did. You know, as leaders of the team, we want to go out there and do what's best for the team, and that's winning, and that's driving in runs, and that's focusing even more on these at-bats that are really important.

We don't want to go home yet, and this is not like the regular season where if you lose, you got another game the next day. If you lose here, you go home, and we're not ready to go home yet. We don't have vacations planned. We don't have any of that planned because we want to play baseball way into late October.

Q. Carlos, you were very aware yesterday of Carlos Rodón's situation, and I wonder on the pitch you hit and seeing him that second time, was he different the second time than the first time in terms of kind of the stuff?

CARLOS CORREA: I thought his fastball was really good and very hoppy. Just watching the game, I noticed that he was striking everybody out with a fastball, and you see him bumping his chest and screaming. And I said, I'm 0-2, bases loaded. He wants to strike me out so he can hit it again and yell. And I said I wasn't going to let a fastball go past me. If he would have thrown a slider, I probably would have fallen on the plate, but I was 100% committed to the fastball and getting on top of it, and he threw it, and I capitalized.

Q. José, you have a long history of coming up big in the biggest of games. How much do you love the challenge of performing on the stage like this?

JOSÉ ALTUVE: I feel like you have to love it to execute, to make it happen. You know, you -- like Carlos said, you visualize before the game. You don't -- before the game, you are not thinking about being the hero, but you got to be ready just in case you need to be the hero. So I think that's a mentality we all have. We are just trying to win a game, but, obviously, to win a game, you have to hit in certain situations, and I think the whole lineup is ready for that.

Q. This is for either of you. Another follow-up on Rodón. What goes into your preparation process when there's some uncertainty of what kind of -- what version you guys might see, whether it's the guy that is throwing low 90s or today when he is throwing 99? How do you guys go into a start like that maybe not knowing which one you'll be getting?

CARLOS CORREA: We didn't look at the video when he was throwing 90, 91 because we knew he was not going to come in at 90, 91 today. It's too important of a game for Tony to make the decision of putting him in there if he was going to throw 90, 91 miles an hour. He would have gone with Lance Lynn, so we knew he was going to be amped up, and we knew he was going to be upper 90s, and we prepared for it.

I feel like we did a great job chasing him out of the game early, putting great at-bats together as a team, and I think that was key of the game.

Q. José, are you aware when the crowd is cheering when you are hit by a pitch, and is that fueling you as you go to fist base?

JOSÉ ALTUVE: No. Just trying to focus on what's happening in the game and focus on the pitcher. You know, like I said, these guys are really good, so if you are paying attention to something else, you might not be able to hit it. You have to be 100% focused on the guy on the mound in order to hit it. That's the way I do it.

Q. Carlos, with not knowing kind of what the future holds for you after this year, have you found yourself maybe trying to enjoy this run, this playoff run, more than in the years past with the Astros?

CARLOS CORREA: I enjoy every single one of them, and this is the one I'm enjoying the most right now because it's the present moment. So I'm just going to go out there with my teammates with one goal in mind; that's to win it all.

When the offseason comes, I will think about all that other stuff, but right now, the main focus is helping this team win a championship, and that's all I think about.

Q. I knew you guys just won and you want to bask in this, but you guys have any immediate thoughts on facing the Red Sox this coming week?

JOSÉ ALTUVE: I think they're a really good team obviously. They just beat the Tampa Bay Rays, which they won 100 games, so we're playing another good team. I feel like, you know, every single team in the playoffs have something that can make them a potential winner. So we got to go out there with the same mentality. We got to prepare ourselves and win as many games as we can.

Q. For both of you, a lot is always said about how good of an offensive team you are, but can you talk about just shutting them down today after the first run?

CARLOS CORREA: Yeah. When Lance McCullers is on the mound, he is our ace, and we feel very confident when we go in the game that we're going to win that game, and he was able to shut them down once again. Then the bullpen came in for five innings, did a great job.

I mean, Phil was unbelievable going one-plus, and the rest of the guys just pounding the strike zone, giving us a chance to just keep that lead and eventually win the game.

JOSÉ ALTUVE: Just like Carlos said.