AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS VS RED SOX

October 19, 2021

Kendall Graveman

Fenway Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Q. Kendall, you hadn't gone two innings since April 3rd, just how fresh did you feel, and how rested did you feel, and how did you feel your stuff was tonight?

KENDALL GRAVEMAN: Yeah, I was mentally preparing myself to go three, honestly. I knew that would be a stretch, but, I mean, from the time I went to the bullpen in the first, I knew there was a possibility that I needed to create some length today, and that means being more pitch-efficient, which means getting early contact, and I thought my stuff was fairly sharp today.

I thought Castro did a good job coming into the ballgame there after Maldi has been calling pretty much every pitch this series and doing a good job of staying on the same page and calling some good pitches for me.

Q. Before the game yesterday you brought up Javier and the job that he has done. What about what he has thrown out there has made him some effective for you guys this postseason?

KENDALL GRAVEMAN: Yeah, that's one of the biggest performances I've seen in a situation of a postseason game this postseason, and for him to go out there and give us a little length was something that we needed, and I thought he threw the ball exceptionally well. He is a young kid that I really enjoy being around. I think he is, from what I've seen and getting to know him, he is such a hard worker, and he has an understanding of how good his stuff is and how it plays, and to go out there today and attack, I think he kind of flipped the switch a little bit of just being in attack mode since when he got steps on the rubber. And for him to keep that ballgame where it was wasn't easy. I thought he located and made a lot of good pitches and handed it over to us in the back end.

Q. Do you feel like in some way the Astros have regained momentum after a critical win like this?

KENDALL GRAVEMAN: I mean, there is momentum when you win a game, so I think for me personally we'll have a little momentum going into tonight, but then tomorrow is a new ballgame. We'll start 0-0. And as quickly as momentum can shift pitch by pitch in a game, you know, it could go that way tomorrow.

So I really think tomorrow showing up to the ball field we'll have a better feeling than, obviously, if we would have lost. But once again, then you take it one pitch at a time when we step on the field. I thought if we could just hold their offense where it was, I thought eventually we could get our offense going if we held their offense to some smaller runs. I think we did that today, and the ninth inning kind of busted out. The guys did a good job putting some good at-bats together.

Q. Kendall, it's been obviously a tough go for your guys' starters throughout the series. How has that played in the bullpen? Do you guys recognize that you are going to have even more responsibility than you had during the regular season, and really have to in some ways carry this team?

KENDALL GRAVEMAN: You have to face it head-on, but I think that moving forward our starters are going to be great. I have all the confidence in the world that those guys are going to continue to throw strikes and get outs. They've done it for a long time. They've done it in the postseason. With Urquidy and Odorizzi is throwing the ball well.

I think for me personally just having faith in those guys, but at the end of the day the conversation in the bullpen is if we need to pick someone up, we will. I think today was a telltale sign of that. Keeping our team close and Altuve hitting a big home run to tie it, and then putting up a bunch of zeros.

So the conversations can't be complaining. We're in this to win, and whoever gets the job done I think it's just going to the next guy, pass it down, and keep executing pitches.