AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS VS RED SOX

October 21, 2021

Xander Bogaerts

Minute Maid Park

Boston Red Sox

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Hi, Xander.

XANDER BOGAERTS: What's up?

Q. How much faith do you have in Nate Friday?

XANDER BOGAERTS: How much faith?

Q. Faith.

XANDER BOGAERTS: A lot, man. He has been great this whole postseason, throughout the most part of his career, he has done a great job, man. Bringing back a lot of memories in 2018, all the special things that he did back in those last couple of years ago.

This year, man, he has been pitching the ball real well the whole year. He has been extremely consistent from day one until this point. Obviously, having Chris Sale before and then him right after, I mean, you had to like your chances with that.

Q. How has Houston pitchers pitched the Red Sox the last two games?

XANDER BOGAERTS: I mean, it's just because they adjusted. We were tearing the cover off the ball pretty much from one through nine. Yesterday, I mean, Valdez, I felt like he didn't throw much off speed. To me he didn't throw not even one. That's a lot of sinker balls. He did a good job of getting us to hit ground balls. They have a good defense. Yesterday just played a really solid baseball game, man, all around.

Q. Which adjustments must the hitters make in Houston tomorrow night?

XANDER BOGAERTS: Maybe start by getting the ball in the air. Let's try that out. Just trying to set up a good game plan, again. I feel like we play really well when we have a good game plan. Yesterday we had a good game plan also, but it's not always that it's going to work. Sometimes it doesn't line up with what they have planned for the hitters on our team, but I really do feel like for the most part of the year we've been dealing with these kinds of situations, so, I mean, which better team than us to be prepared for this?

Q. Xander, when you talk about a good game plan, was there anything different about your offensive approach over the last two games from the previous ones? Did you think more people were maybe pulling the ball where with a two-seamer like Valdez, it makes sense to go the opposite way?

XANDER BOGAERTS: A lot of guys hit the -- a couple of guys hit the ball the opposite way. It didn't really matter. Devers got two pull hits. Just some nights it's not your night, man, and it really sucks that it goes that way. We're down 7-0. I don't feel like anyone is trying to hit a seven-run homer. That doesn't exist no matter how far you hit it. It just counts for one point. I just think guys were getting good pitches to hit, man, and for some reason it was rolling over, it was going into the ground.

We didn't stay to the middle of the field as much as possible. We were getting in actually some good counts. You know, 1-0, 2-0. Hopefully we stick more to the middle of the field and turn this around. We have plenty of time still.

Q. These have been two games in which the offense has been held down after six games in which people were talking you had hit a historic number of home runs. How strange is the dynamic of the postseason like? How much does it magnify those couple of games in a way that wouldn't normally be the case?

XANDER BOGAERTS: It is the postseason, and it does get magnified. It's a really bad timing for something like that to happen, to be honest with you, but it's one of the things I learned about this game, man. As you said, for six, seven days we were one of the best offensive teams ever, and then you go two games cold. It's just like hitting. You're hot for a while, and then you're not. And that's one thing I learned about this game that I've came to understand pretty much. You know, you're not always going to be hot, man. I've never seen someone 162 games hot.

It really, really sucks the timing of it because they were really important games. Obviously, all are, but there were two at home that we definitely needed at least to split one of these two. But it didn't happen that way, and we still have Game 6 and Game 7 hopefully the next day. We can still get hot. We've done it before. Maybe just a two-game stretch.

Q. Xander, just on kind of the emotional swings of this series where you're in what looks like the driver's seat up 2-1, and then how things have swung. How does this team and how do you recommend managing that kind of emotional swing?

XANDER BOGAERTS: I mean, it's baseball. I don't feel like we were confident like, oh, this is over at any point in this whole series. We were focused on the tasks at hand. Just trying to go out there, win every game, not thinking of the day ahead of us. They played better baseball than us these last two games, man, and as I said, sometimes that's the way that it goes.

It just is bad timing for it to go that way. I we're all going out there trying to put the best at-bat possible, and it really sucks when you got to hit a ground ball to short and you got to run to first. I can tell you that. Or just an unproductive at-bat. It's just bad timing for that to happen, man, and we got to regroup and have some really good ball games in Houston.

Q. Xander, you're obviously very familiar with the Astros' lineup and the difficulty that they present, but seeing them over the course of these handful of games, how difficult are they, and how impressed are you by Alvarez especially?

XANDER BOGAERTS: Yeah. He is probably one of the few ones out of that group that I haven't seen a lot. I've played against most of the other guys throughout my career in the playoffs and the regular season, but I feel like he is that guy that I haven't seen a lot of compared to the other guys. And, I mean, he is just that type of player that single-handedly he can win you a ball game. He pretty much did that yesterday.

And hitting is contagious, man. We saw it here. We've been through it here. We were experiencing it here. One guy gets hot, and it's just contagious, man. Everyone just just feeds off of that, and it just clicks at the right moment, the right time. Everyone is just clicking together. That's a good feeling, man. That's a really good feeling to have.

But I feel like the lineup that they have is pretty much similar to ours. Any time, any moment it can just go off. The game that they won before yesterday, I mean, we saw that inning that they had. What was it seven, eight runs? It became contagious in that game for sure.

Q. What are you guys doing in Houston? Are you guys just getting there and though workout, team dinner, anything?

XANDER BOGAERTS: I'll probably going to find a cage to hit. Who knows?