MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

November 2, 2021

Alex Bregman

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 6 Press Conference

Q. Alex, you've told a few people in the last couple days about your top hand and just kind of how difficult it's been for you. Can you kind of give us an idea of what you're going through. Are you 100 percent healthy right now?

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, I'm good. I've been losing the barrel a little bit behind me due to a lot of different reasons, but you know what, we've got two games to go. We've got an amazing team. If we win two games, we win the World Series. I mean, how special is this? This is awesome.

I'm not worried about anything besides contributing and helping in any way possible. I'll be ready to go.

Q. How did you feel about when Dusty told you he was going to bat you seventh? Did he have a conversation with you about that? Did you kind of see that coming at all?

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, we talked. I don't care where I hit. I just want to hit. I just want to do something to contribute and help this team win games.

Like I said just a second ago, I'm just excited. We've got a big game today. We've got to go out and be aggressive.

Q. Two parts on Luis. What do you think, number one, about having him out there today? Number two, what do you think about how he's handled everything, given his age and experience, up to this point?

ALEX BREGMAN: He's a warrior. He's put in the work. Unbelievable worker, teammate, pitcher. He's had an incredible year. He's battled through some stuff, like we saw with the knee. This is the most he's thrown in this season.

But we have all the confidence in the world, and we can't wait to play behind him and back him up.

Q. I saw during early BP, you were really focusing on up the middle and then to right center. How can that approach in an early BP session really help get that top hand and help get your mechanics locked back in?

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, just staying closed. When I open up, I lose the top hand behind me. It was one of the emphasises that I was going to try to work on is to try and hit line drives the other way in BP. We have some mental cues to think about, and I'm excited.

Q. What was the moment like for you when you received your world championship ring a couple years ago, and how often do you wear it?

ALEX BREGMAN: I haven't worn it or looked at it since we got it. I've been focused on the next one.

Q. (Question regarding focus)?

ALEX BREGMAN: That's it. I just want to win again. I haven't looked at it, touched it. That's just something that I've done. Yeah.

Q. Obviously the Braves threw back-to-back bullpen games in Games 4 and 5. As a hitter, when you hear a team is throwing a bullpen game, do you sense opportunity? Do you get excited? What's the reaction when you hear a bullpen game versus a traditional starter?

ALEX BREGMAN: At this point in the game, there's a lot of teams that are doing that. Especially in the postseason, there's a lot of teams that have been doing it the last couple years.

No real thoughts on it before the game, I guess. You've just got to prepare to face a bunch of different people.

Q. How important was it for you last night to have such a great night offense and defense? How does that help you for today, for tonight?

ALEX BREGMAN: (In Spanish.)

Q. When you see a slow roller like you did the other night, do you think more in the postseason than a regular season game that I have to jump on that and make that play because every runner becomes so important?

ALEX BREGMAN: Sure, every base runner is important during the postseason. You want to try to limit as much traffic as possible. I mean, Albies is fast as hell, so I was playing pretty shallow so I had a better chance at it.

Yeah, you want to limit as many base runners as possible just because any time there's base runners on, it puts immense pressure on the defense. That's one thing that we're going to try and do is get a lot of base runners on.

Q. What do you do to intensify that concentration?

ALEX BREGMAN: You have to expect the ball being hit to every single play in the postseason. There's no time to think about anything else besides making the next play and executing. Just the level of focus, you can feel it after games during the postseason because you're wiped out. Like you go to bed and sleep for 12 hours because just that level of focus you have, not only offensively, defensively.

You have that focus during the regular season, but it's amped up to a different level during the postseason, of course.