MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

November 2, 2021

Jose Altuve

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 6 Press Conference

Atlanta - 7, Houston - 0

Q. Jose, I know this may be tough to answer right after the game, but Dusty's not under contract for next year. Would you like him to come back as your manager?

JOSE ALTUVE: Yeah, absolutely. He did an amazing job this year, and he took us to the World Series.

Q. I know you've talked before about how you're holding out hope that Carlos will be back next year, but if this was your last game with him, what are your emotions right now?

JOSE ALTUVE: I'd be sad, but like I said, he's not a free agent yet. I know we're going to try to re-sign him. Like I told you last time, I haven't lost my hopes.

Q. Jose, you guys have come very close the last four years. I mean, two World Series here, ALCS, ALCS. What's it like to be so good to be in it five consecutive ALCSs, but you guys, just the last four years, have fallen a little short?

JOSE ALTUVE: Yeah, we're very close. We're like family. We've got a good relationship. Even if we have new guys every year, they become part of our family. We have, like I said, good relationship between everybody. People like to be here.

Q. Jose, how do you view this series? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it didn't seem like you guys beat yourself. Did you just get beat by a higher team over six games?

JOSE ALTUVE: They played really good, since Game 1 all the way to today, they did an amazing job. We did everything we could. They deserve what they have.

Q. Jose, you were the only one who hit home runs in this series. Were you a little surprised at the lack of power on the Astros side, or was it just a case of the Braves having really good pitching?

JOSE ALTUVE: Homers, it's a little crazy because sometimes the whole team's going to hit, sometimes nobody's going to hit. Then you hit two one game, then you don't hit for a month. So it's just baseball.

Q. Jose, what message did you have for your young pitchers tonight after the game?

JOSE ALTUVE: We haven't talked about baseball. We just talked about how good it is to play together, we're like a family, good relationship, that it was a great season overall. That's what we talked about.

Q. What did you and Carlos say to each other after the game was over?

JOSE ALTUVE: Nothing.

Q. Is this any tougher than when you all lost to the Nationals?

JOSE ALTUVE: It's the same. You're in the World Series. You want to win. You start thinking about how good it would be if you win, and then you lose. It's not a good feeling, but that's baseball. Like I said, the Braves played really good. They deserve the championship.

Q. Jose, you had the early threat in the first and Max escaped it with a couple of strikeouts. What made Fried so effective tonight?

JOSE ALTUVE: His fastball was really good and the slider. He was way better than the first game. He pitched good -- he didn't use his curveball too much tonight, but fastball, slider, change-up was really good. He was almost unhittable.

Q. Dusty said afterwards, he said, look, we came one win away from the World Series last year. This time we were two wins away from winning the World Series. That's progress. Is that how you look at it, Jose?

JOSE ALTUVE: Yeah, I don't see why not. We've been playing really good the last couple years. We've been in the playoffs many times. Believe me, we're going to come back next year ready to try to make it to the playoffs again.

Q. Speaking of next year, I know there's uncertainties like Carlos and Graveman and some of those guys and Greinke, but when you look at the guys coming back, some of the younger guys like Yordan and Tucker, I guess what do you feel about what you guys might have here next year?

JOSE ALTUVE: The guys that are going to hit free agency this year, we really hope that all of them come back because they're going to make us a better team. But we also have really good young players like Yordan, Tucker, that it seems like they're going to be really good, superstars for a long time. So it will be like a good mix.