AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 11, 2022

Alex Bregman

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Houston Astros - 8, Seattle Mariners - 7

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Alex Bregman and Baby Knox.

ALEX BREGMAN: I've always wanted to do this. (Laughing.)

Q. It's awesome to see this, man, to see young Knox, a big smile on your face.

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, it's pretty cool. This was his first postseason game and, wow, what a game to go to for your first one. I don't know if he'll remember it, but mama's got some photos of him today. That was the first thing I saw when I got off the field. It made me so happy, it was crazy.

Q. The obvious, what is this moment like to see him do that and come through for you guys and how big of a difference in a short series is it to be up 1-0 as opposed to down 0-1 at this point?

ALEX BREGMAN: It's a big difference. They got a really good ball club over there. They got just a really good all-around team. Just to be able to continue to battle, continue to grind, continue to fight, continue to be resilient, this team was, our team was very impressive today, just the resolve in the guys.

I was really proud of everybody. I've seen Yordan do that a ton. Every time he starts squaring balls up, you know he's going to do that a lot.

But I would hate not to point out the two huge at-bats right before that. Hensley, guy got here in September, not scared, goes up there against one of the better relievers in all of baseball and puts together a great at-bat.

And then Peña, as well. Gets down in the count 1-2, laces a slider up the middle to give Yordan that opportunity. It's what this team does in the postseason. We try and pass the torch to the next guy and fortunate enough we did that today. Nice off day tomorrow and then come back and play some more ball.

Q. Alex, whenever you guys have experience, some of you guys have been here now six years in a row, what does that do for the mentality in the dugout down four late in the game?

ALEX BREGMAN: Say that again. One second. Do you want to hold him? (Handing baby to mom.) She's coming. She's coming. She's coming. I'm still learning what to do when he cries (laughing.)

All right. So what were you saying? I'm sorry.

Q. No, you're good. Just whenever you guys have the experience you have, some guys have been here six years in a row, what does that do for the mentality of the dugout when you're down late in a game like that?

ALEX BREGMAN: I think we've been down in games before in the postseason and the mentality always stays the same. Guys know that it comes down to strictly execution in the postseason. The more at-bats that we can execute together in a row, the better chance we have of putting together a rally and scoring runs.

One thing our team does a really good job of is swinging at strikes, controlling the zone, making contact. Sometimes you win games in different ways. All year long, I mean, and still now, I feel like we have the best pitching staff in the game. They have picked us up all year long and occasionally in there the offense would score some runs and we would win games. But it happens in all sorts of different ways. We know that. So we know that we're never out of a game, and keep going.

Q. Can you take us through your range of emotions when you watched Yordan hit that home run?

ALEX BREGMAN: Well, I just went nuts. I lost my voice, honestly, out there. I was screaming. I wanted to go give him a hug like right after he hit it but he still had to go run the bases. So I was just waiting for him.

The team was fired up. The place was on fire tonight. The fans were unbelievable. It was so awesome to have a packed house here. The energy was flowing. We felt it. We felt them. We love when they're loud. Just that environment was awesome. Yordan hitting a homer was crazy.

Q. You guys have been here so many times before. You get down early, chip away, get a homer, get a run back. The way Dusty sent the pitchers out there that he used in this game did you get the feeling that you just never were going to let that one slip away until they got that 27th out?

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, we know how important 27 outs are. Especially in the postseason. I thought Dusty did a great job. He managed this game like we were going to win it from the first pitch. He has the ultimate confidence in every single person on this roster. You saw that today with how many guys were used.

That goes for the team too. We have confidence in every single person that's on this roster. It takes every single person if you want to win in the postseason.

Q. I asked Dusty this and I wonder if you would answer too. Of all the crazy things you've seen in your baseball career where would you say this 9th inning ranks?

ALEX BREGMAN: Top 3 maybe. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I can say right now. I have to think about that. But way up there. I mean that was awesome.

Q. A few weeks prior to Knox being born we talked and you said you were waiting for him to be born to find out if he was going to be a boy or girl. And you said you don't get many surprises these days, so that was one of the big ones. Then you get surprised tonight by the way the game ended. So what was your reaction to that? Second, you were coming up to bat if Yordan had walked or something, so how were you preparing for that turn at bat?

ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, I was locked in, I was focused. I was ready if Yordan got on base or hit a double and two runs scored, like I wanted that at-bat. So did Yordan. So did everybody on your team. Everybody wants those at-bats.

It's so fun to be able to just have that opportunity to be able to be in that position to get one of those at-bats in the postseason, playing against a great team. So I was just focused trying to put together a game plan in my head and go get ready to hit.

Yeah, today was the second surprise (laughing.) We were waiting to find out with him if he was a boy or girl, but today was just very surprising as well.