AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 13, 2022

Jeremy Peña

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 2 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll take some questions for Jeremy Peña.

Q. I wondered if you can assess your progression as a hitter just over the course of this entire season.

JEREMY PEÑA: I feel like I've just matured. I've matured more as a hitter, you know, staying more with the game plan, you know, approach. Approach is everything. So that's been the biggest difference.

Q. You obviously had a huge hit in that last game. How much do you embrace coming up big in those kind of moments?

JEREMY PEÑA: I would say you want to be the person in those situations. You want to prepare for those situations. Yeah, you want to come through for the team. So the plan was just to pass it off to Yordan and let him do his thing.

Q. You didn't see Castillo in the regular season. What are your impressions of him just on video and what are you expecting to see from him tonight?

JEREMY PEÑA: He has electric stuff, as we've all seen. He's a great pitcher. Yeah, we're just going to build a game plan against him and go out and compete. He's going to bring his best stuff and we're going to bring our best stuff and just see what happens.

Q. When you talked about your approach, can you walk me through what it's like to have guys like Michael Brantley and José Altuve as your teammates throughout the season being in your rookie season?

JEREMY PEÑA: Those guys have been a tremendous help for me ever since spring training. They all kind of just took me in. Not just Altuve and Brantley, Bregman, Aledmys Diaz, Yuli, you know, they all kind of took me in and just told me how it is, how to prepare, what to expect, and, yeah, how to just go out and play.

Q. The second game of the American League Division Series, what advice did your father give you for this game?

JEREMY PEÑA: My dad basically just told me to enjoy it. This is a very special experience I'm going through right now. Have fun, play hard, and let the game take care of itself.

Q. How important has your experience been at the Dominican winter league the last two seasons? What did you learn there and how important is it to be able to embrace just the culture of winter ball as part of your development?

JEREMY PEÑA: I grew so much as a baseball player in winter ball. I matured so much as a baseball player because of the culture we have in the country. The Dominican Republic eats, sleeps baseball.

In the United States, we have football season, basketball season. We have boxing. We have all these sports to look forward to. But in the Dominican Republic, all we have is winter ball. So all year the fans are prepping for winter ball. They get crazy out there.

So I matured so much, just learned how to be in the moment, play hard, and have fun, enjoy the game.

Q. In a big at-bat like there was on Tuesday in the 9th inning, how do you slow yourself down, how do you make sure you actually turn in a good at-bat in a big situation like that?

JEREMY PEÑA: So you have your game plan going up to the plate, and I say the game plan is what brings you confidence to the at-bat. Yeah, it's just staying calm, relaxed, and let the pitch come to you. Not try to do too much in that situation, and just let it happen.

Q. Is there any different feeling for you going into this second game now that you played a game or did last year's run through the playoffs that you were a part of with the team kind of help even the first game not be a huge deal to you?

JEREMY PEÑA: So the experience I got from being in the dugout last year was a big help. I'm always thankful with the organization for giving me the opportunity to just be in the dugout and experience a postseason from the best seat in the house, the dugout, to see how much preparation goes into every single game, see the environment.

So when I came this year, I had an idea of what to expect. But I would say if you're not on the field, then you don't really know what it is. But it was a big help.

Q. A lot went on in that game as far as the offense is concerned, but can you tell us about what went into the defensive mindset, especially the two big plays that you had in the game?

JEREMY PEÑA: So I would say defense always has to be clean in the playoffs. You have to run the bases well in the playoffs. You have to play clean defense in the playoffs. Those are usually the teams that come out on top.

So that's always the focus, play good defense behind our dominating pitching staff.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

JEREMY PEÑA: So this year was the year of a lot of learning. I grew so much as a person. It's special because it was my first year in the big leagues. It was a dream come true. To have a season we had as a team was special, and now to be in the playoffs, we know we have the necessary pieces to have a special run. So, yeah, we're just going to take it a game at a time and go from there.

Q. While you were with the club last year you might have envisioned that this would happen in 2022. Since Carlos is a free agent, there was probably going to be an opening. Have you heard from him during the postseason?

JEREMY PEÑA: I have not heard from Carlos in the postseason, no. Actually, Martín Maldonado was talking to him on the phone and we kind of said hello to each other, but we didn't really talk baseball. It was more like, How you doing, man? Doing good. You know, enjoy it. Have fun.