AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 13, 2022

Hunter Brown

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 2 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Who has the first question for Hunter Brown?

Q. What was it like making your postseason debut the other night? Can you take us through the emotions that you experienced before, during, after?

HUNTER BROWN: Yeah. So it was obviously really cool to get in the game, Game 1 of the postseason for us. Yeah, just really excited to go out there and try and execute pitches and do my job.

Q. I wonder if you can reflect on the journey of having watched Justin Verlander pitch a lot of games growing up in Michigan and then pitching in the same postseason game as him in Game 1.

HUNTER BROWN: Yeah. Well, obviously he's had tremendous career and he's done a lot of good things this season for us too, so just trying to learn from him in every situation that I can.

Like I said, he's one of the greatest pitchers of all time, so to just be around him has been really cool and obviously pitching the same game as him, yeah, just as a teammate, it's cool, obviously.

Q. From your time in Sugar Land this season, what did you see with both Hensley and also Jake Meyers in terms of their development during the course of the year?

HUNTER BROWN: Yeah, so I've had the opportunity to play with Hensley quite a bit. We played in Corpus together last year, and then obviously in Sugar Land this year, and just like, I've been most impressed with his plate discipline. I feel like he's still doing the same things as he was in Corpus with driving the ball, getting hits. The guy's going to hit the ball, but I think his plate discipline has been really impressive to me just as a teammate watching.

Jake Meyers, that guy, great defender. He comes in. He works every day. It was good to see his energy and stuff that he brought to the team coming off injury, which is kind of tough. So that was really good to see him come in day-in and day-out and just work his tail off.

Q. Can you describe some of the conversations that you might have had when they told you you were going to be on the ALDS roster, and then when you were out in the bullpen for the game what were the first handful of innings like and what were some of those conversations like?

HUNTER BROWN: Well, yeah, they told me I made the roster, that I was going to be a reliever, which that's kind of what I've been doing here the last couple weeks or so.

In the first innings, obviously, I'm sure we would like to have had a little bit better start to the postseason, but that kind of stuff happens. So everybody's ready to go. So just moving around, stretching out, things like that, just being mentally prepared for when your name is called so you can go in and pitch.

Q. Wondering about your presence in the bullpen and the compliments you have, what do you see from these other relievers in terms of a lot of people are saying this the deepest staff maybe the Astros have ever had. Your observations just about these other guys in the bullpen. Does anything stick out to you among these bullpen guys that like wows you?

HUNTER BROWN: Yeah, I mean, they're all, everybody's different, but as a whole I would say it's very calm and collected. These guys, they know what they do well. You have Pressly, Stanek, Montero, you know, these guys, everybody, through and through, has been doing great things all year. You can just see the quiet confidence that they have in that, that they believe in themselves, and you can kind of build off that for yourself too. So I would say that's probably the biggest thing.

Q. You just pitched the 8th inning and watched Montero pitch the 9th inning. What was your reaction from your advantage point to Yordan's homer?

HUNTER BROWN: Well I was in the dugout. I was sitting next to or standing next to Chas. Right before that, like right after Peña got the hit he, Chas said to me, like, Oh, back side homer in the Crawford Box would be something here, right?

So he didn't quite go in the Crawford Boxes, but we'll definitely take the pull-side homer for a walk-off. It was unbelievable. Yeah, it was just a jaw dropping moment.