AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 13, 2022

Scott Servais

Minute Maid Park

Seattle Mariners

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Houston Astros - 4, Seattle Mariners - 2

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Scott service.

Q. Another tough loss here, but can you talk about the way Luis pitched. We certainly saw what he did the other day and his stuff looked equally as electric. Then maybe the pitch to Álvarez there which didn't even appear to be in the strike zone.

SCOTT SERVAIS: You can't say enough about the job Luis Castillo continues to do on the biggest stages against some of the best lineups in the league. He was outstanding today.

I thought our whole club really the last couple games here have competed as good as you can. We left it all out there. Luis today on the mound, his stuff was crisp, was right after 'em, super aggressive. Didn't walk anybody. It was very efficient to allow him to get deep in the game.

Unfortunately, Yordan put a swing on a ball that is a ball and took it out of the park. So there's not a whole lot you can do about that one. But he pitched an awesome game. He was ready. He was ready to go and he stepped up when we needed him.

Q. Did you consider walking Yordan before the home run and then did the home run figure into your thinking on the latter intentional walk that you ended up giving?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Yeah, very perceptive. It did play into that. Obviously he has done some damage against us in this series. He's hot right now. You've got to recognize that. I think you kind of game plan in how you want to go through their lineup and the guys you want to be careful with.

When you're throwing balls 3, 4 inches off the plate and he hits 'em like that, he's in the zone, and he's a super talented player, and he's made us pay here the last couple days.

So, again, things happen. He's hot right now. We'll go back to our place and go from there.

Q. Along those lines, Luis had retired him twice. He was swinging at kind of everything, mostly on pitches out of the zone. Was the plan just to attack him in a similar fashion, just keep it out of the zone and see if he got himself out? It didn't look like Luis was the type of guy to pitch around him and I doubt you're going to tell your best pitcher to intentionally walk him in that situation.

SCOTT SERVAIS: I think when you're in the situation in these games at this point in the postseason, you get in the playoffs, every manager, every team, looks at it, who are the guys in the other lineup you don't want to beat you. I thought the first couple times through he did a great job. He really did. He didn't do anything bad the third time. You have to give the player credit. It's not like he threw a ball right down the middle. He threw a ball 3 or 4 inches off the plate and he hits a home run to the opposite field. He's that kind of talent.

So, again, you have to tip your cap when players are going that hot. I thought we had a really good game plan. He beat us. That happens.

Q. Peña got on twice ahead of Álvarez with two outs just like he did on Tuesday. How much of an issue was that and what did you see on that blooper that landed right between the two guys?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Another pitch that probably wasn't in the strike zone tied him up. Luis made a great pitch. This game's a game of inches. They had a few things go their way today and that happens. We did not. My bet is it will probably flip when we go to Seattle.

But that's just, you have to find a way to grind through that and still figure out a way to win those games. It didn't happen today.

But yeah, Peña getting on base in front of Yordan certainly makes it a little bit more challenging. Credit to him. He had great at-bats. He's had good at-bats here the first couple games in the series. He's had a good season. He's a good young player. And he's been huge for them this year. So the guys around Yordan will really dictate what you do and those guys were really good around him today as well.

Q. Kind of going forward, you've kind of hit on this already, but what is sort of the feeling for you guys when you kind of have two games in your grasp, you led in both games, and you're just kind of not able to finish it out?

SCOTT SERVAIS: You got to finish it out, no question. It's difficult to do that on the road in the playoffs. There's no question about it. You got to make pitches. You got to make plays. You got give the other team credit if they're able to come back. I don't know what else you want me to say. We have played very good baseball.

I do know how hard it is to win on the road and it will be very hard for them to win in Seattle. I will tell you that. Because I know what it's going to be like when our crowd gets going on Saturday night, or Saturday afternoon, I guess.

Q. You've said often you need to hit on the road to win. You had plenty of base runners. You took seven walks and had some hits. It just didn't seem like you guys were able to get the big situational hit when you needed it. And what did you see from their pitching?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Well, Framber had really good stuff today. Outstanding curveball, fastball velo was up a little bit. He's a tough pitcher. There's no question about it. I thought Dylan Moore big knock there to get the go-ahead run in that inning. I think we ended that inning with Cal Raleigh line drive bullet right at the center fielder. I thought we had traffic other innings when Geno hit kind of the soft liner into left field that Álvarez made a nice play coming in on that one. We line out in the 9th inning.

Things happen. It's baseball. I wish it was supposed to go the way it's designed. It just doesn't work that way. I know that can be frustrating for many people. It is certainly frustrating for our team and myself today, but you look up, we got a game Saturday, we got to get ready to go win that one.