AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES VS ASTROS

October 23, 2022

Jeremy Peña

Yankee Stadium

Houston Astros

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Houston Astros - 6, New York Yankees - 5

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for Jeremy.

Q. You obviously had a big job ahead of you coming into this season. To be here now as the MVP of the ALCS could you have imagined this could have happened?

JEREMY PEÑA: It's surreal. You dream about this stuff when you're a kid and shout-out to my teammates. We show up every single day. We stayed true to ourselves all year. Yeah, we're a step away from our, the ultimate goal.

Q. Speaking of your teammates, they were really pumped when they announced that you won the MVP out there on the podium. What was going through your mind in that moment? And just kind of walk us through what your reaction was to see that kind of support.

JEREMY PEÑA: It says a lot about our team. We root for each other. We do that all year. We pick each other up. It's awesome. It's awesome. We battled all year and to get to this point it's special.

Q. Talk about making it to the World Series in your first season in the majors.

JEREMY PEÑA: So I basically said, it was the same question, pretty much. It's a dream come true to be here. Shout-out to my teammates. Yeah, just going to enjoy it. We know we still got work to do.

Q. I don't know how good your vantage point was in that 7th inning play, the missed play between IKF and Torres since you were the one trying to reach base. But being a shortstop yourself, I was curious what did you sort of see there and what did you think about just sort of what happened there that you guys were then able to take advantage of?

JEREMY PEÑA: So I didn't really see the play. I put the ball in play, and I knew they had an opportunity for a double play. So I just put my head down and I was trying to get to first base. Once I hit the bag and I looked up, I saw the ball was, that they missed it for some reason. I don't know what happened. But I saw Altuve was still on base, so I knew they mishandled the ball.

Q. For the momentum for the team, what did that 7th inning do, how did it change -- obviously we know it was decisive, but what was the energy like for you guys to realize that you had come back and maybe now were on the cusp of what you've accomplished now?

JEREMY PEÑA: Right. So their pitchers have great stuff. Whenever you could get a runner on base it's a plus. We always try to pass the baton to the next gay. When he got on base, Yordan has been coming through for us all year. He came through in that situation. And then Bregman, I said that was the biggest at-bat of the game.

Holmes is a tough dude. He's tough. Bregman managed to put together a great at-bat.

Q. You guys made it look pretty easy from the outside all year honestly. Was it? What challenges did people maybe not see that you guys have kind of had to work your way through to get here?

JEREMY PEÑA: I would say not easy. It definitely was not easy. There was a lot of work that went into this. A lot of blood, sweat and tears. This team stuck with one another. We rooted for one another. We picked each other up all year and we battled all year and it's great to be here at this point.

Q. You played in a lot of cold weather growing up and it probably wasn't always easy. Is this, what's going on now, something in the back of your mind that you could get to a point like this?

JEREMY PEÑA: I mean, this was great weather compared to what I played in growing up, high school and college. But, yeah, it's the playoffs. The weather, it shouldn't be a factor in your mind.

Q. I meant it more as a case of when you were growing up playing did you have this in your mind that you could be a big-league player that you could be in the ALCS? Was that part of your dreams when you were growing up?

JEREMY PEÑA: Of course. Every kid dreams about hitting a walk-off home run in the World Series with bases loaded, two outs, down by three. That was definitely my dream. I always dreamed about being a big leaguer. Grateful to be here. This is a blessed opportunity. We get to play this game every single day and now we're going to make the best out of it.