MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES VS ASTROS

November 1, 2022

Dusty Baker

Citizens Bank Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 3 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for Dusty.

Q. Will you for sure go with Verlander in Game 5?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, not for sure, but it's in pencil, not in ink.

Q. Going back to Verlander, the first start that he had in the World Series he started really well and then fell off. He's been obviously super sharp outside of his World Series starts. Did you notice anything from that? What have you seen from him lately getting back to this point?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I mean, sometimes you go through periods like that. There's not necessarily anything wrong. Sometimes you throw a pitch in the wrong location and they don't miss it. They could have popped those balls up or hit 'em in the ground. But they haven't been missing the pitches when he does make a mistake.

Q. Your team's had so many days of not playing baseball in this postseason. Baseball's a rhythm sport. You're a rhythm kind of guy. How would you describe the state of your team's rhythm right now?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, the state's good. I mean, we've tried to stay as sharp as possible with all these days off. And you're so right about it is a rhythm sport. So a lot of it you have to play it in your mind and sometimes fool yourself that you do have rhythm because you can't, you know, there's no alternative really. There's no substitute for game action.

But those guys are in the same boat that we're in. So it just depends who wants it the most and who has the greatest mental control to fool themselves that we have been playing every day.

Q. Is there a musical equivalent to this?

DUSTY BAKER: Boy, that's a good question. Would you rather be -- say Ray Charles or Led Zeppelin, one of the two.

Q. About Urquidy, he's the only one pitcher never pitch in this postseason and he has an important role in the last playoff. It's about healthy condition or all about luck for him in a specific spot for him in this playoff?

DUSTY BAKER: Who is that? Urquidy?

Q. Yeah, José Urquidy.

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, he's important part of this team. But with the amount of day that we've had off, it hasn't been necessary really a spot to put him in the game. He's kind of our other starter. He's kind of our long guy. He's never pitched much in short relief.

But when have you this many days off, you can't even say, Hey, are you tired today or how are you feeling because everybody has stayed strong during this playoff. So, yeah, I would love to get Urquidy in there, but it has to be the right situation, in the right pocket, against the right guys.

Q. So what is it going to take to turn Verlander from pencil to pen? What's the criteria at this point?

DUSTY BAKER: The criteria is I don't have a pen.

Q. How about I loan you one?

DUSTY BAKER: No, I got a pen (smiling.)

Q. And then would he be able to pitch in Game 7 if there were a Game 7 too, if you pitched him tomorrow?

DUSTY BAKER: We haven't gotten that far. I mean, we've thought about it, you know, with the days off and different things. We'd rather not pitch him on short rest because we still got to take care of Verlander. So we would rather pitch him on one more day's rest versus one day less rest.

Q. With the rainout yesterday, some of us media members were left scrambling for extra clothes. Did you pack enough for an extra day here?

DUSTY BAKER: Yes. I brought an extra set of clothes. I always bring one extra set of clothes, especially when you come East because you got a good chance of a rainout. I checked the weather report and I talked to Jim Cantore the other day and he says it's probably going to rain one day.

Q. I know you talked about Rafael Montero a little bit the other day, but I'm curious a little more specifically what the Astros have been able to do coaching-wise or analytics-wise or anything that have helped Montero become this version of himself.

DUSTY BAKER: Well, part of it is just natural maturity. You would hope that year number four or five that you're better than you were in year number one or two. I mean, the analytics has helped him, but a lot of it has come through his natural evolution of who he is. Sometimes a person has to reinvent themselves or else you're not going to stick around very long.

So, yeah, Montero's been, he's been great. It seems like he has an even calmer demeanor now than he had when he was young.

Q. You and your club faced Ranger Suárez at the end of the regular season, really roughed him up hit, three home runs against him. You saw him in Game 1 of the World Series. What's different? What have you seen from him compared to those two appearances?

DUSTY BAKER: Oh, I don't know. I ain't seen him enough to make a comparison or to come up with a difference. Plus, if I did know, I couldn't tell you because he might listen to it and make an adjustment. So just sometimes I think we, I have answers to questions that I can't tell you or else it's counterproductive to my team.

Q. Looking at your Game 4 starter, Cristian Javier, finished the season with a flourish, no earned runs allowed in his last 25-plus innings and threw a really nice game at Yankee Stadium in the playoffs. From your observations, how has he evolved in becoming a better Major League pitcher this year?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, the guy's evolved -- he didn't spend much time in the minor leagues. He's evolved as far as throwing strikes better. His breaking ball is better than it was last year or even the year before that. He's a very confident young man, but he's a very quiet young man that really pays attention to everything. Like, he doesn't talk much, but he doesn't miss anything, and he talks with his eyes, and you can tell when somebody's paying attention. Every time I look over, he's watching me. And I was like, you know, what am I doing for you to be watching me? But this guy's very attentive to most things. He's very aware of his surroundings, which I try to tell most young guys to be, but a lot of 'em don't know how to do it.

Q. These late starts on the road tend to make for long days. I'm curious how have you been filling that time? Are you reading anything? Are you visiting with people? How do you fill your days?

DUSTY BAKER: I read every day. I read like a series of four books in the morning, and then I go, like today I went to the -- correct me if I'm wrong, the Reading Terminal Market, got some food, came here, listening to, I usually listen to music, I do my work, my homework. I listened to the Migos today in honor of what happened yesterday. I saw the Migos about four, five years ago. I didn't know who I was seeing. And at the time, I told my son, and he showed, I took a video, and he showed his friends that his dad, who really didn't know, was the hippest dad around. So I did that.

And I also talked to a friend of John McCague, who is my neighbor, who just passed. So I just tried to catch up on texts and e-mails and just stuff. That extra half an hour really seems like it's more like a couple hours.

Q. What are you reading? Is it spiritual stuff?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah. Like, I read the bible. I read something by Dr. Schuller. I read proverbs. I read The Prayer of Jabez. I read like four or five books in the morning. It's the first thing I do. So, yeah, mostly spiritual stuff.

Q. Peña won the Gold Glove. I guess I'm wondering, his defense was always lauded as pretty good coming up, but what impressed you the most about him defensively this year?

DUSTY BAKER: His ability not to dwell on mistakes because a lot of young players they will make a mistake and then dwell on it, and then they will dwell on it so much that they end up making another mistake or two.

I was told by José Alguacil, who had him in the Dominican and who was with me at the Giants, and now he's my son's infield coach with Washington, that he was going to be a heck of a player. He helped him improve. I think Joe Espada took it to another level because he works with Joe and Omar López every day on his defense.

So that's quite an honor to get a Golden Glove for him and Kyle, but especially for a rookie to be, to get a Golden Glove as a shortstop.

Q. When in your long history of experience did you learn maybe not to worry about things like rain delays, not worry about these things that surround something like a World Series? And how do you think that kind of helps your ball club maybe not focus on that stuff as well and just kind of focus on the task at hand?

DUSTY BAKER: That's a good question. I would like to say I learned years ago, but I probably learned like last year. You know what I mean?

I think it's natural to worry, but it's not, it tests your faith because we're not supposed to worry. Like, if you really have faith, you worry about things that are out of your control. So like the rain delays and all this, that's all out of all of our control, and we're controlled people, but it seems like the more we're in control, the more you realize that you're not in control. So I don't talk to my club about it or anything. I just let them be themselves and let 'em do their thing. With this club here I don't have to really, really prepare 'em for anything like this. Because I was talking to José, he goes, Hey, man, either we play tomorrow or we play the next day. That's how it is.

In the meantime you do your work. You do what it takes is necessary to prepare yourself mentally and physically.

Q. If baseball had had walkup music back in the day, what would you have chosen for yourself?

DUSTY BAKER: Well they chose one for me in Triple-A. I didn't choose it. In Richmond it was Johnny B. Goode. Now me, I would have probably, I don't know, chose something by -- I would have probably had three or four of 'em depending on what mood I needed to be in.

Q. Which ones?

DUSTY BAKER: You know, probably from like, I don't know, from reggae music to Tupac or something like that to get me ready. I use that now to get me ready or to calm me down, whatever I need or to be angry or to be mellow. I mean, music does that for me.

First thing I do after I read, I turn my music on and my wife's like, Turn the music down. So I put the shirt on that says, If the music's too loud that means you're getting too old.

Q. You talked about Jeremy on the Gold Glove. What did it mean to you to see him get honored for his defense winning an honor like that?

DUSTY BAKER: Well it means a lot because that's work. Hitting's fun. Defense is work. And anybody can get better at defense if they're -- I think you can get better at defense more than you can hitting offensively if you're willing to put in the work.

Then it also means, especially as a young player, you can't take your offense -- say you strikeout with the bases loaded, you can't take that to the defensive side of the ball or else you're causing your club double jeopardy. So that's quite an achievement.

Q. 16 of the 26 players on your World Series roster are homegrown. How much of an effect does that have, these guys playing together up through the minors, getting here? And how did that affect what they're doing now today?

DUSTY BAKER: That's a good question. Because that means these guys know each other professionally, personally. They probably knew each other's girlfriends when they were coming up and then they know their wives and their kids and you feel more like a family atmosphere. You know the dos and don'ts and the pluses and negatives of almost everybody that you're dealing with. Which is similar to when I got to the Dodgers as a, in 1976, most of 'em were homegrown. So I think that means a lot to molding the personality of your ball club.