AL WILD CARD SERIES: BLUE JAYS VS TWINS

October 4, 2023

Sonny Gray

Rocco Baldelli

Target Field

Minnesota Twins

Postgame Press Conference

Twins - 2, Blue Jays - 0

Q. Rocco, how does it feel?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Like everything you imagined that it feels like. It's elation. I feed off of all the energy of all of our guys because our guys bring it every day on the field and they can celebrate, too.

And that feeling, watching them, watching them go at it. I mean, it's one of the best feelings in the world because we work our whole lives to get to moments like this. Just to have a chance. And we took advantage of our chance.

Q. Was it a blister issue with Duran there in the ninth?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I would kind of go with whatever our trainer thinks it was. But he had a little cut on the top of his thumb. I'm not sure if it was from the seam of a ball that he threw, or if it was his nail that clipped the top of his thumb.

And it started to bleed a little bit. It wasn't heavy bleeding or anything like that, but enough to bother him a little bit while he was pitching.

So the umpires were helpful just in the fact that they gave us time to responsibly work on him, get him in a good spot. Then for him to go out there and settle in and get those outs was enormous.

Q. Sonny, can you walk us through that pick-off play? Was that called or was it just you and Carlos making eye contact? Can you walk us through that?

SONNY GRAY: So it's something, in all honesty, something we started in Spring Training. I know it can be cliché to say you do this in Spring Training, blah, blah, blah, but it is something that we started in Spring Training.

We've done it throughout the course of the season. We actually picked someone off like that in the middle of the season at some point. We worked on it last week before coming into the postseason.

And Carlos comes up after the first inning -- there was traffic on the bases throughout the game. He comes up after the first inning and he says, hey, listen, listen, listen to me, they can't hear the third base coach yell "back." There's going to be an option to pick. He's like the timing pick is going to be there. It's going to be there.

We were like okay, okay, okay. So the game unfolds how it unfolds. We get there in the fifth inning, 3-2 count and I hear "timing pick, second base."

And I ws, like, yeah, we talked about this, cool. So now I'm just trying to like go through my process, all of my normal ticks and all the stuff I do or whatever.

And then I get on the mound and then I'm waiting, I'm waiting for it to unfold. I turn, and when I turn, I see Carlos at the bag and I see Vladdy off the bag a decent amount. So I turn, give the ball to Carlos. Carlos catches it makes an incredible tag, goes at it, makes it and we get him out.

From my understanding, asking after the fact, I asked, did you put that on, did you put that on? And he said, no, Carlos put that on. And I said no -- cuss word.

So for him to have the awareness earlier in the game to say, hey, this is an option. This is there for us. And then in a moment like that to have the awareness to relay it from the shortstop to the dugout and the dugout to relay it into the PitchComs, for me, it was just about executing the play, but for him to have that awareness is what makes him special.

Q. Was it the crowd being so loud that they couldn't hear the third baseman?

SONNY GRAY: 100 percent. And that tells you right there about how a home crowd or a home field advantage or whatever can come into your favor. And the crowd was incredible. They were incredible yesterday. They were incredible today from the moment I stepped on the mound an hour before the game to the moment -- they're probably still out there, honestly.

The crowd really, really helped us win that game today.

Q. Along those lines, we've heard all season, through one of the worst seasons of Carlos' career, that he's a different guy in the playoffs. We're two days in and we've been talking about Carlos Correa both days. What can you say about how he comes through in the postseason?

SONNY GRAY: I just think his calmness, his demeanor -- there's not a moment that's too big. Superstars show up in the biggest moments.

We saw Royce yesterday. We saw Carlos yesterday. We saw Carlos today, not just with his play -- big knock, incredible plays, but just the way he sees the game the way he can slow it down is -- a special player.

Q. Rocco, this bullpen kind of got remade on the fly, obviously, guys in new roles, guys came back from injuries. How satisfying was it these past couple of games to be able to mix and match and have basically everybody come through?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Sonny went out there today, pitched tremendously. Pablo yesterday pitched tremendously. And then our bullpen, they just came in and closed the curtain on the series. I mean, they put a stop to everything that could have happened.

And it was every guy we turned to went out and executed. It comes down to very simple things, even in the biggest moments. And our bullpen was able to slow down, just do what they do very well, and continue to execute over and over again.

And Sonny just mentioned slowing the game down, something that -- we were just talking about Carlos -- and he's ready for anything at any time. And that's what you need from all of your guys, including your bullpen guys.

They came in and it just comes down to making good pitches. They all have great stuff. And capped off by the guy sitting to my right over here, if they make the pitches they want to make, they're going to have success, and they did.

Q. Eighth inning, 2-0, could have been second and third nobody out, except they hit the ball to Taylor and Correa in those two plays. What did you think of that?

ROCCO BALDELLI: My note card has Correa and Taylor on it over here. These are two defenders of the highest order. Like they just, they finish -- they complete outs, they finish innings all on their own and a lot of the times when you're not expecting it to happen -- the play that Carlos made going across his body when -- I think it was Bichette because we have to play -- Bichette uses the field so well we have to play him and push people to these really weird spots on the right side of the field.

He hit a ground ball where he normally wouldn't, and Carlos came in and played the hop so well. And to be able to complete that play going at such a funny angle, it's a play that I bet is not completed most of the time. And again, he gets it done.

So Michael Taylor solidifies everything on our team out there. When the ball goes up and you know someone's going to approach the play the right way, and he's just a great athlete on top of it -- he does it all -- he's just so efficient. He gets it done it every time.

And those two guys are a big reason why we're sitting up here talking right now is those two guys on the defensive side of the ball.

Q. Sonny, you mentioned the traffic on the bases. I think in four of your five innings -- only one of your five innings was clean as far as one, two, three goes. What did it take mentally to keep the fortitude when you had to execute in the biggest moments?

SONNY GRAY: Honestly, it's just something that if you followed us for the course of the season, I started off great, everything was what it was. I went through a lull of, for instance, tonight, single, broken-bat single, and then I went through a lull of walk, walk, another soft single, another this and that.

And then something that I knew that was not acceptable, something that I knew that was not me. So it almost flipped the script as in you get a runner on base, you get this or that, it doesn't matter; you're going to continue to -- call it cliché, call it, "you keep saying," whatever, whatever -- where you're just going to continue to attack guys. You're just not going to give in. You're going to trust yourself. You're going to trust your stuff. You're going to trust your defense. And you're just going to know that what you do and what you have is good enough.

The only way that it can snowball and go the other direction is if you start 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, walk, free pass. Compound interest, things that continue to snowball in that way.

They had five or six base hits, I'm not sure, but it was singles. They're all singles. And it's something that in the past, and even this year in the past it's kind of like -- I get pissed because I don't like giving up hits, I don't like walking guys.

I give up a single, I'm like -- it's like, you know what, you executed a pitch. They found a way to hit a single, and it was kind of like being able to wash that to the side and say, like, who cares? I'm going to continue to attack this guy. I'm going to come right at this guy. I'm going to let my defense work on this guy. I'm going to fill up the zone with this guy.

I'm just going to stay in the moment and continue to attack these guys and good things are going to happen if you have that mindset.