AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS ORIOLES

October 7, 2023

Brandon Hyde

Austin Hays

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Baltimore Orioles

Pregame 1 Press Conference

BRANDON HYDE: Whens we set the rosters, one omission is John Means for the series. Had a little bit of elbow soreness following the sim game inter-squad thing we had a couple of nights ago, but we fully expect him to be ready for the next series. Felt like he needed a few days off. We feel like he should be ready for next series if we get there, hopefully.

Q. What does that do for your rotation going forward?

BRANDON HYDE: Well, Meansy was going to be a candidate to start one of these games and it means we got -- we feel great about our starting pitching depth. And Dean and Kyle Gibson both threw the ball extremely well this year. We're hoping that John can take a few days off, rehab, and hopefully if we can advance that he'll be available for the next series.

Q. A lot of people have asked you over the last week about the inexperience in the team, the players, but you are not inexperienced. You had four straight deep playoff runs. What can you take out of that going forward?

BRANDON HYDE: I know what it's like, honestly, and I know there's -- this team reminds me of those '15, '16 teams, especially '15 where we didn't have a whole lot of playoff experience in that team, either. Won a Wild Card, Division Series against St. Louis. But a lot of talented players that hadn't been to the postseason before.

And I think this team -- I don't think the moment has ever been too big for this team so far this year. I'm proud of the way we played the last month, month and a half with a lot of pressure. I felt like we've been playing in a playoff type pressure for a while. That turning point where we showed our character was in that Tampa series when we lost the first two, but how we played those last two games.

And then trying to hold onto a lead the last few weeks, which is never easy to do, just how we handled all that, how we were able to perform. You know, I was proud of how our guys did that. But like I said, we don't have a ton of experience. I think our guys are going to handle it extremely well. I believe in of the character of the group. These guys play hard and really looking forward to playing for their home fans the next couple of days.

Q. Austin, I'm sure you're excited to play the game, but the crowd, the atmosphere here, you've seen a lot of crowd reaction. What are you expecting today and how do you feel that Baltimore has a home playoff.

AUSTIN HAYS: I couldn't be happier to play my first playoff game at home in front of these fans, a place I've been my entire career. I know it's been a long time coming for them. I'm really excited to get out there. It will be comparable to Opening Day when it's completely sold out, orange everywhere, flyovers, all the antics, everything. It's a lot of fun.

But I imagine it's going to be another level of how loud it is, just how engaged the fans are, standing up every pitch. We're at home, I'm glad they're going to be behind us.

Q. Brandon, when did you learn yesterday that Andrew Heaney was starting Game 1 and what have you seen the couple of times you've face him?

BRANDON HYDE: I found out last night. I knew there was an option he could start. They had a few options, but I wasn't sure which direction they were going to go in, so I made a few lineups, honestly, to see who was going -- before I found out who it was going to be. And found out sometime last evening. Let the players know as soon as possible.

Q. Without knowing the Rangers roster, are you anticipating Scherzer?

BRANDON HYDE: If he's on the roster. I have no idea. I knew he threw a live BP or sim game, but I haven't seen what their roster looks like.

Q. With Means dealing with elbow soreness, given what he went through, how concerning is that?

BRANDON HYDE: Not concerning. I know he's disappointed. He threw a two-inning sim game a couple of days ago and didn't feel right. Pretty normal after a Tommy John process, and he's thrown the ball extremely well. And we don't want to take any chances honestly with it.

If you put him on the roster, he's tough to replace, all those kind of things that happen. We felt the right thing to do was give him a few days off and get him ready for the Championship Series if we advance.

Q. Have you decided your order for Game 3 and if necessary Game 4?

BRANDON HYDE: Yeah. I'm not going to announce that yet.

Q. What kind of growth have you seen out of Kyle Bradish the last year and a half and the same vein out of Grayson in the second half.

AUSTIN HAYS: Yeah. It's been unbelievable. I'll speak on Grayson first. Whatever adjustment he made when he went down this year, he's been a completely different pitcher when he came back up. You can see the hunger in his eyes. There's no fear, a ton of confidence in every one of his pitches. Ton of confidence in the catchers putting the pitches down.

Bradish, it seems like every start he's adding another pitch to a different location. Just so tough to have a plan against. Ton of confidence in every one of his pitches. So just being able to throw every one of his pitches in any count, honestly, has been such a big difference. And understanding when to go for swing and miss and when to go for strikes.

Early on he tried to get a lot of chase, fell behind in a lot of counts. Once he started attacking and understanding when we to go for the chase and the swing and miss, it's made all the difference in the world for him and it's been a lot of fun to play behind him to see that.

Q. Kyle and Grayson are one, two among all playoff starters in ERA in the second half. Can you speak to what you've done as a coaching staff and organization to help those two improve in?

BRANDON HYDE: Give a lot of credit to those two guys, our pitching department. Kyle made huge strides from last year. He's added a two-seamer, that is -- he's able to have his fastball go two different directions now. The 95, 96 with a fastball that cuts, with two really good breaking balls. Everything was kind of going one direction. The command of the fastball. I thought he tried to do much with his fastball a little bit. Now, he's really just learned how to pitch.

The two-seamer has been a huge factor and now he's got a changeup also. To have a little bit more mix, to be able to throw both sides of the plate with fastball command, he's really taken off the last half of the season.

With Grayson, he got -- made a handful of starts for us in the beginning of the year. A little bit inconsistent. But when we sent him back down to Triple-A, he went down with an absolute purpose and goal. We set some things in place for him on what we felt he could work on a bit. He could out-stuff people in the Minor Leagues. It was really about fastball command and command of off-speed pitches, because his stuff was so good.

He went down, worked on that. He came back, like Hays said, with real determination. I love the makeup, this guy is unbelievably competitive. Both guys are. Grayson, since he's come back up, the command has been much improved. The aggressiveness with the fastball is much improved. He's going to sit at 99 for as long as he can stay out there. Like I said he's unbelievably competitive. I give him a ton of credit. It's a tough pill to swallow to get sent down to Triple-A. Went down with right mindset, probably the best thing for him to come back and really know what he needed to work on to get Big League hitters out consistently, and he did that.

Q. Now you may have some guys in different roles, especially on the pitching side. How much more aggressive do you anticipate being, just given the magnitude of the games and the different complexion of your roster?

BRANDON HYDE: I'm going to be aggressive. I definitely like to have my eyes tell me what's going on also and have a feel for the game. I feel like we've been playing playoff games for a while a little bit. So I'm going to match up the best way out of the bullpen, I'm going to pinch-hit, pinch-run when I think it's appropriate. And do anything I can to win a game.

Q. You guys have used a lot of different players in the lineup that changed very frequently. How tough has it been to finalize this playoff roster knowing you have to leave some contributors off the list?

BRANDON HYDE: Yeah. This player group is pretty much the group we ended the season with, wasn't very many tough decisions, bullpen-wise. And with the Means thing we had to make some tough decisions there on choices on who we're going to keep on the pitching staff. That was the majority of the conversation, honestly, was our bullpen and what we're going to do.

Q. Is Fujinami on the roster?

BRANDON HYDE: No, he's not on the roster.

Q. This morning he looks like he's injured on his hand and chin. Do you know what happened?

BRANDON HYDE: I think he -- nothing big, I think he fell down. But he is fine and he's ready -- he's going to go out and throw. He's perfectly fine.

Q. Brandon and Austin, you guys have seen the full trajectory and the journey of this organization's rebuild. What have you seen and how would you describe the difference between then and now and how rewarding is it to be here finally?

AUSTIN HAYS: Just from a player perspective, going through these really tough years, there was a lot of cliques on the team, clubhouse was kind of divided. Guys were just playing to kind of stick and just try to find their way in the big leagues.

But last year and really this year the culture of the clubhouse changed completely, where it wasn't a selfish attitude anymore, it really was playing to win. Taking such pride in our defense. Just being able to pass the baton to one another, understanding it's not going to be nine guys, in most of our games. We're going to have to use guys off the bench, pinch-run. You're going to get pinch-hit for. He's putting us in the best possible situation as players, and we understand that. And having a clubhouse that buys into that makes all the difference in the world.

That was just the biggest turnaround outside of the talent and what Mike in the front office was able to do with how well they drafted. Seems like they haven't missed on any of the early draft picks. Those guys came up right away, they're pros. You wouldn't know they're 22, 23 years old with no experience. That's not what we had before.

So just the combination of a clubhouse that loves one another and would do anything for one another, and we're as relentless as can be 1 through 14 on the offense, and the bullpen always having each other's backs. And you combine that with a lot of talent and a lot of depth. And when we have injuries now, you have a lot of guys in Triple-A that are going to come up and it's going to be close to what you lost. It's been a complete turnaround from all those different aspects.

Q. Besides Fuji and Means, can you give us a sense of some of the other difficult decisions?

BRANDON HYDE: So we were carrying 14 position players which is what we ended the season with and 12 pitchers. We added Baker, so Baker is on, Fuji is not. Flaherty is on, Means is not.

Q. As far as the position players (inaudible)?

BRANDON HYDE: Correct.

Q. This team really hasn't had the media coverage like it does now for the playoffs, except the middle part of the season, where you got more national games. Do you think that helped this team to help prepare for this type of coverage, and how do you see guys handling this?

AUSTIN HAYS: I think we have a great PR team here, Jennifer heading that up, just preparing us for this time to come. It wasn't a rebuild from the performance that was on the field. It's what comes with that. When you start to win, you have more interviews, there's more people, more microphones. You have to handle yourself like a professional, and handle questions. I think everyone in the clubhouse is prepared and taking it in stride.

Q. This is the biggest game this organization has had in the last decade. What are you guys feeling right now, what was last night like, excited, nervous, anxious? Could you sleep at all what has the last couple of hours been like for you?

BRANDON HYDE: I'll start. I think it's a big deal and our players definitely deserve all this and all the attention. And it's a huge deal for the city, and we know that. We wanted to do this every single year, this is what it's about, this is why you play for six months and play as hard as these guys did and play to win like these guys did. But I also want to treat it like it's a normal game a little bit. And you've got to be able to slow the heart rate down and you've got to be able to breathe. And I think our guys are made to do that. They've done a great job at that this year.

But I don't want to overlook -- we all understand it's a huge deal. And we definitely want to win and want our guys to play well. But I want them to relax and play as hard as they can.

Q. What was the thought process of having 14 position players?

BRANDON HYDE: I think when you have different -- if we go to a seven-game series things might change. A five-game series with a couple of off days in there that potentially, you feel more comfortable carrying less pitchers.