AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS ORIOLES

October 7, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Texas Rangers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Can you take us through the decision you guys made with Max Scherzer?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, with Max, he threw yesterday and he threw well. And today got up and felt pretty good. But still we didn't feel like we had enough information where we could put him on the roster right now. He was not going to be available the first two games, so we decided not to put him on for that reason.

We'll continue his, you know, his throwing, and he'll continue to make progress and we'll see where we're at as we get deeper in this series.

Q. What else went into that decision?

BRUCE BOCHY: We looked at a lot of things, but, number one, we looked at how well he's been throwing the ball. We had to win in Seattle. He pitched that game. He threw the ball well. He's our freshest guy. And they're a team that does a lot of platooning. And lefty or righty, they were going to match up. And we felt like he's the guy to go right now.

Q. How much of a factor was Camden Yards, the far left field wall with a left-handed pitcher facing a right-handed line?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, we looked at that, we looked at everything, all the variables that could come into play and that's certainly one of them.

Q. Just one other question on the lineup. Was there any consideration -- I know this might be unusual -- was there any consideration of putting Carter at the top and dropping Semien and Seager. Was that a possibility at all?

BRUCE BOCHY: No, we didn't consider that. We're coming off a good series and it went well, and we didn't want to tweak things too much. We liked the flow of the lineup. The only tweak was put Carter in the five hole and move Nate Lowe to the 7 hole where he's been for the most part this season. You know down the road next year, whatever, yeah, I think you could look at that.

Q. Obviously it's early in the postseason, but how does this particular roster stack up against some of the postseason clubs you've had in the past?

BRUCE BOCHY: I'll say this, you know, this outfit, when you look at the numbers they put up, I don't think I've had a better offense. We've been streaky, you know, with that said. But, no, I think it's a very balanced lineup. Lefties, righties, you know, guys that can do some things, guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark. I think it stacks up as well as any lineup I've had.

Q. I know this is Brandon's first playoff series as a manager, but knowing him from the Cubs and just seeing him over the last couple of years, what have you made of Brandon's contributions to get the Orioles to this point? What do you kind of expect from him this series?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I talked about this yesterday, what a great job he's done to lead this club to where they're at right now. Wasn't too long ago where they were at the bottom of the League, and here they are the lead team in their division. I think you have to look at the job that Brandon's done. He's done a tremendous job of getting this team where it's at. This year we played them twice, and they play the game right. They play hard. They're aggressive. They have a lot of energy over there. So that's a credit to the job he's done.

Q. Many years, many games managing in the postseason and so much success. What have you learned over the years? What's important for a manager this time of year?

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I think you adjust on the fly when you get to the postseason. You can't script things out. You may tweak lineups or your pitching, how you work that. That margin of error is just not what it is during the season, so it's up to you to make those adjustments. That's probably what I've learned more than anything.

Q. You mentioned the success with turning the Orioles around. You've done a pretty big turnaround for the Rangers, also. What did you see was the most important missing piece that you needed to address and that got the team the transition they made so quickly?

BRUCE BOCHY: I think you have to start with the starting pitching. When CY and I were talking before I came over here, that's what talked about, going out and bolster the rotation, just to get the pitching to where it needs to be. This is a team that had a good offense last year. They put runs up on the board, but the pitching needed help.

And they went out -- now, we had some injuries, but they went out and did what they wanted to do and that's acquire some really good pitchers. One of them you're seeing today. We lost deGrom, but Eovaldi, these guys change a ball club. It's always comes down to pitching. I've always felt like that. And if you have a guy out there every day that gives you a chance to win, eventually you have a winning season, because you have a better shot on a daily basis, on a consistent basis. So that's been the biggest change.