AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 7, 2023

Kyle Tucker

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. I know after the finale in Arizona you said that you plan to appeal that ruling on the triple. Did you end up doing that, or was there any resolution on that?

KYLE TUCKER: I think they left it as a triple. It is what it is now.

Q. Is that disappointing at all? I know you valued the potential 30-30.

KYLE TUCKER: I'd rather have it be a homer. It kind of is what it is at this point. It's in the past now. You've just got to look forward to the playoffs and the game today.

Q. You guys have been here before, obviously multiple times. Does this year feel different as you're getting started at home?

KYLE TUCKER: Every opportunity you have to be in the postseason is really special. Every year is a little different. You've got a little bit different pitching staff, position players, everything, just the overall team.

But every year is special, especially with this group. We have a really good team, and I think we have a really good shot at making it to the World Series and winning. That's our goal, but it all starts today with Game 1. So we're just going to go out there and try to play our best ball.

Play the best team ball we can. Move runners over and get guys in. At this point of the season, you don't really care too much about personal status. You just try to go out there and win.

Q. With you guys having to sprint to the finish like you did, was it kind of a sense of relief these last few days to kind of reset and just start back from the beginning of a new season?

KYLE TUCKER: It was nice having a couple days off and just have a little breather, but at the same time, you've still got to stay locked in mentally and have your approach for this upcoming series.

We had, I think it was, four days off, but we got a lot of good work in our practices and our live at-bats and everything. As long as we stay mentally locked in, which we did, I think we have a good shot of coming out and being as fresh as we can.

Q. How would you guys sort of explain how out of it of a season it's been for you guys? Sort of losing to teams with losing records but also putting up the numbers like you guys have. It's been sort of a complex season for you guys. How would you sort of explain it?

KYLE TUCKER: Every year is different. We got a couple new faces and a couple guys left. It's just kind of how it is over the years. You're never going to have the same year twice, but you try and do as best you can throughout the season.

Yeah, we had a couple of injuries early on with a couple of guys going down. So you've just got to grind through that and try to stay afloat. I think we did a pretty good job of that. At the end of the day, we were able to win the West. Now we've just got to look forward to this Division Series against the Twins.

It doesn't really matter how we got here, even though it took a little longer than we would have hoped. But at the end of the day, we're in this opportunity and have an opportunity to make it through the playoffs.

Q. A lot has been made about the record, the struggles at home. Do you guys put all that behind you as you go into the postseason, like this is a new season? Do you talk about that at all?

KYLE TUCKER: I don't think we worry about it too much. We still had a really good season. We still ended up on top of the AL West. I know there's a lot of good teams in our division, and it took a little while to get there and a lot of hard fought games. We were still able to do that and win a lot of games throughout the whole year.

You don't really look at records, whether it's home or away for us. We just try to go out and win as many games as possible. At home in the playoffs, we love our fans. They come out and support us every single day throughout the whole season, and in the playoffs it's even bigger. So I think we're really excited to start playing in front of them in the postseason.

Q. What's the comfort of having Justin Verlander, J.V., back in the mix? Obviously when the season started that wasn't the case, and of course now it is.

KYLE TUCKER: It's nice. J.V. is a phenomenal player and person. Any time he's out there on the mound, he gives us a really good chance to win every single time.

He does probably more preparation, between his starts and before his starts as anyone. Any time he's out there, he gives us a really good chance to win the ballgame or at least keep it close and just kind of turn it over to our offense and try and do our job as well.