AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 7, 2023

Dana Brown

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. When did Graveman report his shoulder discomfort or whatever he called it, and has he had any imaging done?

DANA BROWN: Probably over a week and a half, ten days ago. A little shoulder discomfort, tried to fight through it, and he doesn't feel as strong as he wanted to feel. So we didn't include him on this roster.

Q. Was there any imaging done?

DANA BROWN: I think he took a look at -- not MRI, but Jeremiah was giving him more like stretch. There's things you can do where you put your hands on them and you can tell how bad it is.

Q. When putting together the postseason roster, they have so many left-handed batters. What were the discussions about carrying a lefty? I understand that you couldn't carry Sousa, but maybe Mushinski?

DANA BROWN: The deal with the left-handed pitcher, if he's not as good as your righty, there's no need to carry him just to say we have a lefty on the roster. So we felt like our righties were good enough to get the left-handers out. We felt like we didn't have to carry a lefty.

If we'd have had a dominant lefty, Sousa probably would have made the team had he been eligible. But other than that, the righties we felt were better than the lefty options that we have.

Q. I know you guys considered 13 and 13. How did you end up settling on doing the extra bench player? How do you envision using -- now that you have France and Brown and Urquidy all on the roster?

DANA BROWN: If Graveman had been healthy, we probably would have had 13, 13. But the fact that he wasn't, we went with 12 and 14 and took the extra position player. What was the second part of that?

Q. France and Brown, how you plan to use them.

DANA BROWN: It's Dusty's option. They'll all be ready. They're probably going to pitch out of the pen, but it's Dusty's option.

Q. I think you just mentioned, especially with Jose coming off that start in Arizona, does that encourage you guys that maybe that could be an option if you needed him to get a start for you guys?

DANA BROWN: Yeah, we're very encouraged. He looked like the Urquidy of old. At the end of the day, if Dusty chooses to use him, if there's a Game 4 or something like that, but right now we're looking at those guys in the pen.

It was very encouraging to see how well he commanded the zone. The stuff was good. The ball was moving all over the place, and he was back to old.

Q. How would you explain y'all's streakiness this season? Do you feel like you all are at the right part of streakiness, like at a point where the momentum, for lack of a better term, is in y'all's favor?

DANA BROWN: It's tough to get on a run or a good streak when you have multiple injuries, and I think the multiple injuries hurt us some, and we never really got into a rhythm with a lineup, with a consistent lineup as it happened here in 2022.

So the injuries hurt the streaks a lot. I thought these guys grinded through all of the injuries. It took us 162 to clinch the division, but at the end of the day, I think injuries were a part of it for sure.

Q. (No microphone)?

DANA BROWN: In terms of right now, I feel like we're on all cylinders, other than losing Graveman to this round. We feel really good. We have all of our offense, so we feel really good about that. Brantley is back. He's feeling good.

At the end of the day, I think offensively we're going to put up some runs. Losing Graveman, you don't want to lose a guy that can pitch the sixth or the seventh inning, but we probably have some options that we can go to there as well.

Q. Dana, you talk often about the Braves last year, about how they had to expend a lot of energy to run down the Mets, and they got in the playoffs and it didn't go well. Are there parallels to that team and this team? You guys had to run down the Rangers, expend a lot down the stretch. Is this team better prepared maybe than the Braves last year to overcome that?

DANA BROWN: Yes, what I would say we're better prepared because the problem we had in Atlanta in 2022 was you had a guy like Fried who had dominated for the most part of the year, he was out of gas. He was pitching 89 to 92, and as you guys saw in '21 in the postseason, he was like 93 to 97. So he didn't have that in the tank.

So I don't foresee that happening here. Verlander, you guys saw how well he threw down the stretch. He's good. So Framber, he's had some good outings down the stretch. I think Framber still has gas in the tank whereas Fried was down to like 92, Framber is still touching 96, 97. So these guys, we're in better shape ultimately.

Q. Kind of following up on that, can you talk about the fact you had these days off, and you and Dusty and everyone was able to reset, how much that helps you guys at this point?

DANA BROWN: I know the guys in the clubhouse was able to reset. I don't think I had a chance to reset because we were going through a lot with renewing contracts and different things like that for staff. But these guys have had time to reset.

I think I heard one of Dusty's interviews where he said he slept till 10:30. That's a great feeling. So these guys had some time to rest, and I think the rest is going to prove important because these guys were stressing.

Like the year, the entire year, when you're the champions, when you're the World Series champions and you're coming back and you're trying to win a division, it's stressful, and you're not playing as well and you're not in first place, and Texas was in first place most of the year. So I think these guys got a chance to woosah a little bit and say, okay, it's time to relax now a little bit. That's been very helpful.

I watched Bregman take ground balls yesterday, and the energy that he had and the bounce that he had in his lower half, I was like, okay, we're back. The rest, I think, is going to prove important.