AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS ORIOLES

October 9, 2023

Brandon Hyde

Globe Life Field

Baltimore Orioles

Workout Day Press Conference

BRANDON HYDE: Just open up with Dean Kremer will start for us tomorrow.

Q. What was behind the decision to go with Dean?

BRANDON HYDE: Well, he's had a nice year for us and he's kind of in the mix all along. We were just kind of waiting to see where we were a little bit. But Dean's throwing the ball extremely well. Had a nice season for us. We're looking forward to watching him start tomorrow.

Q. Are you ready to announce a Game 4 starter yet?

BRANDON HYDE: No. Going to need to get through tomorrow first.

Q. Knowing that your backs are against the wall, how much does this change your usage of pitchers? Are you pretty willing to use starters on short rest out of the pen? How does that calculate?

BRANDON HYDE: We'll see. It's definitely a must-win for us tomorrow. Definitely, our backs are against the wall. We haven't played our best baseball the first two games. Hopefully, we can play well tomorrow. Everybody will be -- all hands will be on deck tomorrow. And hopefully Dean can give us some innings, get a nice start for us.

Q. As far as Kyle, same situation? He's available for you tomorrow?

BRANDON HYDE: Yeah. We'll see how that goes.

Q. Brandon, how quickly, how hard was it to put the weekend behind you, and then move on to this road trip?

BRANDON HYDE: Yeah, well, you know, couple tough games. Just didn't play our best baseball. Things didn't kind of go our way. We've won three games in a row quite a bit this year. I feel like we've played really well on the road this year. We've kind of had our backs up against the wall before where we're -- feel like we needed some must-win games and we're in that situation right now, unfortunately.

But we feel good about -- I feel good about our club. I think we're going to play good baseball here, and it starts with Dean tomorrow. Hopefully Dean can give us a good start and get us on the right track.

Q. Brandon, do you find that the club's been sufficiently loose and not tight in the first two games?

BRANDON HYDE: Yeah. You know, like I said before, I don't sense that we're playing tense or anything. We swung the bat well yesterday. We had some really good at-bats yesterday. Lost a 3-2 game the first game. Grayson didn't have his best start. Made us go to the bullpen really early. That was going to be challenging to kind of cover seven innings at that point where everybody was going to have to pitch.

We did a great job of battling back. I thought our guys competed all the way into the ninth inning. I didn't feel any sort of panic. Clubhouse is pretty loose right now. Clubhouse has been loose like just normal before both games at home.

Q. Far from the only guy who struggled lately, but Cedric has really struggled. What do you see from him, and do you even ponder anyone else in center field, or has he just done too much for you for too long?

BRANDON HYDE: He's done a lot for us for a while now, and his center field defense is hard to ignore and what he does for us defensively. He's definitely caught in between offensively right now and has been for a few weeks. Nobody's working harder in the cage. It's like he needs one to fall, honestly, to kind of get him kick-started a little bit. You see him kind of hitting frustrated.

And I know he wants to contribute so badly offensively and it just hasn't happened here as of late. Like I said, I think he could be really close. Don't want to give up on it. His defense, to me, he plays Gold Glove center field defense. That hard to take out of the lineup.

Q. Your team obviously hasn't been swept for a long time in the regular season. What's your message to the team tonight to make sure it doesn't happen at the most inopportune time tomorrow?

BRANDON HYDE: No message tonight. We'll get a light workout in here and get guys moving around a little bit, coming off the plane. Tomorrow, we'll have a regular day. I think everybody is very aware of the situation that we're in right now, and I think it's going to be a real positive message going into tomorrow.

But we've been really consistent all year. We've had two bad games in a row before where we haven't won. No different here, except for the season's on the line. So it's going to be -- we're going to be staying positive tomorrow. We believe in our guys.

Q. Brandon, this is a question probably being asked in hindsight, would have been better asked three days ago. What was the thinking in going with Brian Baker on the roster over Michael Bowman, Shintaro Fujinami, Cole Irvin, and the other guys you have?

BRANDON HYDE: Bottom line is because Bake threw the ball well in Norfolk, especially in the championship series at the end. We hoped that would carry over into the roster here. The other guys had seen their struggles also, and we were hoping Bake could give us a boost and throw the ball the way he did in Norfolk at the end of the year.

Q. All four teams that got the bye lost their first game. Is there anything to the momentum part of that and did it hurt your momentum? I know the rest is good. As you look back, do you like the way the setup is now?

BRANDON HYDE: I don't want to make any excuses because for whatever reason, we lost 3-2 and yesterday it got out of hand early. That happens.

The format is a unusual where you win a division and have this much time off. I don't know if it's a disadvantage, but it puts you in a different routine than you are during regular season and what you're used to. That's something we're aware of and need to adapt to.

I thought we did a good job during the week. And for whatever reason, we just didn't play extremely well the first couple games. But it's definitely a different playoff system than other sports. And if they were looking to adjusting at the end of the year, I'd be -- that wouldn't bother me. If I'm a Wild Card team in the next couple years, I'd probably like the way it is.

Q. Dean pitched really well in two of the biggest games of the regular season, the playoff clincher and the AL East clincher. How much confidence do you have in him moving forward in must-win game?

A. He pitched probably his best in two of our biggest games of the regular season. I think he's going to pitch with a ton of confidence. I think his confidence has grown over the course of the year. He had a tough start, tough April. From May on, he's had a really good season. We believe in the pitch mix that he has and I really like his stuff. So hopefully, it works tomorrow.

Q. This is regarding Dean as well, but kind of an outside baseball question with his ties to what's going on in Israel and his family and everything. Where would you gauge his mindset and did you talk to him not only about family stuff but whether he'd be ready to pitch tomorrow?

BRANDON HYDE: I did. I saw him at breakfast this morning. We had a nice conversation. Gave him my support and sympathies for him and his family that's involved, and he seemed okay. He seemed like he was ready to pitch. He seemed like he felt comfortable with where his family situation was at with the whole thing.

Obviously, he's very disturbed and there's a lot of things going on. But I didn't sense that it was going to affect -- I think he's really looking forward to pitching tomorrow so I didn't think it was going to affect him.

Q. Brandon, another lefty that might want to get going, Ryan O'Hearn, how big could he be the next three games?

BRANDON HYDE: He's been a huge part of our success and loved the swing he took last night off the bench, a ninth inning homer in almost every other park, if not every park. He's had bad luck, honestly, the last couple weeks. His at-bats have been good, his passes of the baseball have been good. Lined out a few times.

Like a lot of our guys, kind of struggled late in the year, last couple weeks of the season. Just kind of didn't get -- nobody really got hot. But I think his at-bats have still been really quality. It was good to see him swing the bat like that off the bench last night.

Q. You won two games here earlier this year. The roof was open. Do you prefer having an open roof or closed roof?

BRANDON HYDE: Was it open? I don't remember. Was it open? I don't think it was. We'll take what's going to give us an advantage. We'll take that one.