AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 18, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Globe Life Field

Texas Rangers

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Game 3, crucial game in order to put your opponent in an almost impossible bind. How do you prepare for such a game? And any room for improvement, or are you at optimum level, no improvement needed?

BRUCE BOCHY: As far as what we do different, I don't think you do anything different. We're going to go out and approach this game like the first two, like we have the whole season, go out and try to win a ball game. I know that sounds simple, but I don't think that ever changes.

As far as improvement, yeah, I think you can always improve. That never stops. You don't get content or complacent or anything. You still go out there and try to throw out better at-bats or execute better across the board, all those things. That has to continue, I think, throughout your career or season, whatever.

Q. Five nominations for Golden Glove on your club. Is that just another confirmation of how important defense is in general and how important it's been for your club this year?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I think so. I think so. It's what we talked about this spring, is the importance of our defense. We go out and we acquire pitching, but it's critical that we work on this defense, and that has to show up every day.

The pitching is going to come and go at times, hitting will, but one thing we can do is focus on defense every day. And I'm proud of these guys. We have five guys that are finalists and a couple, I think, that were left out, to be honest, Josh Jung and Taveras. They both have had fine years defensively. But I'm proud of how these guys have separated their offense from their defense, and they've just done a great job out there.

Q. The regular season you had Josh Jung batting the middle of the lineup, and now you've lowered him to the back end. What have you seen from Josh?

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, I think coming off the injury, he was trying to get his timing back or whatever. He did the first couple of games, and then he was trying to find it there. But I think lately the bats have been good. The only reason he's sitting 8th now is that things have been going well. We didn't want to change it too much. We tweaked it a little bit, obviously, with Carter there and Jonah hitting fifth today.

But I mentioned it to Josh, I'll see where you're hitting here. He goes, I'd leave it the same the way things are going. But he was in a five hole pretty much all year. But at-bats are more like we saw earlier in the season from Josh.

Q. So Evan Carter hitting third is fun. Can you talk me through the thought process? And was there a moment where you sort of had that decision, like, okay, I think this kid's ready to hit third?

BRUCE BOCHY: After seeing him for four or five, six games, whatever, I said this kid could hit at the top of the order. We liked him where he was, he was flipping the order getting back to Marcus and Corey. So he was a good table setter.

And then we decided to put him in the five hole. It didn't phase him. I knew it wouldn't phase him. It makes sense. If you look at the quality of the at-bats, seeing the pitches, taking his walks or finding a way to getting the barrel on the ball, just makes sense.

And so he's a kid that's not going to let worry hits affect him. I mentioned to him a couple of days ago, that's fine. Really when we picked up Grossman, when Robbie got the first couple of at-bats, he was in the three hole. And I said you really don't know the difference once you get things going here.

I don't think that spot is as big as it used to be looked at, to be honest. Now lineups are more flexible. But you used to have your guy in the three hole, could be in the two hole, could be in the leadoff spot. It's not that big a deal anymore.

Q. You talked about how important this defense is, what has most impressed you about the defense this past season?

BRUCE BOCHY: I think more than anything just how consistent they've been. I look at all of them, I think Nate Lowe, where he was last year and the job he's done this year, but the hard work. The coaches have done a great job with him. Marcus and Corey both, they're just so steady out there. And Jung, I should mention, even though he's not a finalist, how good he is.

But behind the plate Jonah I think has really come into his own. He's the guy handling the staff. Does a great job receiving, running the staff, blocking, throwing. He's got the whole game. I've always said if you look at a good team, just look behind the plate and he's a big reason why we're here.

And the outfield, they've done a great job. Garcia, good athlete, good arm, covers a lot of ground, played center field when Taveras was hurt and went back to the right field.

And Taveras is getting better and better in all aspects of his game. I'm proud of how hard they've worked in defense.

Q. You've been part of great home environments in your career, what do you expect in this park tonight?

BRUCE BOCHY: I'm looking forward to it. I really am. I can feel just a great vibe when I'm getting around the city a little bit, how excited fans are, and that's cool. It's really cool. And of course we're playing Houston. So there's more interest, as we would say, in this series. So it's going to be fun out there. It really is. I think the players are looking forward to it. It's good to be home. We saw a little bit of it in that Baltimore series, but this will be a little bit different.

Q. Chris Young may dominate the fundamentals, one of his standards of this organization. So does the defense improvement this year speak to dominating the fundamentals better than any other aspect of this team?

BRUCE BOCHY: I think so, sure. I agree with that. And that's what's been preached here. It's what's preached with the coaches. He's put in a lot of time with these guys. You've seen out there every day these guys are working on their game. They've been relentless with that, outfield, infield, Bobby Wilson with the catchers. So I think the staff for the time they put in and the players that are willing to go out there and work on it every day. It's easy to take that day or two off, but every day they've been working.