AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 18, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Globe Life Field

Texas Rangers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Astros - 8, Rangers - 5

Q. What did you see in Max, and for you, the fact that he didn't have a slider tonight, how big a deal was that?

BRUCE BOCHY: I thought he had good stuff, he did. He came out and had his normal velocity. But you're right, he didn't have his good slider tonight.

He's going to be a little rusty, it's been a month since he's been out there. But overall I was really pleased with the stuff. It's only going to get better with him. But just made some mistakes there, they got the big two-out hit early, the wild pitch and then the two-out hit.

He was battling out there. He's fine. Feels good. And that's the good news.

Q. What did you make out of Josh's performance tonight?

BRUCE BOCHY: The kid did a great job of getting us back in the game a couple of times. We weren't doing much with Javier. We were fighting to get back in it. And just got nicked a couple of times there with the bullpen and kept it a little bit out of reach.

But I loved the way they battled tonight.

Q. The fact that Max hadn't pitched in a month, if you had to go it over again, would you do it again?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I'd let him do it again. One inning he had good stuff there with Alvarez, 0-2, hit him with the changeup and the walk. That kind of set up that rally there and wild pitch, as I mentioned.

He's one of our guys. We had him ready, face hitters, we did all we could to get him ready for this. He was ready. You saw the stuff. He's one of our guys. There's no regret on that.

Q. What did you see from Javier that he was having so much success against you all?

BRUCE BOCHY: He's tough. He's got that fastball, his rises a little bit, and hitters have a tough time. He's been throwing well in the postseason. We knew that coming in, we had our hands full. He pitched well for them. He's got good stuff and off-speed pitches to go with it. It's a tough fastball if you haven't seen it.

Q. What went into the decision to bring Stratton back out if Gray was good to go tonight?

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, when you're down you kind of set the order that you want to use. So Stratton was fresh, so we let him go back out there. It's going to come back around where we may need Gray. Stratton was fresh. I had no problem with him out there. And gave up a bloop to Maldonado, that's his bad luck, and had two strikes on Altuve, we had Smitty ready. That was the thinking, he's fine, he's one of our guys.