AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 22, 2023

Dusty Baker

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 6 Press Conference

Rangers - 9, Astros - 2

Q. That eighth inning was pretty interesting. Curious about the decision to pinch-hit Singleton there for Jeremy who's been pinched-hit for now in two consecutive games.

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I mean, against Leclerc, the OPS is 100 points higher for a lefty versus a righty. And he's been tough on Jeremy and throwing all the sliders and off-speed pitches. So I thought best chance was to pinch-hit Singleton.

Q. You guys had several opportunities to break through, and you weren't able to do it. How disappointing is it to get the men on and not bring them home?

DUSTY BAKER: It's disappointing. The name of the game is opportunities, and then after that you hope that you come through. And, yeah, that was -- that eighth inning where we had action, and especially with Duby up there, this guy has been coming through all year long, and you know he's going to make contact. And like I said, some days you just don't get it done.

Q. Who will start tomorrow?

DUSTY BAKER: Javi.

Q. Did you feel like you kind of let Eovaldi settle in after the first inning? Did you feel like you maybe had him on the ropes?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, well, I mean, we didn't let him. He settled in. And like most good pitchers, if you don't get them early and let them get into the middle innings, then they will settle in.

Yeah, we did have him on the ropes. It was big on Bruce sending him back out there in the 7th versus going to his bullpen. That was a big inning right there, the 6th and 7th, because his pitch count was getting up. And like I said, I mean, they just beat us tonight.

I think 7 out of their 9 runs scored were on homers. So you've really got to keep them in the ballpark. And you've got to keep them out of that big inning, like their 9th was. You know they're very capable of having a big inning, but the more you stop that and limit the innings to low-runs-scored innings, the better chance you have to win.

Q. Did Jon's previous at-bat in Arlington against Leclerc factor into going to him pitching tonight?

DUSTY BAKER: No, not really. That was something, you know, that was a situation where had Duby gotten an at-bat, we would have probably let -- if he had gotten a hit, we would have probably let Peña hit to keep his defense in there. But that was a situation where I thought that was our best chance.

Q. What did you think about Framber's stuff tonight?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, you know, his stuff was good. He made two mistakes. He made a mistake on an up-and-away fastball that was supposed to be sinking down for the home run to right.

The second one was the ballpark -- it was a changeup that was up, and he hit it to the smallest part of the ballpark. Other than that, he threw the ball well tonight.

Q. Did Abreu's situation have any impact on your decisions tonight? With his appeal being heard tomorrow potentially, how big of a blow could that potentially be if he's not in your bullpen?

DUSTY BAKER: That could be a huge blow. I thought about using him two innings today, had the decision been made. But you'd hate to have the fine and the suspension go past tomorrow and then I wouldn't have had Abreu tomorrow, had he gone two innings.

So you wish you had a decision. You wish you had some final decision about his status. So we took a shot there. Hopefully some of this will be postponed and we'll have him tomorrow, as well.

Q. Javier turned his season around in September, he's been strong in October. Why do you think that is?

DUSTY BAKER: You know, he's in great shape. He trains a lot. The guy has a very slow heartbeat. And he's been a big-game pitcher for us.

Why he turned around, why he had bad streaks and good streaks, sometimes there's no explanation. Sometimes you just get in a groove, you find your rhythm and find your timing, and I think that's most of it.