AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 22, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Minute Maid Park

Texas Rangers

Postgame 6 Press Conference

Rangers - 9, Astros - 2

Q. Beyond the fact that he's a talented pitcher, what makes Nate so good in these big games for you guys?

BRUCE BOCHY: He's done it so many times. He has the ability to rise to the occasion. He has great stuff, start with that. But the makeup of this man, it's amazing. He wants to be out there in a game like this. He has great stuff, four pitches. He's got really good focus, maniacal focus on every pitch.

It's been fun to watch him. It's been fun to get to know him. He's the guy we needed out there tonight. He set the tone. We needed him. Of course, early runs helped, but what a great job he did.

Q. Can you confirm if Scherzer is your starter? And for some folks in America who have not seen your team and this is their first time catching them, can you speak to that resiliency that your club has played with?

BRUCE BOCHY: First of all, Max is starting. He gets the nod tomorrow. We've talked about this so many times. During the season we've had our ups and downs. We've had some tough streaks, injuries. But these guys keep getting up and they keep bouncing back.

It's about being resilient in this game because it doesn't matter if it happens or not, it's more how you handle it. And so these guys have done a great job of putting that behind them and tough loss in Game 5.

It was just a must-win. I just love the way they responded and went out there and put together a great ballgame. Contributions throughout the lineup. They all threw out some good at-bats. The early runs were nice, Garver's home run, Jonah's home run. And it allowed me to rest Leclerc a little bit.

Q. So much is always made about home-field advantage, but in this series it hasn't mattered. Why do you think that's happened in this series?

BRUCE BOCHY: Wow, I wish I could answer that one. That's the million dollar question. Obviously we wanted to win some games at home, but it didn't happen. And they played unbelievable on the road. Look at their record.

But it's very balanced clubs here that do a lot of things well. They pitch well, they have a good offense. And we've been pitching well, and we have a good offense, too.

I can't explain that. I wish I could or we would have done a better job at home.

Q. Looking at that bottom of the eighth inning, it looked like there was some by-the-gut managing going on. You went with a right-hander to face Alvarez who strikes him out and gets him out for the first time. Talk about decisions on leaving Sborz in and also bringing in Leclerc to face a left-hander in Tucker.

BRUCE BOCHY: Right. They're our guys, lefty or righty, I have no problem bringing them in. Sometimes you can overdo the matchup-type thing. It's not like Alvarez doesn't hit left-handers. He hits everybody. He's such a talent.

But we had our guy out there in Sborzy, made some great pitches there on him. I'm comfortable with righties facing lefties. You look at the series, a lot of lefties have been out there. But you get in a game like this, we're going with our guys.

Q. Talk about leaving things in the past, to have a guy like Leclerc come in and work his way out of a jam after everything that happened on Friday. To have that short mental aspect to be able to work out of that, what does that do for the confidence of this club?

BRUCE BOCHY: It does a lot of confidence. It does a lot of confidence for Josy, too, I'm talking about Leclerc. It's a tough game, and it's a tough role as a closer. They always say a good closer has a short memory. And he does. He's such a tough kid. I think he took it hard but also had the ability to put that behind him and he wanted to be back out there, you know, walking a guy, but runs a 3-2 count, makes a great pitch there.

We're lucky to have him.

Q. This has been an entertaining series from the fans' point of view. What has it been like to manage in this series?

BRUCE BOCHY: It's been entertaining with me, too. It's intense. There's no getting around it. People ask you, Are you having fun? Yeah, it's fun, you try to enjoy it, but it's intense out there. That's what I came back for, to be in this situation. It's exciting. I'm proud of these guys, how they came in here and put together a great ballgame.

Q. So to clarify, you were going to bring Leclerc back for the 9th had it not been for the pumped-up run production, and that would have meant a five-out save, is that what you planned on?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, but we had backup for him. We had Chappy.

Q. And Chapman would have come in?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, Chappy, he would have been ready if Josy needed some help.

Q. And so tomorrow, behind Scherzer, is there a matchup thing, or do you have anything in mind?

BRUCE BOCHY: Well, we have a full bullpen because of the job that Nate did. So they're all hands on deck, as they say. They're all available. You look at matchups and things like that. But they're all ready to go.