AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 23, 2023

Dusty Baker

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 7 Press Conference

Q. It seemed like that 4th inning was a tipping point where they gained some distance from you guys. Why did you continue to pitch to Garcia? And then in the bottom of the inning, did you consider pinch-hitting for Maldy in that big spot --

DUSTY BAKER: No. Why we continued to pitch to Garcia, why they continued to pitch to Yordan. You've got to pitch to them at some point in time. That's baseball. He was hot, and he's been hot the whole series. We did strike him out quite a few times. But he got us.

We get beat 11-3, there's a whole bunch of stuff you can point to in that ballgame. And so we just got beat. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you get beat. There's a difference. We got beat.

Q. What did you see as the issue with Javier in the first inning, and how tough was it to fall behind pretty big there so quickly?

DUSTY BAKER: It was very tough. That's what happens when you've got the first at-bat. A lot of that happened with the walk. And Javi, that's something he has to work on, holding runners and not being as slow. It's tough to throw them out. And then when the gates open, Maton came in and shut them down for that inning.

But once an offensive team gets five or six at-bats on you, they're going to score and they're going to do some damage. I've been on this side, too.

Like I say, it's not easy to accept or say, but we got beat. We have been spoiled around here as far as winning and winning and winning. And heck, I've been here four years, and we've been to two World Series and two Championship Series. We have nothing to be ashamed of or nothing to hold our head down about. We're down, but we're not out. And every team in baseball would trade to have had the last four years that we've had.

Q. Things have gotten a little chippy between these teams this year and kind of escalated in the playoffs. Did you think McCormick getting by Chapman in the 8th was a settling of accounts?

DUSTY BAKER: I don't know, man. Nobody knows but the guy that threw the ball. You got to ask the guy that threw the ball about that one. The umpires, they didn't think so because they didn't say anything about it.

I don't know if you ever settle accounts, to tell you the truth. But if that's what it takes to settle an account, vengeance is not ours to take it upon yourself. But if that was a settling of accounts, and sometimes you get misfortune by settling accounts.

Q. Every other major sports league has had at least one repeat champion in this century, but not this sport. Why do you think we haven't had it in MLB?

DUSTY BAKER: A lot has to do with you're playing a long season, there's a whole bunch of things that go into it, guys having good years, guys having bad years, team having injuries. Some years you don't have any injuries.

Or we start the season injured. I mean, we're playing from behind the whole season, like it was a grind. When up lose Altuve before the season even starts, he plays 80-something games, and you lose Alvarez, and he plays 60 something. You lost Garcia before the season even starts. We lost Urquidy.

And we're out there with a bunch of kids that didn't have much experience. J.P. France was a surprise for us. And you look at Hunter Brown, he was a young player. When you've got young players, it makes it very difficult. You've got a young catcher in Díaz. As veteran as we were, we were also just as young on the other side.

This is a tough sport, a tough game. It's a marathon. And so -- plus there are other teams that were trying to improve themselves. Look at these guys. They went out and signed Scherzer, deGrom, Montgomery. That's major improvements. Same thing in Seattle. Seattle had major improvements.

When the season started, I told everybody it was going to take less victories to win. There were three teams that won a hundred, with this schedule the way it was, and there's only three teams that I think lost a hundred.

And the balance of power sometimes shifts from this team -- look at Arizona. And you look at Baltimore. Those teams were down a long time, and they were drafting high for an extended period of time. And they chip away at you. Instead of a hundred, now you're 95, now you're 90. And nobody stays on top in this sport very long, and the Astros have been on top for quite a while.

Q. What did you say to your players after the game? When will you begin the process of evaluating what you want to do for next year?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, I just told the guys I loved them and I appreciate their effort and appreciate how they go about their business and how professional that they are.

And I don't know, I haven't had time to evaluate or think about my future because I'm down the list as far as -- like I'm not that kind of dude. I don't want to steal the spotlight or anything from these guys. You've got to savor what we did. You've got to think about how we can get better. And then I'll evaluate my situation and my life.

So we'll see. I talked to my daughter. I've got two grandsons, a year and a half. I've really sort of cheated them for my quest for another ring. I've got two dogs, hunting dogs, a year old. They wouldn't even know me when I walk in the house because I haven't been home since February the 10th. Anybody here been away from home that long? You have? Wow. I don't know want your job (laughter).

Q. I know you haven't had time to think about everything yet, but can you just talk about what this team overcame this year and just the thoughts. You said it a little bit about you're proud of the team, but what this team has accomplished and what it overcame this season?

DUSTY BAKER: Right. We overcame a lot of stuff. I overcame a lot of stuff. We overcame a lot of stuff. People wondering why we weren't where we were, it doesn't matter who we were suiting up, it didn't matter who we had injured.

I personally got a whole bunch of undue criticism for whatever, you know what I mean? So you wear it and you hold your head up high, and you think about what you've accomplished versus what you've lost.

This city is proud of this team. We've made over the last four years that I've been here and the three before I got here, I mean, we brought a lot of enjoyment and created a lot of fans that weren't fans. And not to mention every time I go down the street the hotels are full, the bars are full, the restaurants are full.

I mean, we've helped this place out economically big time because these streets would have been empty the last two weeks. But instead I saw a whole bunch of people out having a good time. They live and die with the team, and we live and die with the wins and losses.

Q. You mentioned pregame you didn't want to deploy Justin except for the narrowest of situations. Did you have any conversations about his availability with him pregame? And during the game did he talk to you about --

DUSTY BAKER: No, not really. I mean, I know they employed Montgomery tonight. He's a lot younger, and he hadn't had any arm problems that I know of, like Justin. I mean, you want to win every game, but you don't want to do it at the cost of an injury.

No, I didn't even -- we had plenty of pitching, we just didn't get it done or we've got to give them credit for doing a whole bunch of hitting.

Q. You've won World Series; this Rangers never have. Does this Rangers team look like one that could break that drought?

DUSTY BAKER: They can hit. They can really hit. And it helped a lot when they got Garcia back, after he got his leg injured against us. It helped to get Jung back at third base. I mean, sometimes you've got to -- I don't like tipping my cap to anybody, but when somebody, like, beats the hell out of me then what else are you going to do?