MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

October 30, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Chase Field

Texas Rangers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Rangers - 3, Diamondbacks - 1

Q. Bruce, the Rangers signed Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Jon Gray for over $550 million on the same day in 2021. They've been great for the franchise. Today they all played a key role in winning this game for you. What do those three mean to you and how have they kind of turned things around specifically for the franchise?

BRUCE BOCHY: I'll start tonight, I think they showed what they mean to us with their outstanding play. Jon Gray stepped in when we lost Max there and did a terrific job, didn't he?

Been dealing with some arm stuff, but he's bounced back and he's throwing the ball as well as he was earlier in the season.

But those guys, they're the type of guys that can turn a franchise around. And went out and signed them and made this club that much better.

Q. Can you give us an injury updates on both Max Scherzer and Adolis Garcia? And whether you expect either of them for the remainder of the series?

BRUCE BOCHY: Right now we're going to just evaluate them. Doli, will get some diagnostics done. See where he's at. Left-side tightness. We're being optimistic there but we'll know more tomorrow.

The same with Max. Max took a pretty good shot on the elbow. That's what we were concerned about. But it was his low back that tightened up on him. He just couldn't go any more. The same with him; we'll see where he's at in the next 24 hours and decide where we're at with him.

Q. What was the difference? A couple games ago or a couple days ago the Diamondbacks scored nine runs. Tonight just one run. What in your strategy was able to turn the guys around or get them to lock in differently. I'm curious what created --

BRUCE BOCHY: It wasn't so much strategy. The guys threw the ball well. The nine runs got away from us late. That was a tight ball game, 2-1 and just got away late in that game. That's what it comes down to and defense.

You look at what those guys did tonight. Doli, what a throw he made at home. And, of course, Corey getting that big double play. Josh Jung, the ball that deflected off of Max. Just a great game defensively. And it shows you what defense can do. It can win a ball game for you. And it helped us win tonight.

Q. You just spoke on the throw by Garcia. Can you just expand on the weapon that he's been for you guys defensively and how reliable he's been when guys try to run on him in that situation?

BRUCE BOCHY: He's just a complete player. Speed, arm, can hit. The guy can do it all. We saw it. And he's accurate, too, and he loves to throw. He loves to be challenged. And we've seen that quite a few times. He really enjoys that part of the game, and he works at it.

Q. I think coming into the series Jon Gray had thrown one inning in the ALCS. Going from that to not just high-leverage situations, but really important ones, what have you seen from him? And how much better has his stuff been than it was a week or two ago?

BRUCE BOCHY: I agree. He's really thriving on this role. He's got a lot of confidence going. I'll start with he's healthy right now. I think he's excited about that. He was dealing with the arm, but now back to who he is, he knows he's getting the ball where he wants, his velocity, his slider.

So he's back to being the guy that we had earlier in the season and for the most part this season. Always can be a difficult transition going to the bullpen, but he's handled it so well. And his stamina and strength has built up on him.

We only had him for an inning there, but each time out he's just getting stronger. So we're able to use him multiple innings. Went three tonight. He probably could have gone more, to be honest.

Q. Given how tonight's game played out, who is going to be your starting pitcher tomorrow?

BRUCE BOCHY: I'm going to need an hour here, to be honest. We'll huddle up and decide how we're going to do it. I think both teams are kind of in the same situation how we work this.

We were able to stay away from a lot of guys because of Jon Gray's effort and had our leverage guys out there. We're going to talk about the game plan what we're going to do tomorrow. I'll come up with that shortly.