MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

October 31, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Chase Field

Texas Rangers

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. Can you give us an update on Adolis Garcia, and whether or not you envision him being able to help you guys at any point in time the rest of the World Series?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, he's not playing tonight. Obviously, you've seen the lineup. He did try to take some swings. He's been getting treatment. He does have a moderate strain, oblique. That's never a good thing, to be honest.

Right now he's on the table getting further evaluation. We have to make a call here pretty soon. It's unfortunate, but we'll wait and see in the next hour or so. We still have a little bit of time to see where we're at with him and the possibility of him coming around. But we have to be honest, it's not great news.

Q. Anything new on Scherzer?

BRUCE BOCHY: Max, I'll put in the same boat. He was pretty locked up when he walked in today. He's on the table getting looked at, trying to get loose some. But he's not feeling well.

So, again, we have to make a call on him whether we're going to wait a day or two or if we feel like we're a little short, need a pitcher. That will be decided within the next hour or so.

Q. So both guys could be replaced on the roster in the next hour or so?

BRUCE BOCHY: Possibly, yes.

Q. Follow-up, I was looking at the record and your World Series -- Padres, Giants -- you always had a full complement of starting pitchers. You were never in a situation like today where you're starting Heaney -- who knows how long he'll pitch; you're doing a bullpen game. You might have that in Game 7. How do you adjust to that, and do you like the turn in the game like that, or is that something you'd rather not have?

BRUCE BOCHY: If you asked me, I'd rather have five starters that go seven or eight innings. I think any manager would tell you that. But it's all about adjusting to what you have and where you're at.

Now, with Andrew, he's not an opener, I will say. Can't tell you how far he's going to go. That's determined by how things are going.

But it's about getting creative, too, at times. Both sides are doing the same thing tonight, trying to get through it. We've been dealing with injuries, of course, Scherzer, but you look at Gray.

So anyway, we have the long guys. We have starters that can give us length today. If this thing continues to go, we feel like we have coverage.

Q. Like you said, not an ideal situation with Adolis, but do you feel like this team might be best equipped or better equipped than others to deal with something like this because of what you all have dealt with this season injury-wise?

BRUCE BOCHY: To your point, this team has dealt with it many times. It started early in the season. You go with deGrom. We lost Corey Seager for a while. We lost Doli, Jonah Heim. I could keep going there.

And I can't say enough about the mental toughness about this club and the resilience they have shown. They don't get down. There's no point in it. They understand you have to focus forward. And they've done that.

Sure, it's not great news. You hate to lose your cleanup hitter, but it happened. And the only thing we can do is handle it in the right way, and this club has done it all year. That's why I'm so proud of them.

Q. Defensively, how impressed have you been with both clubs, especially turning ground balls into outs this series? Seems both teams have been playing at a pretty high level in that regard.

BRUCE BOCHY: I agree with you. It's been really good baseball, great baseball on both sides. They're playing very well. We're playing very well. I appreciate how well the baseball's been in this series and the defensive plays that have been made.

It won a game for us last night. Adolis' throw and Corey's play up the middle, and their side has been playing well too. It's been a good brand of baseball so far.

Q. You said something about like you would decide in the next hour or so if you were going to replace Doli and Max on the roster. That's not a hard deadline; that's because you want to have somebody available tonight if they're not available? What are the sort of factors you're weighing in terms of if and when you would replace them on the roster?

BRUCE BOCHY: I guess the factors are what is the chances of them being able to help us the rest of the series. That's what you have to look at. And do you want to be shorthanded on the position player side or the pitching side?

And you have to be honest. They're not easy decisions when you look at the two players we're talking about. One could be a starter in the last game and the other one's your cleanup hitters.

So out of respect to them, too, hey, we're going to see if they make improvement in the next hour or so. That's all that is. But we do have a little bit of time. So that's the only reason, too, why we haven't made that decision yet.

Q. With Travis filling in for Garcia in right field, what does he bring to the table? He was more of an impact guy for you in the first half with his speed. It's kind of a different look now with him being in there.

BRUCE BOCHY: Travis has had a really nice year for us in his role. He's done a tremendous job. Got pressed into a starting role there for a while when we had our injuries and really picked us up when we needed it.

Solid all around. Smart player. Good defender. Speed. He's a guy that can handle the bat. He can bunt. He does a good job putting the ball in play, all the little things you like from a Major League player.

He's had a nice career, and he was a big pickup for us this year because we needed him.

Q. In a lot of ways this season was defined by the pitch clock and the game speeding up a little bit. I wonder as a manager in these postseason games, when you're trying to slow everything down, does it get fast because things are moving, or are you able to keep it at a good pace in terms of decision-making?

BRUCE BOCHY: I love the pace of the game right now, to be honest. I enjoy how it's been going as far as baseball in general during the season and it's what I'm used to.

So, no, I don't think -- now there's times, I don't think it's gone too fast -- there's times where we think we need to slow it down maybe for the pitcher, with the timeouts or step-offs or whatever.

But as far as my end, no, I love the pace we're playing with.

Q. Can you talk a little bit to the idea of how you weigh the situation in terms of what you did in right field? You have Grossman who started a lot for you as a DH and in the outfield. He's more of an offensive guy. And you've got Jankowski, who has the speed and the defense. How did you weigh those two factors to come to the idea that Jankowski would be the guy to go with?

BRUCE BOCHY: I'd say more than anything Jankowski, he's such a good defender. They're going to be using everybody out there. So it's hard to pick the matchup you want on the starter in a game like tonight.

So I guess that probably weighed as heavily as anything is they're going to see different pitchers. Right now we're going with our best defense out there. And we'll adjust as the game goes with the matchups, who is on base, things like that, pinch-hitting.

Again, wait and see what's going to happen with Garcia, with the possible change could have another player.

Q. Josh Jung moves up in your lineup tonight. We saw him battle through the thumb issue, put up good numbers this postseason. What do you like that you're seeing from him at the plate? And what kind of support does he provide at the top of your lineup?

BRUCE BOCHY: That's his normal spot. That's where he's hit for the most part this year. So putting him in a familiar area. So I know there's a sense of comfort for him there.

But when you don't have one of your guys in there, your cleanup hitter, there's always going to be adjustments in the lineup which is what we've done. So I decided to go ahead and let's put him back in the 5 hole and Jankowski, who has not been playing a lot, he goes to the back end of the lineup. And I just slid the rest of them down.

Q. Going back to your defense. You guys made like 55 errors all season long. I'm just curious how much of an impact do you think that made in you guys getting here, like the quality of your defense all year long?

BRUCE BOCHY: It played a tremendous impact. When you look at our club, a lot is talked about the hitting, the slug, the runs scored, but our defense has shown up every day. That's what I love about these guys. They have separated the two and kept their focus out there.

The hitting, pitching, it's going to come and go, but the defense needs to show up every day. And both teams have had really good years defensively. Consequently, both are here.

So I think it has played a role for us in getting here, because last thing you want to do is make mistakes out there. You give up runs you shouldn't and cost the pitcher more pitches, and these guys have done a nice job, the coaching staff has done a tremendous job of working with them and making sure they keep that focus out there defensively.

Q. What are some of the challenges when you're facing a bullpen game with the decisions you have to make in the lineup, batting order, starting Jankowski or Grossman, just as you envision the game playing out, how much more challenging is it when it's this game versus facing a Merrill Kelly or Zac Gallen?

BRUCE BOCHY: A little bit, I guess, in the fact that you're trying to balance it out as much as you can because they're going to mix up -- mix and match over there, you know that, with putting two or three lefties together or two or three right-handers together.

Especially when you have an injury, you're going to keep your regular guys where they're at. But when someone like Garcia is not in the lineup, it brings on a little bit more of a challenge to make sure we balance it out.

That's why I did move a couple of guys quite a bit, like Josh Jung. So we could split the lefty/righties up tonight.