AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS VS RED SOX

October 20, 2021

Ryan Pressly

Fenway Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. Ryan, first of all, last night while you were getting ready, what was your reaction when you saw your teammates start to put up all those runs in the ninth?

RYAN PRESSLY: You can't complain to have a big lead like that when you go into a game. Makes you feel a little bit more relaxed. Once Tuve hit that homer, everybody in the bullpen was excited, jumping around. And then we just kept pouring it on, so it was awesome to see for sure.

Q. From your vantage point, what has allowed Cristian Javier to have the success he has had in the postseason, and is it something mechanical he is doing differently? From your vantage point, what have you seen different from him?

RYAN PRESSLY: I think he is just fearless. You know, every time he takes the ball he just wants to go out there and throw strikes. He just wants to get people out. If you ask him to take the ball every single day, he would.

He has probably been the same mechanically I think. I haven't really seen him working on anything. It's just the confidence he has every time he takes the mound, every time he takes the ball. He wants to go out there and do his job.

Q. Obviously, it's been a tough go for your guys starters, but the relievers have really stepped up. How much pride do you take in being able to pick up the team when the starters are having a tough time?

RYAN PRESSLY: It's a team game. Whether the starters are going seven innings and the bullpen is struggling or vice versa, it's just everybody picks each other up in this organization, and this clubhouse. Every time the starters, when you see them struggling a little bit, you are looking in the bullpen, and it's, like, all right, boys, let's go. We have to figure it out. We can't let this get away from us.

Every single person down there wants the ball in every single kind of situation. I think that's the biggest key for our bullpen.

Q. Along those lines, what was it like last night watching one reliever after another come out of the bullpen, throw up zeros and you come in and do the same thing?

RYAN PRESSLY: We've seen it a couple of days in a row, unfortunately, but at the same time, like I said, the guys down in the bullpen they want the ball every single time. It doesn't matter if it's the first inning or the ninth inning or the 15th inning. We want the ball, and we want it in some of the highest pressure situations. We just want to go out there and do our job and do the best we possibly can.

Q. This is maybe more inside your preparation, but when you do see that inning going on, I mean, it's going on longer, and you've been warming up for a while, knowing that you could be needed today too. Did you alter your warmup at all? How do you manage such a long layoff between going in to pitch and things like that?

RYAN PRESSLY: I kind of have my routine. I go along with the guy that's out there on the mound. I don't just continuously throw down there. Sometimes if you watch closely, I'll just kind of stand on the mound a little bit. I'll move around, but I'm not wasting bullets down there. Especially in the postseason, you can't be doing that.

Every time there's a long inning, I kind of just step back and watch the game a little bit, watch how everything is happening, and then I'll throw a couple more pitches. But I usually go with the starter or pitcher that's out there, and just pace with him.

Q. Michael Brantley mentioned to us that he recognized almost instantly when he came to this team that they managed what we would call the highs and the lows exceptionally well. Have you taken note of how you guys do that, and how it helps you, quote, unquote, bounce back from a couple of losses in this series?

RYAN PRESSLY: Like we said before and time again, we've been here before. We were down 3-0 last year, forced a Game 7. Obviously, it didn't go our way, but same thing in '19. We were down -- I think we were down 3-0 and we came back.

You know, it's just everybody is even-keel in that clubhouse. There's no panic. There's no, oh, my God, we need to do this, we need to do this better, we need to do that better. Everyone knows what's expected of them, and it's going out there and taking care of your business and doing your job, and things will fall in place for you. You just got to keep going out there and grinding.

Q. You've pitched in the postseason for a while now. Sometimes as a set-up man and later now as the closer. Is there any difference when you are out there on the mound in the postseason, whether it's the seventh inning or the sixth or the ninth?

RYAN PRESSLY: I don't think so. Every out is a big out in the postseason. Doesn't matter if it's in the first inning or the ninth inning. You just want to go out there and do your job and get people out. Mentally, you can put as much pressure as you want on yourself. It's not going to help, but for me I just want to go out there and soak up the moment while I'm out there and enjoy it and just go make quality pitches and see what happens.