AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS VS ORIOLES

October 7, 2023

Bruce Bochy

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Texas Rangers

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Texas 3, Baltimore 2

Q. You get 16 outs out of your bullpen, did it look like you kind of had everything fall into place, as you thought?

BRUCE BOCHY: Right. Right it started with Andrew. He hadn't pitched in a while, and he got us where we were hoping he would get us. And he did a nice job and set it up nice for Dunning who did a good job to bridge it to pretty much our guys. It worked out well. The bullpen did a great job. Got bumpy, but found a way to get through it.

Q. With Josh Jung doing so well and then having the injury, derailed things for a month and a half. What has it been like to watch him play this way in the playoff these last three games?

BRUCE BOCHY: He's really done a nice job, hadn't he? On both sides. Big plays defensively. That double play was not an easy play and he made it look easy. But he's swinging the bat well and getting his timing back to where it was. He missed some time. It takes a while. Now you're looking at the guy that we saw all year. It's just his defense, it's just been outstanding here.

Q. Up 1-0 right now, and the idea of your team now having won three on the road on the playoffs?

BRUCE BOCHY: It's always good to get the first one. It's best out of five, though, we know that. Come in here and get the first one off a really good team, a great pitching staff. These guys found a way to get it done.

Carter, he jump-started us there with a big hit. We saw some good arms today. They battle hard. Well-played game on both sides. Close game.

But it's always nice to play well on the road. And we knew we had to do this going to Tampa and coming here facing a really tough ball club. Got work to do, but guys just responded so well after that series in Seattle.

Q. You mentioned Carter. Three more times on base today. How do you try to describe what he's doing for a guy for a guy with 62 alternative at-bats?

BRUCE BOCHY: I've said so many things about him, I don't know what else to say. This kid has handled himself so well. When he got called up, being the postseason, still had that calmness and that confidence that he plays with. He's been to left field. He has played a lot of left field. He's done a great job there, too.

But he's a gifted hitter, he's got a great eye at the plate and it works. We move him to the 5 hole and didn't faze him one bit. Goes out there and took some great at-bats, which we needed off this staff. And I think he had a changeup there. He just sees the ball so well.

Q. To go back, do you feel like you had scripted out this game the way you wanted to use pitchers? Did it play out exactly the way you wanted it to?

BRUCE BOCHY: Pretty much. Pretty much. With Andrew going, and we're hoping to get three or four, maybe five innings from him. But we had Dunning ready to go. And he was going to be our bridge to our set up guys. So it really worked out well. And Dane came in and he did a nice job, too. We're down a couple starters. So you've got to get creative and it worked out well today.

I can't say quite scripted, but pretty close to it.

Q. The other part of that would be do you feel -- just what you're seeing from Leclerc right now, what you've seen over the last two weeks?

BRUCE BOCHY: Yeah, I mean, he's a closer. They had left-handed hitters coming up there, but he's the guy we're using in the 9th inning right now. Chappy has been getting the 8th, and Sborz in the 7th. It's been working out well. He's a different guy than what we saw earlier in the season.

We talked about this. I don't think he was a hundred percent. His stuff was down. His command was a little off. But now he's healthy and throwing the ball well.

Q. Both Evan and Josh, having those two young guys lower in the lineup, what does it say about this team and this lineup?

BRUCE BOCHY: It's nice to have the lineup stretch out like we have it right now. Josh was pretty much -- he wasn't pretty much -- he was our 5 hole hitter all year. It shows you how stretched out it has become. And Carter has helped that. When we called him up he was hitting in the 9 hole and now he's in the 5 hole. And Nate in the 7 hole who was pretty much our 3 hole hitter all year.

The back end of the order it's productive, too. It's not just the top three or four guys that we rely on. It's the guys at the back end, too, that have been producing runs and knocking in runs, and that's what's worked for us lately.