AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 15, 2023

Dusty Baker

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Rangers - 2, Astros - 0

Q. How were the Rangers, and specifically Montgomery, able to neutralize our lineup?

DUSTY BAKER: He threw a heck of a game tonight. He had a good fastball. He was throwing harder than I remember. We hadn't seen him in a long time. And he had a curveball, pretty good changeup. We had him on the ropes a couple of times.

We got those three consecutive two-out singles, and the one was hit too hard and directly at the left fielder to score him. And, boy, the young left fielder, he made some heck of plays. And he robbed Bregman on that one that I thought might have been off the wall. That was nobody out. And then he made a heck of a play in that corner on Bregman off of Chapman. That ball had a chance to get on the wall and we'd at least had second and third with nobody out. And he got a hit, scored a run. He had a very good game.

Q. Bases loaded in the fourth there. Did you think about pinch-hitting for him, and how early is too early?

DUSTY BAKER: That's too early, because -- it was too early because we struck out before that with runners on base prior to Maldonado also. Yordan had a tough night. And that's in the fourth inning, and you don't change your catcher in the middle of the game like that in a 2-0 game.

So, no, it was far too early.

Q. With Verlander did you think the only mistake of his tonight was hanging that slider?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, that was the only mistake -- he was good. He was very good. And he had thrown good sliders all night, and that was the only mistake that he made, and he didn't miss it.

Q. What did Montgomery do to pitch Yordan so well?

DUSTY BAKER: You know, he was -- they had a pretty good game plan, which Mike Maddux is one of the best at game planning. And he was throwing some high fastballs and throwing some breaking balls off the plate. And like I said, I don't think he had one or two at-bats, if any, against him.

And so if we face him again, I'm sure he'll be much more equipped after seeing a guy already early in the series.

Q. What do you think will be the key to your team putting this behind them and moving on for tomorrow's game?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, this team is the best I've been around about moving on. And there's nothing you can do. If you're going to lose a game, you'd rather lose it in the first game versus in the middle of the series.

And so we know we've got a tough pitcher in Eovaldi tomorrow. But they also have a tough pitcher in Framber on our side.

So sometime you've got to say, hey, the guy threw a great game tonight against us, excellent game. And they say good pitching beats good hitting, but when you don't hit, everybody wants to know what's wrong. There's not a whole bunch to say. He threw a real good game against us.

Q. Getting back to that Bregman ball that was a terrific catch by Carter, did you think that Altuve was doubled up? And how much was that a momentum changer?

DUSTY BAKER: That was close. He had his foot still on the bag. And that was a matter of interpretation. But his left foot was past the bag. And so it didn't work.