AL WILD CARD SERIES: WHITE SOX VS ASTROS

September 29, 2026

Joe Espada

Daikin Park

Houston Astros

Postgame Press Conference

White Sox - 6, Astros - 3

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll open it up with Joe Espada.

Q. When you have a bullpen game and your first two bullpen guys are infective like that, how much does that put you behind the 8 ball for the rest of the game?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, it puts you in a tough spot, for sure. You start counting the outs and it just really puts you in a tough spot. We were able to keep the game close, couple of hits away from getting back in that game. I thought we battled back after that first two innings.

Q. In that second inning, as you're watching kind of how that inning unfolds with King, what is kind of the decision there like hitter to hitter. How much leash does he have there?

JOE ESPADA: It's hitter to hitter. Still got seven innings to cover. Miguel came in and did a really nice job putting that fire away and keeping us in the game.

Q. Overall, what did you see from your at-bats against them and how difficult was it with the stuff that they were throwing out there with just the different guys that they had?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, I thought that that was the difference in the game. They really gave us multiple different arms, different arm angles. They displayed different repertoires, so I thought they did a nice job of mixing and matching, and we just couldn't really get anything going.

So we got to turn it around and we got to get back on track here and get ready for tomorrow. We have Hunter Brown on the mound, the right guy to get us back on track.

Q. You guys hadn't faced Hagen Smith before. What did you think of him specifically?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, the newness is always kind of tough, right? Kind of cross-fire, tough angle. His pitches do have some kind of difficult shape that keeps you off balance. He did a nice job of doing that. Once we got into the middle of the game, I thought we were more familiar with those guys, we seen 'em before and that's when our offense started clicking a little bit. But not enough just to get it to that finish line.

Q. What was the message to the team after today with the next game coming up so quickly here?

JOE ESPADA: Oh, the message is clear: We got to win tomorrow. I don't need to tell 'em that, they know. We've had our backs have been against the corner before and I think that's when we are our best, when we fight back. We know it's a do or die and they we've been here before, so I really admire how they bounce back and they react to challenges. I expect them to go out there and bounce back and our offense get going.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Joe, thanks for coming in.