AL WILD CARD SERIES: WHITE SOX VS ASTROS

September 30, 2026

Joe Espada

Daikin Park

Houston Astros

Pregame Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right. Who has the first question for Joe Espada?

Q. The crowd obviously showed some frustration yesterday at a couple of points in the game. What was kind of your reaction to that or did you even notice?

JOE ESPADA: Yes, I did notice, obviously. I'm there. The way I see it -- I understand both sides. There's frustration. Our players and the fans have the right to also show their emotions, and I get it. But one thing I do know is that our players love our fans. We respect our fans. We need our fans. We need the energy from our fans. We feed off that.

But I did talk to the players and we're going to move on. But I do want our fans to know that we love them and we need them. They're part of what we are trying to accomplish here. They're part of our family.

Q. Is your lineup set yet?

JOE ESPADA: No, not yet. You guys give me a little bit of time here. Waiting on a player.

Q. How much of learning the ABS challenge system this season has been to use it at moments of greatest impact, like full counts or later in games?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, I think ABS has really impacted the game. We have done a nice job using it to our advantage, the game and how we -- how pitching is being deployed and how we prepare ourselves for a matchup. We look at all those things just to get ready for a game. We study the umpires zone, just to be ready for a game. But it has really changed how more selective some of these lineups are, how more disciplined they are, how we force pitchers to be more aggressive in the zone more than in the past, and I think ABS has created that behavior.

Q. You mentioned you talked to the players. Is that just one of those things where a fan-player thing at this time of year is just the most unproductive thing to let linger?

JOE ESPADA: Yeah, for me -- listen, these guys, we are competitors, and we want to win every pitch, every inning. We want our fans to be proud of us. I've been here for almost a decade and I get it. I get it. I get booed too, all right? But that's part of it. And I love our fans. I go to the grocery store and I talk to the fans. I go and I drop my kids off at school and I talk to the parents. They're fans. And I love our fans, right? We win here and that's part of it.

But what I do tell the players is just to show their respect, show that they're on our side. But again, we compete and sometimes that stuff happens. We'll put that on the back burner and we'll get ready to play today.

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

JOE ESPADA: All right. Guys, thank you.