The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - AJ Hinch Joins Matt Thomas As The Astros Prepare for Game 4 of ALDS

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Astros Manager AJ Hinch joins Matt and Ross ahead of Game 4 of the ALDS in Tampa Bay as the Astros look to close out the series with Justin Verlander taking the mound

From one part of St. Petersburg, Florida, the other where you say hi to the manager of your Houston Astros, up two games to one, the ALDS against Tampa Bay. Skip, good afternoon. Thank you for the time. I don't ask a whole lot of, are you what your postgame messages to guys, but was it dramatically different than any other normal loss? Or do you try to keep it even keel knowing that obviously a post-season setbacks a lot different than a regular season loss? Yeah, no, I think you have to stay consistent with how you operate. I mean, I think the players look for me, look to me for consistency. And, you know, this group is very, very polished, very, very experienced, very aware of the moment. There's really no need to say much. There's not a real message to these guys after wins or losses.

It's more, you know, kind of lay out the plan and what's at stake. And I think for me yesterday, the game is really about Charlie Morton escaping the first. And then, you know, it's not being able to contain their power. And you look up and they win game three. And when you draw it up, this series is always about momentum. And the playoffs bring this anxiousness and reactiveness to all sorts of things. But I pride myself in being a pretty calm heartbeat in the room and deliver some messages, some encouragement to Springer.

on things he's doing that he can do well some you know some some some stuff with our catching and and more than anything just the positivity to get to the next game because you carry you can't carry you know this this the ups and downs of it's such an emotional time of the year you can't carry this stuff with you every single day otherwise you know you'll regret at the end yeah I don't want to spend a whole lot of time about yesterday but I'm curious you got charlie to 50 pitches I think through two innings more times than not especially in a playoff series that's a good number to have and so Did it feel like to you a lot of missed opportunities because the pitch count was so high early? Yeah, maybe the first inning is, and say missed opportunity, I mean, he's a really good pitcher who's, you know, arguably in the top five in the Sauty Young race.

So we've seen him be really good. And if you get them early and get them on the ropes, you know, I would have to have a single in the first inning. If you really can knock that two-out-based hit and all of a sudden it's three-nought, then I think Kevin Cash has to get the bullpen going and there's an anxiety that comes with an elimination game and you're losing. and we weren't able to break through with that. And then he started locking in his breaking ball. It got really, really good as the game went on. We saw him get stronger.

He ran out of pitches, which was because of how he worked him in the first part of the game. But he got through five, and their team had hit a couple balls out of the park and taken a lead in their bullpen, got the momentum of the building and got their last out. So I wish if I, you know, do it over again, you'd roll a base hit through the infield, you know, an opportune time. but these are really good teams that are playing against each other this time of year. So it doesn't shock me that their guys step up when needed as well. So you haven't, just to be safe on this, you have not grabbed your entire outfield and said, what's the matter with your bats? Let's go. Come on, boys, right? You haven't done that at this juncture.

I mean, if you think they're not trying? I mean, it's tough, it's tough, man. And obviously, we haven't swung the bats well. But then you can say what's going on with our hitter. You can be reminded that this is one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. So I try to stay positive with them. We do need some better performances out of our guys and a couple timely hits. But I'm back these guys for 162. I'm not going to start reacting to some struggles against some really high-end pitching just because it's the playoffs.

It's just falling this together. And they're trying. They're working. They're trying to get good pitches. And it's a reminder of tough level of league. And we're going to try to get it done tonight. I was in your press conference after the game. and you were so matter of fact,

cool as a cucumber when it asked about the starter for tonight. You said, oh, it's Justin Verland. And then you went on to explain it. He's one of the best out there. My wife is texting me during the game yesterday. She was like, AJ and Justin are talking a lot during the game. Can you find out? I said, well, probably it's because dinner reservations or something.

But can you shed some light on maybe some of the things you guys discuss as the game was progressing? Sure. Well, I mean, this discussion started after his game one started Houston, where this time of year, every single team will talk about who's going to be able come back on short rest or who's available any given day. And if you watch these games, and I'm watching every single playoff game that I can, and I see Clayton

Kershaw in the bullpen. I saw Max Scherzer in the bullpen. You see all these starters that you never see down in the pen. They're always in the pen. So that's just this time of year, and it's certainly gotten popular across the league to utilize your best pitchers. Corby came in the other day for Washington, didn't work out

for him. So these guys are always available, it seems like, this time of year. So when JV and I talked after his game one start, I didn't want to distract him about game four until after game one. And I said, look, you're, you're probably going to be available in game four. So work, you know, your work between now and then kind of keep that in mind. So as the game, as the games got on, Garrett goes out, goes his gem. We win game two.

Justin approached me on the off day. We were here in Tampa. And I was like, what do you think about potential game four? And I said, let me think about it. And so we kind of went back and forth. And then yesterday during the game, I was just double in trouble. checking with him on how he was feeling, what he did. You know, I wanted him to get together with, I was kind of instructing.

Hey, if we, if we've been losing this game, I am going to go to you, told him during the game that I'll announce it after the game. And I said, my thought and I told him this during the, during the game is I'm going to pitch you tomorrow no matter what. Then preparing for a start getting the normal warm up routine, there's no, no urge to bring you in with runners on base. it's as close to normal as possible if I'm going to use you anyway with Garrett Cole, possibly as a game five. So after the game ended, I said I'm going to announce it, and let's go talk to the media, and let's go win game four. So I don't think I've ever asked you this and all the time with JV as a member of your team.

JV. in a pitch count, should we even be thinking about it, looking at it at any point during the course of the game today? Well, I think it depends on effective. I think JV. In effectiveness is something I look at all the time. I mean, there's times I've taken them out in 80s, this time up. taking him out in the 90s, as times he's gone 100 plus.

I think it's just going to depend on the feedback that we get from the hitters on how they're reacting to his stuff and then how his stuff is coming out of his hand and how he's executing. So, I mean, I'm going to read the game as closely as I ever do and get constant feedback from JV. I'll probably approach him a little bit more today rather than I, instead of the other games where I don't generally talk to him much until the end

of his outing. I'll check with him to make sure he's good. but these guys are adrenaline junkies when it comes to getting themselves ready. I mean, I don't think this is as big a deal as everybody portrays it. In fact, last year in 2018 ALCS, you know, I went into a game thinking that we had the Red Sox right where we wanted. David Price would come back. He'd been injured. We weren't sure how far he was going to go and he did pretty well.

He kind of shoved it up our rear end. So, you know, again, I want to read the game as naturally as possible. I can put all sorts of expectations or limitations on him. And he's probably going to exceed no matter what I plan for at 130 or whatever time it is right now. Well, I got to tell you this, in all honesty, and it wasn't like I was nervous when you said it or thought about it. But I left your availability, saw JVs a little bit. I was like, why didn't we make, I wouldn't say nobody made a big deal of it. It was just conjecture about would you go with Wade or would you go with Jose or what would you do?

Yeah, nobody asked me. Yeah, I mean, nobody asked me. It was never a thought, honestly, AJ, it was never a thought of us thinking about you going to JV being up to one. Down to one, I would have said, all right, he's going to have to do it because he wants to put the heavy horses in. So it's just amazing to me that for as long as he's been in the major leagues and as many innings and as much postseason success, this is the first time that he will legitimately start a game on three days. So regardless of how what we think of him or how awesome he is or what he's been, there is a little mystery about this game tonight in that respect.

There is. But I think there's a mystery about a lot of games. I mean, we've played a couple elimination games on the other end where you're not quite sure what you're going to get out of your starter. Again, like, if I take a step outside of the Astros bubble that we're in and we're so focused on our own stuff and you watch other games, I mean, there's also a scenario in play where you get to game five and you don't get to utilize J.G. Cole in the same game as effectively as you want, either just by the way the game goes or now you're asking one of your pitchers to do not. not only something different, but do something different at the turn of a dime of a game and asking Garrett Cole to get ready late in the game as well and not have his normal routine. So there's breaking your routine and what you're used to doing, and then there's the game five pressure that comes with that.

Or when, you know, I remember going into last season whenever we had game seven, I'm sorry, in 2017, Game 7 of the World Series, I didn't expect Lance McCullors to only go two plus. Yeah. I expected it to go a little bit further, but the pressure of the last game, will lead to different decisions. And again, I'm not thinking about game five right now. We've already made that decision, and we know what we're going to do if we get pressed to the brink of elimination,

like every team in the National League is tomorrow. But I think there's other context involved where, you know, this guy is Justin Verlander can go. I don't think the other side is like high-fiving that they have Justin Verlander on three threats coming to the ballpark today. They know they got their work cut out for them. All right. Last question for you.

and you've gone through many bullpen games before. The Rays have done it for the last couple of years. And just to refresh audience, what do you tell your hitters when, in theory, they're probably not going to be facing the same pitcher more than once in a game, especially as important as this one is? Yeah, we're a little used to it by now because every team does some form of this at some point. Maybe not at the rate that the race do, but we're kind of used to it. I think you just have to win today this at bat.

If the win this, George Springer is going to face Diego Castillo to lead off, Like win that at bat, just like we'd ask you to win it in the seventh inning or the eighth inning or whatever he normally pitches in a one at bat outing as a reliever. I think that's the only thing you can really do to prepare mentally. Now you're not setting a guy up. You're not going to look for a particular pitch and think you're going to get it later in the game. You've got to get your intel quickly. You're only going to face these guys once. And then we will, you know, adjust as they adjust.

I don't know what they're going to do. And neither does see right now. I don't think Kevin Cash has a script that he's going to try to. Phil because he's got a regame as well. So focus on the bat that you have. Don't try to set them up for later in the game, win the bat, and win the game. We'll leave it that. Skip, thank you for the time. Best of luck tonight. Look forward to our wrapping this series up and visiting with you later next week. Thanks for the time as always. All right, AJ Hitch with us here from St. Petersburg on Sports Talk 790.