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Home , Alex Bregman, Brian McCann (baseball), Yuli Gurriel

AL Division Series: Indians vs Astros Thursday, October 4, 2018 Astros Workout Day ALEX BREGMAN: Well, it was definitely tough on our Q. Alex, Francona says you have turned yourself team to lose three All-Stars. Those guys are incredible into one of the elite players in the game. What's players, and we're super happy that they're that mean coming from him? back and healthy and ready to go for this postseason ALEX BREGMAN: It means a lot. He's been one of the run. best managers in the game for a long time, and to hear him say that is definitely an honor. It's special. But there's so many other guys on that roster that, if we Hopefully, you continue to get better and improve and do our job, we're going to win baseball games. Marwin continue to play at a high level. Gonzalez, . There's so many guys. came up and had an incredible season. Q. Alex, having gone through the playoffs last year, McCann, he comes back, we win games. what do you look forward to the most about October, and what do you think it is about October There's so many guys that, if they do their job and if we that a player like you kind of rises to the focus on doing our part, we're a very successful challenge? baseball team. So in no way, shape, or form when ALEX BREGMAN: This is winning baseball. This is all those guys went down, was that -- it was a full team. It hands on deck, let's go to win the game, let's figure out was fun to watch, fun to be a part of. I'm just happy to any way possible to win. I think this team thrives in be on that team with those guys. those types of situations. Q. From the competitive standpoint, and you talk It's a brotherhood. It's a family, and we're all pulling on about pulling on the rope, what's it like to play the same end of the rope and hanging on every pitch behind Verlander and see him do his thing? with a 2-1 count to Correa in the ALDS in the fourth ALEX BREGMAN: Playing behind Verlander in the inning with two outs. It's a ball, and the whole regular season is a blast. I love playing behind him in is going, Let's go. If it's a strike, we're like, No, that ball the regular season. He's one of the elite in the was outside. It's a lot of fun, and we hang on every game. Playing behind him in the postseason, pitch. everybody saw how that worked last year. He's the best in the game in the postseason. So I Q. Alex, you can make the argument that their wouldn't want to face him. pitching staff is the second best in baseball. What's going to be the challenge for this offense to Q. You guys entered the postseason last year with generate runs against their pitchers? a ton of confidence. Is it fair to say that you have ALEX BREGMAN: They're definitely tough. Who's the more confidence even now after that run and how first best? the season has played out? ALEX BREGMAN: I'll say that we're a very confident Q. You. team. I think that we can use the experience last year ALEX BREGMAN: Oh, I didn't know. from the postseason, winning the , to our advantage. But the one thing that us winning the No, they're good. They're tough. Kluber's tough, man. World Series last year did is drive us to win another He's really tough. They've got a ton of good pitchers one. That's been the only thing on our mind to win that on that staff. They've got Cody Allen, , World Series. It's to win another one. This postseason Carrasco, Clevinger. Yeah, it's going to be tough. doesn't start in the World Series. It's not a seven-game series against the National League team. We started Q. You all experienced some injuries this year, but against a very tough Indians team, so we'd better focus you were the mainstay when the big three went on the first pitch of Game 1. down. How important was that to you? And how did that change your mindset knowing that it was Q. The season that you had this year, the numbers left up to you to be the leader on the team? that you put up across the board, is this something that you had envisioned this early in your career

Rev #1 by #181 at 2018-10-04 18:44:00 GMT page 1 of 2 you could accomplish? Or is this just kind of the start of Alex Bregman that we saw this year? ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, I did, but I think there's a ton of room to improve. I was mad that I didn't do that last year, to be honest with you. I kind of had a bad year. It was definitely, definitely something I envisioned doing, and I think there's so much room to improve on both sides of the ball, and I look forward to working on it.

Q. To what degree do the new players that have been added to the roster bring a new sense of energy to a team that returns its core from last year? ALEX BREGMAN: It brings hunger. You've got a guy like who didn't win one last year. Osuna's hungry. Cole's hungry. We've got some other guys on the roster as well, Pressly. Those guys want to win really bad, and they know that they're very happy to be in the uniform because they feel like they have a very good chance at winning their first World Series.

Q. You had mentioned something earlier about clearly every team has talent, but your team has so many guys come through in that moment, feel good, want to be in that moment. Do you think that's maybe what sets your clubhouse apart from so many others? ALEX BREGMAN: I think, if you look back on last year's postseason, I think that every single person on our roster contributed in a big way in a big situation. If they didn't come through in that situation, we don't win the World Series. Maybe the biggest swing of the World Series was Marwin Gonzalez' homer in Game 2. Then Brian McCann in Game 5 hitting a to pad the lead in the eighth inning and make it a 3-run lead. Then they come back and score three. We don't even go to extra innings in Game 5 if he doesn't hit that homer.

There's so many different plays. Yuli hitting the homer off Kershaw. Or Altuve hitting the three-run homer off Maeda. If you look at last year, so many different people came up clutch, and so many have taken that with them into this year and want to be in that situation.

Q. Alex, you've been the captain/leader of the dugout celebrations. Anything special planned for the postseason? ALEX BREGMAN: Yeah, wins. That's it. Just winning games. It's the postseason now.

Q. No special celebrations for the dugout? ALEX BREGMAN: I don't know. There's going to be a lot of celebrations, but the main thing is just winning the game. That's all we're focused on. We haven't played in anything like that. Gatorade. I like Powerade better.

Rev #1 by #181 at 2018-10-04 18:44:00 GMT page 2 of 2