Astros eliminate Athletics: What both teams are saying after Houston clinches ALDS

The Athletics’ 2020 season is over after losing Game 4 of the American League Divisional Series to the division rival Houston Astros.

In a home run-filled series at Dodger Stadium, the A’s pitching — starters and relievers alike — just could not hold up against the Astros’ big-name lineup.

Here’s what both teams are saying after the Astros closed out the series:

Athletics manager Bob Melvin

On not taking pitching changes: “I’m fine, I just had a little foot thing pop up during batting practice so I didn’t want to limp out there, limp back and take a bunch of time.”

“We couldn’t hold them down. Ramon’s home run felt like a 1,000-run home run the time. We felt really good about where we were going.”

“We battled to the end as you would expect, just not enough.”

On bullpen: “You look at the numbers over the course of the regular season with our bullpen, we had a lead after the sixth, we usually won. It didn’t happen this series and we struggled to hold them down really the entire game at times. Just a good offensive team that hit their stride at the right time.”

“When Oly hit it, I didn’t think it was going that far. He caught it two-handed, he’s a great defender, but I don’t think it took any wind out of our sails.”

On Astros core: “For them, that’s why they’ve gone as far as they have every year, it’s due to the experience and the team has played together and they’re a really good team and when they’re a really good team, you try to keep them together. I don’t think you’re overwhelmed by experience, we went into this series thinking we were going to win.”

“I don’t think we were thinking about their experience, it is an experienced team that has played well for years now.”

On the game’s momentum: “You knew to an extent there was never anything to be a lead that felt like it was too big. I’m shocked Marcus’ ball didn’t go out.”

On Semien’s warning-track out: “Every ball that was hit like that at 100 miles per hour. That one didn’t. If there was ever a momentum swing, that was the biggest one.”

On his staff’s short outings: “I think in the postseason you tend to go to your bullpen a little bit earlier anyway when you have it as strength.”

On the pandemic season: “It’s not like there was a point during the season that you forgot about it. It was always a bit of a struggle for every team. As far as getting used to it, I don’t know, it seemed like there were different hurdles to try to get over.”

“60 games felt more like a regular season, but even playing field for everybody. Our reflection is our goals were loft and we felt short of them.”

On Semien’s pending free agency: “You get kind of lost in the moment. It doesn’t surprise you that he put together a great at-bat in the shadows, with two outs and the whole bit. I haven’t thought about that yet. I’m pretty close to Marcus.”

“He’s meant so much to this organization not just as a player, but as a person …There are a lot of reasons we would love to have Marcus back.”

A’s shortstop Marcus Semien

On the home runs: “You start to realize after the first game that any lead early in the game is not enough for either side. We got out to a lead a couple of times, they got out to a lead around the fourth inning, but it just doesn’t feel safe. Maybe in the regular season or if we’re in Oakland where the ball is not traveling well, you just have to keep adding on. And they did that today.”

On his status as a free agent: “I thought about that in the wild card series when we were in an elimination game. I’m pretty logistical, I understand what’s going on with everything and our backs were against the wall a couple of times in the playoffs. You put that jersey on, you take the field I took the field in the bottom of the eighth, is this my last time playing shortstop for this team? I don’t know. I’ve never been in this position…Haven’t taken that much time to think about that stuff, but that was pretty much what I was thinking in the bottom of the eighth.”

On his warning-track out late in the game: “It wasn’t as hot today and the breeze started picking up the wrong way, I knew when I hit it, the scoreboard said I hit it 100 at a 34 and I’m always looking at those numbers and thinking if it’s hot, maybe it goes, but not today. Tucker hit one the next inning that probably would have went as well, but it didn’t.”

On the mentality after trailing: “We grinded out some at-bats and tacked some on and hey, if KD hits a homer there, it’s 11-9 and who knows what happens, but we always feel like we’re in that game.”

On his plans for the offseason: “Once we got into the playoffs, it just felt like a new season. For me I just tried to work on what was going well for me at the plate and continued to work on that. With it being such a short season, a lot of us, we might get right to work this offseason just because the timing is different They say you should take time off, but we’ve already had our time off during quarantine. I’m probably going to get creative here this offseason.”

On evaluating the season: “Our goal is to win the World Series so I think when you lose in the ALDS, it’s not exactly where you want to be. We knew we had the pieces to go further and our goal was always the world series. We can’t hang our heads, we played good baseball, we were a two-seed in the short season.”

On facing the Astros: “We showed some fight. The Astros have that playoff experience, but I feel like we were hanging with them in every game but that’s how it goes. It was a tough game today, a blowout loss, but those games happen, it’s just a tough time for that.”

On the A’s pitching staff: “Everybody’s stuff looked pretty good, I think when you face a team like the Astros who you’ve seen a lot this year and in years past, they’re familiar with our guys too. There’s certain counts where they sit on certain pitches.”

“We have a good staff. I think the league knows that. Every time a guy gets on second base, they talk about how good our guys are.”

On his faith in the A’s pitchers: “I’ve never seen a guy throw a lot of innings in the playoffs or get more experience and not get better from it. I’m talking about Bassitt, Montas, all of those guys are going to get better and they’re already really good so I’m looking forward to watching them.”

On the spate of home runs: “I think a little bit is that the hitters have adrenaline too. If you connect with the ball and you already have a lot of adrenaline, good things can happen. The first three games, if you barrel it in the air it’s got a chance. Today, the home runs were legit. Those balls were crushed. It played a little bit more true. You saw that on my ball and that’s more what we’re used to in Oakland.”

Athletics outfielder Ramón Laureano

On his dugout speech: “I always feel the same way playing. Whatever I did yesterday, I feel like that every single time so it wasn’t something new for me.”

On being eliminated: “It’s a bad feeling, but hopefully it doesn’t happen next year. We’ve just got to keep our head up, keep working ,keep dreaming about moving forward and winning a World Series and that’s it.”

On Zack Greinke appearing to tip a pitch to him: “I don’t look at him when I hit, I just look at the grass and whenever he’s ready, I just look at him.”

On Frankie Montas: “He was throwing good, but the game got a little out of hand. I know he gave his all, all he has and it’s tough. It’s just tough.”

On Semien’s warning-track shot: “I think every flyball carries here, but it just didn’t go our way. That’s what I see on that one. He hit it good. In these days, they call it launch angle, good exit velo, it would have been gone anywhere except in that moment. It just didn’t go our way.”

Athletics outfielder Mark Canha

On the home runs: “The nature of the series was just that it was a heavily offensive series. You’ve got two good pitching staffs on both teams that have done well all year and a lot of runs being scored. Hot temperatures and the ball is flying and it was kind of a slug fest and they just outslugged us in the end. It just came down to hitting the ball over the fence and they did it a little better than we did.”

On facing the rival Astros: “It starts and ends with us. As competitors, going into this series, I wasn’t really thinking about that. You have to look inward and I feel like we can beat anybody if we play our game and if we compete and it’s kind of a faceless opponent. We know how good we are and we were present in these games and we were competing our asses off and the farthest thing from my mind was wanting to the beat the Astros extra, it was wanting to play good baseball and our brand of baseball and being present and doing what we’ve done all year and that’s fighting until the end.”

On the pandemic season: “I can’t imagine a whole lot changing six months from now. But there was a lot of challenges that everybody had to deal with, not just us and you know, I think this will be the worst version of it. It will only get better as we learn more and more about this virus and as we kind of figure out how to deal with the situation. I think this year was kind of a learning year across the board and hat’s off to the league. We did a great job and we’re here in October playing playoff baseball and you got used to it and it felt normal and it kind of became the new normal. Hopefully we can improve upon it and I expect next year it will feel more normal.”

On being eliminated: “It hurts. It hurts a lot. We worked so hard and we competed and it was a crazy year and it felt like this was our year and a lot of things happened. You have a Chapman injury and to lose a guy like that is tough and yet we win a tough series against the White Sox, so there’s positives and negatives and there’s inconsistencies and you’re scrambling the whole year. It’s a crazy year but I was reading on social media and stuff and the numbers and what we did and what we didn’t do and at the end of the day, when I reflect back on this season, I’m going to look inward and look at my own shortcomings and try to improve.”

On what to take from the season: “It’s a failure, we wanted to win the World Series. Anything short of that is falling short of our goal. But every failure as a competitor is an opportunity and those opportunities are valuable to learn. That’s the message I was telling everyone in the clubhouse. Learn from this and don’t just go down in the dumps. You have to take those failures and learn from them and if there’s something I’ve learned in my career, this is an opportunity to get better.”

On Semien’s pending free agency: “Marcus is an incredible person. As a friend, as a teammate, as a man, you can’t have a better teammate than Marcus and I mean, you look at the day he had today and the playoffs he had and how consistent he was in the playoffs despite his numbers during the season. He had injuries, he had hardship this year, he’s just a fighter and he’s the ultimate guy you want on your team. I sure hope we get him back. I don’t think that’s lost on anyone, on anyone in our organization or anywhere else. Marcus is going to be just fine. He’s our captain and he’s a hell of a player and a hell of a friend.”

Astros manager Dusty Baker

On the offense in the series: “You really don’t know, like I told you earlier. I think Game 1 set the trend. We knew that they have a powerful offense over there, but like I said I really don’t know. It’s better late than never. We got some guys really swinging the bat. We still have to get going, and we’ll get going in the next series. We got to score some runs, because when you score runs, everyone is happy and there’s jubilation in the clubhouse.”

On key to team blocking out noise: “I think they closed their circle and [leaned] into each other and it made them closer. They’re already a close-knit group of guys.”

We had a very formidable opponent here. “You got to give the A’s credit, because they never quit.”

On hitters knowing the A’s pitchers: “Yeah I think it does, you don’t have to do too much scouting because we know them and they know us. [That won’t be the case] in the next round, we haven’t played the Yankees or Tampa Bay, so we’ll java to go back and do some scouting and other things.”

“I’m glad for the city of Houston. I’m glad for the whole Astros organization and the players that made all this possible.”

On the locker room: “They were threatening. They didn’t quit and when that final out was made you feel a great sense of relief. I was late coming up the clubhouse and the guys were extremely happy. Especially the younger guys who had never experienced this. Some guys go their whole careers without feeling the jubilation and taste of winning. We’ll celebrate a little while, and then we have to get back to work.”

Astros shortstop Carlos Correa

On motivation: “Absolutely not. We were motivated because we want to win, we want to bring another championship to the city of Houston. We know what it feels like, and we wanted to feel like that once again. We’re one step closer and we have two great teams waiting for us in the Yankees and the Rays.”

On statement: “Our biggest one is our bullpen. Our bullpen did such a great job of keeping us in the game. They’re the reason we won this series.”

How special is this one: “This one is special because its four years in a row of us going to the ALCS. The only team to do that is the Yankees. It’s a special feeling to be included with a team like the ones the Yankees had back in the day.”

“It’s great, but we want more.”

On the offense coming alive: “You can’t judge an offense based on 60 games. That’s two months. When you play 162, you usually have one or two bad months and then you recover with the three or four that are solid. We are getting hot at the plate, we are seeing the ball better. I think the lineup is doing a great job of stringing at-bats together.”

On how they handled a disappointing regular season: “There were a lot of interviews where we said we had to get better. Right now we are playing great baseball. The work in the cage, everybody working every single day to work on their craft is what is making us successful.”

Astros reliever Christian Javier

On going to ALCS: “I feel really proud to be a part of [this organization]. We just got to keep winning and keep this thing going.”

Astros starter Zack Greinke

On his arm: “It felt good all year and then after my last start it was sore. It didn’t get any better, actually got worse. Got it checked out, and today it felt fine, so all good news when it comes to that.”

On pitching going forward: “Maybe. I don’t really know. If it feels how it feels today, then there will be no issues.”

On advancing to the ALCS: “Right now I’m just excited to see my family and don’t have to live locked up in a hotel.”

On pitching in these conditions: “It was hot the last couple of days but when the ball is traveling or not traveling it’s an equal atmosphere both teams face. I just try to make pitches. I didn’t really notice anything today, too much.”

On showing two fingers before Laureano’s home run: “That’s just what I’ve been doing. I just switch the pitch so that doesn’t waste time shaking off and stuff. So just a way to save some time.”

On the offense: “Last year it was crazy because it was just non-stop and you’re expected seven or eight runs every game it seemed like. I actually got tired of hearing the train (in Houston). Hopefully they keep it up.”

Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker

On the offense: “This is just our normal offense. We didn’t show it too much during the season but this lineup can do this every night. The lineup 1-9 can produce at any moment and we were doing that throughout the series.”

“We had a couple injuries this year, we had a lot of new, young guys whose first time playing in the big leagues. Those guys have stepped up this year. We just try to go out there and play for them.”

On the noise around the group: “We’re a close team. We do everything together and we have each other’s backs. Especially in the playoffs here, we try to win and move and we always try to play hard for each other.”

Astros outfielder Michael Brantley

On the statement made this week: “I don’t know that we made any certain statement. I just know we played great baseball. We played a great team over there. We played a clean series, and we got the win.”

On moving onto the ALCS: “It’s very special. One through nine contributed daily and our bullpen did a great job with a team effort. That’s what we’re going to need to do to move forward.”