Chapter 1: What insights does A.J. Hinch provide about the team's preparation for Game 5?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring. You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
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Chapter 2: How does travel impact team dynamics and player performance?
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AJ, from a travel standpoint, like in the regular season, a lot of times after a game, you guys would hop on a flight immediately afterwards. For both of the games in this series, you guys have elected to stay the night. Was there any kind of science behind that or just comfort of the players or what went into that?
It was really about just the last couple of weeks. We went on a pretty long run of intense games and some travel. We ended with a 14, I think 15 day road trip, counting the playoffs in the first round and then coming out here to Seattle. And so time zone change, families being everywhere, not wanting to kind of split the group up.
We chose to do some work at home today and then get on the plane and get out here rather than fly through the night. So not a ton of science necessarily. I mean, I think I feel better, and now we're coaches and we're old, but the players can adapt to whatever. But it's just the accumulation of what goes on in these series where if we were a closer place,
We may change our plans, but the three hour time change and the, what was it, four and a half hour flight, hard to make up that time.
Go on the left, second row. AJ, you've been at a couple of these winner take all games now the last couple of years. I know anything can happen in baseball, but I mean, does it give you a comfort level? I mean, does it help to have been in these situations for the players and for you guys?
I think it's experience always helps because you can reflect back on the things you've done well, maybe some things that you wish you hadn't done or the nerves that come with it. But I actually think it's good to be nervous. It's good to be excited and I guess there's a small consolation prize of knowing the stress that's coming.
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Chapter 3: What role does experience play in high-stakes games according to A.J. Hinch?
I see it maybe not as something to aspire to because home games are way better and days off are way better. playing and you can build some energy and you can build some momentum and feels like you keep playing. But you pay the price at some point with all of this, whether it's your sleep, whether it's your nutrition, whether it's the comforts of home and things like that.
But I think that it can galvanize a team. I think that's something that I've seen with our group where we kind of took on the us against everybody mentality in September when everybody thought we were were we going to win the division or were we even going to make the playoffs? And did we have much left when we went back to Cleveland?
And we're going to come out and face a team that had the second best record in the American League. And look at us now, we're in game five with Tarek Skubal on the mound. So a lot can happen throughout those days, but you can galvanize yourself together with you know, being around your teammates and being on the road.
But trust me, I don't think anybody wants to sign up for 15 days on the road in a row facing these guys in these environments. But you have to endure it if that's your reality. And that's what I think our team has been pretty good at, you know, these last few series.
Go back to the second row again. AJ, obviously, you had the home runs yesterday, but Torkelson's at bats. And really, this series, early on in the series, he had a couple going the other way. What have you seen in his approach? Have you seen something different from him?
I think something that Tork doesn't get enough credit for is he swings at the right pitches. He's disciplined enough to work counts, draw a few walks, but he swings at the right pitches. Now he gets in these ruts where maybe he's a little bit too much airborne or he gets a little bit uphill or maybe he doesn't barrel everything. But he has 30 plus homers and he's got a lot of doubles.
He's driven runs in because he swings at the right pitches a lot. And that's what I've seen this series. These are really, really hard matchups for a right-handed hitter. And it's hard for lefties too, but when you look at the wipeout type stuff coming out of their pen that's in their rotation, it never stops and it never eases off.
And so the discipline to be in the strike zone or staying with your plan is very, very important. And Tork has done a nice job this series at taking what He hasn't hit the ball out of the ballpark, but he has hit a couple balls down the opposite field line. He has pulled the ball. He's worked a walk or two that get a little bit unnoticed whenever the guy behind him does something positive.
So he's pretty consistent in his approach and in his methods. And I think that as a consistent personality, that helps him deal with the stress of hitting in the middle of the order. All right.
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Chapter 4: How does A.J. Hinch view the importance of player comfort during playoffs?
Did you pick any of that up when you were with Houston having to come in here so much? I mean, and how much better is the AL Central travel compared to the AL West?
AL Central travel is the best. I'm sure the NL Central would argue with me too, but it is a big difference. You know, I mean, having been in the West before, We felt it in South Texas, especially coming out here when we used to come out three times a year, just how far these places are. And there's no way to speed through it. Like, you can't get the plane to go any faster. And you can't.
change the time zones. And so we didn't really pick anything up. We never had these type of overnight trips back and forth. But I think I learned along the way that sleep matters, nutrition matters, the consistency in your work matters. And so we have the luxury to be able to work out at either place. We don't need to practice in Seattle at this stadium, and we were just here three days ago.
It's not a new series for us. We've been here before, and all my players have played here before, so we could take the advantage of being at Comerica this morning, do a little few optional things that the guys need to do, and then get on a plane rather than drag a full team here after a big, long day.
Anything else for AJ? All right, AJ, we appreciate you coming in.
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