 matter which one both good both good Take questions for Aaron Anthony on the left And what do you remember most about the atmosphere here in 17 in the playoffs? atmosphere No, it was a good good atmosphere. You know crowd was good crowd was into it Yeah, it gets loud. It's a dome basically so whenever they keep the roof closed it gets pretty loud in here sweetie Aaron this is a match up the lot of fans have Been anticipating all year. Have you as a team kind of been looking forward to this kind of top two teams in a league? That's tough to say, you know once you get into the postseason, you never know what's gonna happen You know you always during the regular season, you know try to maybe map it out Okay, we'll probably see these guys here and these guys here maybe these guys later down the road But once you get in the postseason, you never really know what's gonna happen. So You know once we won the three games in Minnesota, we're just kind of waiting around and Whoever we get we get you know, so it's uh, but we're excited to be here in Houston You know excited to be back and just get ready to start the CS And if you gain confidence against pitchers that you do really well against What does it do for your confidence for pitchers that that handle you? How do you deal with that? What goes into trying to change that? Yeah, if a pitcher has your number Don't do what you keep doing, you know change up your playing because it's apparently not working you know, but uh You know just going against any any pitcher, you know just come up with a good game plan You know stick to it and then once the game starts You know just see how they're trying to pitch to you see what see what's working See what's what pitches are working for them because sometimes you might face a pitcher and you know Usually you're facing when they got a good fastball slider of good fastball change up all sudden you see him today And it's like wow their change up isn't doing much or he has no feel for a slider So then you kind of you know work from there and you know formulate a new game plan What to try to do so it's uh Yeah, it's just all but it's a chess match. It's all about you know moving your pieces and see what works Erin a lot has been made obviously of their starting staff you've made comments in the past throughout the season that you like Facing the best. What is it about the challenge of facing elite pitching that you enjoy? Just a fire you see from those a lot of guys on the mound, especially nice. They got to Too great guys that I've faced quite a few times, you know Garry Cole and Verlander man You're gonna see him on the mound, you know, it's it's I'm asking my game plan against you And that's how we're gonna dictate that you know and when you have a guy that's out there on the mound like that No, it's that's what you want to compete against you know guys that are gonna You know shy away in a 3-2 counting in a shy away with guys on base or at the moments, you know Two miles base below they're gonna go out there and attack you so whenever you have a guy like that And I love facing guys like that that just leave it all in the line, you know just leave it all out there And you know best man wins, you know, so that's that's always been fun, you know competing against those guys in the back on the right Garry Cole has been on quite the run. What in particular About it hasn't pressed you the most or what in particular about him impresses you the most For him just getting early strikes, you know, I see him Either a slider curve ball change up heater, you know, he always gets that first strike I mean they're swinging or you know Put one down the put one over the plate But you know just like I said, you know those guys like to establish, you know that bat and establish, you know What's gonna happen by you know really dictating that first pitch, you know So, you know, whenever you let those guys, you know, get that first pitch strike, you know, you're kind of You're in a pretty big hole, you know, cuz it's gonna be out to real quick. So Yeah, that's that's what I really love watching about, you know about Cole Especially it's just how he's able to go out there and you know works the edge as well with all his pitches and Just getting that strike one. That's that's huge especially in the postseason right And clearly at 2017 was your first postseason experience of looking back at that and then going through what you guys went through last year How different are you as a player and how are you better prepared now for this point to get to this point for a chance to Maybe go the wall series. Yeah, I Think the biggest thing is just getting the experience, you know getting the experience in front of the fans in front of the big Situations because you know playing in front of Yankee Stadium with you know, 50,000 yelling and screaming. That's that's that's a lot of fun That's that's where you want to play but in the postseason. It's a whole different animal, you know, no matter where you go So just getting a lot of games, you know underneath my belt with you know 50,000 screaming booing yelling all that just getting used to that and just hey, it's it's still the same game He's still 60 feet six inches away. It's still 90 feet the first, you know, so That's the biggest thing is just once you get experience now you're comfortable in those situation and then it's just you know time to roll Fresh row here on the left How exciting is it for you all to be in this position or the you know, the adversity and the injuries that you all went through in order to be here? Yeah, it's it's amazing to think about, you know, it's amazing to think about the injuries and the setbacks That we that we had all season, you know, despite, you know, some of the guys you lost in spring training guys You lost early in the year, you know, we didn't have our ace until you know, just recently getting Severino back We missed John Carlo me quite a few guys for you know I think you can go up and down that whole lineup except for a couple guys that haven't you know been on the aisle for a little bit so But when it comes down to in our goal going into spring training was the winter division You know was our main goal, you know, so we talked about in our very first means We got to go out there and win our division to set ourselves up for the postseason and you know We were able to accomplish that and I think everybody just bought in on the idea of you know, Booney went up there in front Everybody and said hey, I don't care if you guys Double a triple a you know big league guy fighting her job at some point You're gonna impact this team and make a difference and I think guys just bought into that they say hey I know I might be starting on double or I might be starting on triple a I'm mad I'm not in the big leagues, but you know at some point my my number's gonna get called and I got to produce And that's what guys did and then it's It's fun to be around it be around a group like that. That's that's hungry That's selfless and just all they want to do is win And the left and to your point you may before about Cole being good at getting strike one When you have a guy like that that you know is might throw you a strike in the first pitch Does that make you want to be more aggressive swinging early in the count? Or is that getting out of whatever your plan would be? Yeah, it's tough, you know, that's why it's it's a chess match. You got to see how the game is kind of folding Okay, I got like that. It's you know been so successful You know getting you know strike one and getting ahead and well, you know We might see three pitches into the game that you know, it's fastball commands a little off So now it's okay guys really shrink that zone into a certain spot or you know, do this and that so the game plan just depends on You know the game at hand, you know, because we got all these numbers We got all these stats, you know past numbers he did this is past this or you're over here you got 10 for your last this but You can throw all those numbers out the window when you step between the lines because anything can happen You know, so it's just about watching the game and you know make your moves from there Okay, just taking two more here Brian And we've talked a lot about that 2017 ALCS when you think about that series Is there like a moment or a snapshot that comes into your head? What comes to mind? I think about You know first the three games at home, you know us having the Two-game deficit, you know, and I've been able to rally and get three and you know Give us a shot, you know back here for two at Houston. You know, that's what I think about is just how Resilient that team wasn't how they just fought to the very end, you know Fought to the very end because a lot of teams might have rolled over after they go down to especially against a good team like Houston And we continue to fight, you know, we you know used our home field advantage a little bit in those three games and Just came up short and I think about game seven, you know, CC going out there and you know One the ball one to pitch in that situation and you know just us coming up a little short, but Yeah, just it was just an intense series all around, you know good baseball, you know They got a good team that only can you know hit for power but get guys on base they can steal good defense go pitching staff You know same with us we guys and get on base it for power. So And I'm looking forward to it One more left in the back James Astros have made a living off of pitching high on the zone like the four seamer I mean how and that's like I mean other teams have caught on and done the same Like how does one combat that as a batter if they're throwing you high like can you lay off of them? What do you do? Well, it's tough because those high ones out of the hand, you know It looks like it's right in the middle and also it's 99. It's your that's your neck and you're swinging at it Like why did I just swing at that, you know, so? The biggest thing is just as a hitter just getting ready early, you know if you're a Tad bit later a tad bit not ready to hit from the very first pitch of that bat against guys like that You're gonna be late. You're gonna be swinging at stuff. You shouldn't be swinging on So the biggest thing you know against guys like that that throw up in the zone have good velocity and good Ossie pitches that just get ready early, you know, let your let your eyes work, you know Better, you know, if your head still and you're able to see the ball a little better That might give you that extra, you know three or four feet you need to see if that's a fast-block and swing at it That's what I got to take. So just get ready just get ready to hit. That's the biggest thing Thank you. Thank you