Steady as ever, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is back where he belongs: October

April 17, 2024

BALTIMORE — Bruce Bochy paced on the outskirts of the celebration, goggles stretched over his head, blue shirt soaked in champagne, a big smile beaming across his face.

This is what he dreamed of — what they all dreamed of — when Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young flew to Bochy’s Nashville-area home last fall, when Young, who pitched for Bochy on the San Diego Padres, sold his old manager on coming out of retirement and leading the charge one more time.

Bochy had spent three years out of the dugout, technically still a special assistant for the San Francisco Giants. He helped with a grandson’s T-ball team and enjoyed time to recover, mentally and physically, from the grind of 25 seasons as a big-league manager. Still, he has said before he was already feeling that itch.

Bochy, too, kept the leather chair from his San Francisco manager’s office in his home. Sat in it nearly every day. Felt comfortable.

For so long, a clubhouse has been where Bochy belongs.

And so it was Wednesday as the Rangers swept the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Wild Card Series. Bochy sat at his postgame press conference, a noticeable sparkle in his eyes. He talked about Young and the culture the Rangers have built.

“He brought me out of retirement,” Bochy said, “and here I am in the postseason. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

most postseason rounds won, managers:

Joe Torre: 19
Tony La Russa: 16
Bruce Bochy: 14 https://t.co/vFtpaf1FFC

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 4, 2023

The Rangers’ road to this point has not been easy. Anything but. They began the season as one of the hottest teams in baseball and led the AL West by as many as 6 1/2 games in late June. But their second half was a crash course in the realities of a mercurial game. They got crushed with injuries. The bullpen blew saves. A powerful lineup at times looked vulnerable.

On Sept. 10, the Rangers were three games out of first place. In the season’s final days, they needed two wins to clinch a division title. They only got one. The penalty was a 5 1/2 hour flight from Seattle to Tampa and a first-round matchup with the 99-win Rays.

“We had to fly right over Dallas,” Bochy said, “so that could have been really a downer for the club.”

But just when the world was ready to count the Rangers out, they played two of their best games in months. There was the 4-0 win in Game 1, where trade deadline acquisition Jordan Montgomery commanded from the mound. Then a 7-1 victory in Game 2, where scuffling right-hander Nathan Eovaldi returned to form and rookie sensation Evan Carter conjured October magic.

“He instills confidence in you as a player,” rookie third baseman Josh Jung said of Bochy. “He lets you go out and play your game, and that’s all you can ask for in a manager, somebody that’s not going to micromanage you and let you go play your game. I feel like even when we had our scuffles, even when things weren’t going our way, or even my way, per se, he just keeps throwing you back out there.”

People who have watched the Rangers all year have described this team as unpredictable. Their season has been filled with highs and lows, ups and downs. Through it all, their 68-year-old manager has been a steady hand.

“You look at the end of the dugout and you see him and he’s got the steady nature of him,” catcher Jonah Heim said. “There’s just never any panic, and you always feel like you’re at ease and he has complete faith in you.”

Before Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, someone asked Bochy what he hoped the team had absorbed from him. He sat and thought before giving his answer.

“I would say probably to stay calm,” Bochy said. “Just show up the same every day, no matter what happens. That’s part of being resilient, being able to deal with adversity. I try to do that when I come to the park every day. We’ve had to deal with a lot, so if they can get that from me, then I’d be really happy.”

Someone also asked Bochy if his players view him as a father figure.

“That’s a hard one for me to answer,” he said. “I don’t know about father figure. Maybe grandfather figure.

“I don’t know. I really can’t answer that. Hopefully they know that I care about them, and we all want the same thing, and that’s to win ballgames.”

Bochy has three World Series rings to his name. But back roaming the dugout in October, he seems as hungry as ever to chase another one.

“It was one of the things I told him when I offered him the job: I said I’m not doing this because I loved you when I played for you,” Young said at Bochy’s introductory press conference. “I’m doing this because we believe you’re the right person to lead us into the future. That’s what this decision was about.”

This Rangers team still has its flaws. In the regular season, it blew 33 saves. In the ALDS, the Rangers will face a young, hungry Baltimore Orioles team that led the American League with 101 wins.

Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde is a Bay Area native. He said he does not know Bochy well but has long admired him from afar.

“The players love playing for him,” Hyde said. “You never heard a bad thing, ever, about Boch from a player. And he absolutely has got the most respect, an unbelievable amount of respect, from everybody in this game.”

In his previous life, Bochy was known as an ultimate chess player, a skipper adept at managing a bullpen, especially in October. The game he returned to this season looks a bit different from the one he left. There’s a three-batter minimum now. Bochy, hobbled by years of knee injuries, walks with a limp and takes his time getting to the mound.

Still, he does not seem to have lost a bit of edge.

“I think you don’t play quite the same (in the postseason), to be honest,” Bochy said. “There’s no margin for error, or not as big a margin of error, as you have during the season. So yeah, things are done a little bit different, as they should be, how you handle pitching or moves that you make. It’s not like you can go, ‘Well, I’m going to save my pitching for tomorrow.’ It’s a little bit different game now.”

Through the ups and downs of this season, the Rangers have leaned on something Bochy said in spring training, in his first speech to the team. He talked of unity, playing as one.

“That doesn’t just happen,” Bochy said. “It happens because you work at it. These guys have done a great job working at it and even talking about it.”

Bochy has managed more than two dozen seasons in the big leagues without ever being fired from a job. Reflecting earlier this week, he indicated he hasn’t necessarily changed all that much as a manager. It’s simply his perspective that has shifted.

Bruce Bochy can teach you a thing or three about October. pic.twitter.com/MqE99kXbVj

— MLB (@MLB) October 1, 2023

“I don’t know how much different I do things, but to your point, I think I appreciate them now more than ever,” Bochy said. “I’ve been on the other side a lot of years. You have to really savor what happens when your team gets to the postseason. You appreciate the ownership, front office, that gave you the resources, the tools to get there. I enjoy it more. I’ll be honest.”

Indeed, Bochy seems to be reveling at the chance to be back in the playoffs.

“It’s just been one heck of a ride for me,” he said.

A ride that is not over just yet.

(Photo of Bruce Bochy: Kim Klement Neitzel / USA Today)

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