AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 5, 2026

Taylor Walls

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 2 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with one of the stars of Game 1.

Q. Taylor, you've seen Schlittler a couple times this season. What do you think you guys can draw on from the previous match-ups with him, heading into tonight?

TAYLOR WALLS: I mean, he's a stud. He's had a heck of a year. We're going to put a game plan together. Honestly, anything we can do to get guys on base, try to create some havoc. We can do that in multiple ways. But try to have some good at-bats, see him deep in some counts, get guys on base and maybe cause some chaos on the bases and just kind of do what we've been doing all year.

I don't think it changes for us based on him specifically, but postseason baseball, great arm on the mound. You know, you gotta compete.

Q. Taylor, from a defensive standpoint, as someone who anticipates the game as well as you do, can you speak to Victor Mesa, Jr., and what has impressed you about the way he's played the outfield, especially because he doesn't have a PitchCom as a corner outfielder?

TAYLOR WALLS: He plays it like an infielder, honestly. I feel like great defenders, when you're watching the game, by the time you react and see where the ball's going, that guy should already be moving. And he's a guy that does that.

There hasn't been many guys that I've played with that have been quite like him to the point of when I follow the ball off the bat to right field, he's two to three steps ahead of where I anticipate him being at that point.

I think that speaks volumes to his reads, the anticipation, the first step, the reaction. And it's an instinct, but it's also a trust, and there's not many people that are able to do that, that are able to gamble -- it's not really a gamble, but commit that soon and be aggressive to get the jumps that he gets. That's what makes him so great.

Q. Played with KK, too. Can you compare the two in terms of the way they read the game?

TAYLOR WALLS: I think from my position, it's a little different. Center field is a little longer of a turn for me to get to him. Right field, usually I can pan to relatively quick. I feel like me being able to get my eyes to right and him be two to three steps ahead of where I'm thinking he's going to be has just stood out to me a little bit more.

KK was, of course, great, too. But Victor's a little different, honestly. The way he's able to just commit to balls, especially the ones in with no fear of getting beat deep, the way he's able to play balls off the wall, commit and not be scared of the wall when he has to make plays close to the track in different ball parks has been very impressive.

Q. Speaking about anticipation and I know you can probably talk about this for longer than the time we have here, but could you talk about what goes into your own anticipation before the pitch is thrown and as the pitch is thrown and how that sort of evolved for you in your career?

TAYLOR WALLS: Yeah. I try to use every piece of information that I can. I think the thing that's evolved probably the most was when we got the PitchCom. I felt like I used to separate myself from others by knowing every pitch that was coming before we had the device in our hat that told us it was coming. I felt like that made it very easy for infielders to have that awareness.

Before that happened, I felt like much less infielders cared to know or took the time out to think it was important to know. When we got the PitchCom, I felt like that leveled the playing field a little bit. As far as the information that I personally use, it's knowing who's on the mound, the pitch that's called and coming, but most of it is just in real time, everything that happens from the release of the pitch to the point of contact.

I think knowing the pitch -- the speed of the pitch, the location is probably going to end up, the shape that it's coming into the contact zone. But then really just in real time, reading the timing of the hitter, how he's moving and kind of dancing with that pitch in that moment and kind of his trigger, I guess. Like, the hitter's trigger of you can tell when it's a tick late. You can tell when it's a tick early. You can tell when he stops.

I feel like it's really just reading that. I explained it to Lauren the other day. One thing that I really like to compare it to is getting a rebound in basketball. If you were playing one on one against somebody and they threw a shot up, your focus is on the rim, but your peripheral is on the ball as it's about to hit the rim, and there's just this instinct of when the ball hits the rim, knowing how it's going to kind of collide and ricochet off, and you have to have this instinct of timing and, also, understanding of how it's about to hit off the backboard of the rim and which direction it's about to go and then how to high point it at the right time.

That's kind of how I compare it to infield is you have to peripherally know the pitch that's coming, see the ball entering, but your focus is on the bat and the timing of the hitter and the release of the barrel and understanding with that pitch, where this ball could possibly be hit to that I am going to have to defend.

Q. Different subject here. You played for Cash for five years before this year. What was your reaction when you found out you guys were going to start bunting like crazy?

TAYLOR WALLS: I had a weird feeling this off-season it was coming for me. I didn't know how much the other team would kind of have to do it. I knew it would be something I had to do.

Honestly, when Q was here, who is now with the Royals, that was something he pushed on me my early years of being here was, like, use the bunt. If the bunt's there, take it. He would really push me to do it. It was at a time where as a organization we weren't totally bought in. This year, it was a combination of speed and athleticism and trying to turn the lineup over for the guys at the bottom to get those bigger bats at the top up.

It was whatever we could do to get a productive at-bat, to move a guy over, to get a guy in. You know, anything is better than punching out, popping up, runner on third less than two outs. Trying to get creative.

As we started experimenting more with it, we started to see the results were maybe more eye-opening in a positive way than we anticipated. I think that pushed us to probably start doing it more. And, yeah, I think we just kind of ran with it from that point on.

Q. Taylor, team-wise from pitching, defense, timely hitting, getting that first one against Cole, can you just explain the confidence? Are you guys as locked in as you've ever seen here?

TAYLOR WALLS: Yeah. This series was going to be a dog fight. I think both sides knew that. The Yankees have unbelievable starting pitching. I mean, their whole staff, even the bullpen's really good.

We knew we were going to have our hands full. At the end of the day, we've got to do what we've been doing all year. Come out, compete, roll the dice and may the better team win. As long as we can do that, stay on top of our Ps and Qs defensively, trust our arms, play good defense behind them, do what we can to have good at-bats, get guys on base again and have those key hitters in our lineup come up in those big moments for us. I think that's going to be the key.

Q. Cash kind of said before Game 1 that you guys were so confident in your belief that you can win this series because you've found ways to win all season long. Has it ever gotten to a point where you guys were like how are we going to win tonight? Which way are we going to take it tonight?

TAYLOR WALLS: No. I mean, it's probably human to think of the best outcome and the worse outcome. There's always a chance you could get blown out. There's a chance you could blow them out.

I think trying to be as present as possible, understanding that you're going into a game to where they want to win just as bad as you do. And just trying to focus on the task at hand. I think trying to kind of play down the situation as much as you can and really just focus on it's you verse the situation, not you in Game 2 of the ALDS with the Yankees, with a runner on third, less than no outs. The more you can minimize those additives that could, I guess, like, create tension or add pressure, the more you can eliminate all that and treat it as a situation that you've done thousands of times already in repetition, I think, is the way that you're probably going to be able to come out the best.

Q. Taylor, you were one of the guys raving about the crowd the other night and how pro Ray it was. Flipping that over, you've played a bunch of games at Yankee Stadium regular season. What do you think your first postseason game Yankee Stadium will be like?

TAYLOR WALLS: It will be crazy. It will be fun. I'll tell you that. For some reason, I always enjoy playing there. You have the pros of playing at home, like the game we had the other night. That's by far the best crowd I've ever felt here in my entire career. You go to Yankee Stadium and you feel the opposite effect of that, and there's things you love about that, as well.

So, yeah, it will be fun. I'm really looking forward to it.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for your time. Wish you well the rest of the way.

TAYLOR WALLS: Thank you. Appreciate it.