AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 6, 2026

Matt Blake

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Matt, what have you seen from Max since he came off the IL the second time at the end of August?

MATT BLAKE: Obviously it's been a build-up process for him to get pitch counts back up and get the shapes to be consistent. I think we've kind of gone in and out of the command in the zone, kind of being efficient with his pitch count at times. But overall I felt like the sharpness of the pitches has come back, the crispness of the breaking ball. SO I feel like we've gained some ground there and feel like he's in a good spot the last few starts.

Q. What did you guys like about him specifically for Game 3? Obviously you guys had options.

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. It really comes down to him and Carlos both. Two great options there. I think just the way it lined up. We wanted to get Max involved in Game 3 and go from there.

I wouldn't say there was too much debate about it other than Max has been one of our guys and we want to ride with him here.

Q. Matt, quick question on how you guys approach the Rays with their style of hitting emphasizing contact, swinging early, things like that. What kind of challenges do they pose and how do you guys try to stop them?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. Obviously it's a solid offense in the way that they generate runs. They do a lot of different things. They test you in a lot of different ways. Last night obviously they challenged Cam by getting aggressive with him and putting the ball in play and making us play, and obviously we weren't up to the task last night.

I think for the most part you're trying to avoid the slug with them, just like any other teams. The more you can limit the damage, obviously give yourself chance to collect outs and you take your swing and miss when you can get it, but they do a good job of putting the ball in play and making you play.

At the same time you're always trying to get ahead of them and then when you get your chance, trying to get strike three.

Q. Matt, when like in last game pitcher like Max is fighting himself to be sharp and you go out and suggest like in-game adjustments or in the dugout, what are you relying on? Is it your people seeing Statcast data or your analytics people watching the screens or your eyes in the dugout?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. I would say generally, it's happening fast in real time and you're making assessments with your eyes, but also watching the metrics on the board to see what the shapes are coming out, because that's usually a marker for what's going on with certain pitches or within the deliveries. We've kind of got some baseline information to work it.

Typically it's going out to trying to slow them down and give them a game plan for the next hitter, that you think can help get them back in the strike zone or maybe limit some of the hard contact that's going on. But with Max in particular, generally it's kind of reframing where he's at and giving him quick game plan for the next hitter and letting them solve the problem.

Q. How many pitchers or batters does it take you to pick up if a pitcher is starting to either fly open or his arm is getting ahead of him or behind him?

MATT BLAKE: It's probably four or five-pitch window where you're starting to see trends start to emerge, especially early in the game. You kind of have a general feel for the way the ball is going to come out with the adrenaline up. So you got a few key markers you're going to lean into and things you might go out and give him one cue to stay on line or stay stacked. And give him a pitch that might help corral him into the strike zone a little bit.

Q. Matt, Rodón you mentioned there, he pitched great against Tampa Bay his last time out but that was on September 22nd. How have you kind of explained this layoff to him and what your expectations are for him?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. I mean, obviously it's a challenge when you have four talented starters that you're lining up here with the schedule of the playoffs to keep them all in rhythm. Obviously we went Garrett Game 1 and lined Carlos up for Yankee Stadium event here.

Then we did a live BP after the Wild Card series to kind of keep his pitch count up, keep him sharp. Threw a side in Tampa. Try to obviously break up the amount of rest as much as you can. But it's kind of the nature of the schedule. It does become a challenge.

Q. When he goes eight scoreless against this Tampa Bay team, is there a great temptation to just bring him back and have him pitch against them?

MATT BLAKE: Absolutely. I mean, obviously, you love seeing results against a team you're going to face. It's a smaller sample, maybe not the lineup that he might face from last time to this time, but at the same time you trust Carlos in a lot of these situations, and it's certainly a good problem to have but still a problem to have four good starters in this kind of layout.

Q. Matt, does your job change at all as a pitching coach with some of the decisions you have to make, how you go about everything when your team is facing elimination? Does it make the job harder? Do you have to be more alert for things? Max was in here before talking about he's probably going to have a shorter leash. So what is your job like in these elimination games?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. I mean obviously by nature the temperature is rising on the group. So you always try to slow things down, get guys to stay in their comfort zone, understand what's on the line here. Know we might be making some more urgent decisions, knowing this could be the last game if it doesn't go well. So you're not just going to leave Max out there to get to 100 pitches.

You're going to make sure you keep the game as tight as you can. We took Cam out in a pretty early state. Took Garrett out in a pretty early state. Knowing you have off-days here and you have a full bullpen and you're going to make decisions with a little bit of sense of urgency to try and keep the game close.

Q. Matt, obviously Brent Headrick was so good for you guys all season. What have you seen from him lately and what's the challenge when his velocity isn't where it was for most of the season and how he's tried to adapt to that?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. You know, I think we've seen velocity from anywhere from 91 to 94 in the last couple outings. So I think if we can keep him in the 94 range, there's definitely plenty of effectiveness there.

Strength in the sliders obviously has become a priority, using the off-speed effectively, which he's done the second half of the year. Using the splitter a little bit more to the righties, leaning into the slider on both lefties and righties and he's got to be effective with his command of the fastball, and ultimately that's where we're at this time of year.

He's been used a lot and he's doing his best to stay fresh down the stretch but ultimately we gotta keep making pitches when it's important at this time of year.

Q. Matt, when Max was on a few minutes ago, he even brought up the fact that he will be on a short leash. I know I'm sort of asking you to predict and that this would be a hypothetical, but what do you envision that leash being? How much of wiggle room does a pitcher like Max Fried get?

MATT BLAKE: I mean, obviously Max is going to get some runway here, but it's something we gotta talk about with Boonie and the rest of the group about what is our plan here if we do hit the eject button on Max early, because he's still gotta get to the end of the game. But it's a tough situation to assess without walking through exactly where we are in a game, what the score is on either side.

I would say that we will act with a sense of urgency, but obviously it's a hypothetical. It's hard to assess exactly where that pivot point would be.

Q. And then in an-all-hands-on-deck situation, is Rodón the only pitcher you would stay away from tomorrow? Is Cole in play? Is Rodón even in play? How do you envision that playing out?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah, Rodón is one we have to talk to a little bit more. Obviously he's lined up for Game 4, but does he come into play in an all-hands-on-deck situation potentially.

Garrett obviously offered himself up to pitch out of the bullpen as early as last night. We said we weren't going to go that route yet but obviously he is available, and we'll talk through what situation that might look like to bring him into a game, but other than that, everybody should be up.

Q. Question about the end of the game and using David Bednar. We've seen a lot of, like, more-than-three-out finishes to games. We've seen some teams finish with a pitcher getting seven outs. Where is the comfort level for you on just how many you could ask Bednar to get?

MATT BLAKE: Yeah. I would say obviously we were targeting about four there, but I think we'd be comfortable to go a little bit further if needed. Obviously comes down to probably the pitch count, probably keeping it under 40.

But I do think -- we've talked anywhere from four to six if needed. But at the same time that's why we tried to use Blackburn to shorten the game in case we did get back into it a little bit.

Q. Matt, I heard you talk about the mechanical cues with Max and when you can kind of tell if things are going well or not. In terms of his arsenal, when he has such a balanced mix and he's using so many different pitches, at what point in the outing do you know what's really working or is the goal with him always to really mix it up as much as possible?

MATT BLAKE: Usually we have a pretty good game plan of like which of the three out of eight pitches we're going to lean into versus certain types of hitters, but give him some flexibility to adapt as the game goes on, and he's probably as good as any of our guys at kind of finding his way as he gets into the game, the flow of the game, seeing how the delivery is operating, which pitches are kind of clicking in the zone.

Some days it's the pitches that are running on his arm side, the sinker, the changeup, and other times it's using more of the spin pitches, the curveball, the slurve, the cutter, and then the four seam is usually kind of in the middle there.

But usually we can tell from about the jump which of the sides we're going to lean into a little bit until the game kind of gets on its way and then kind of keep adapting.