AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 6, 2026

Kevin Cash

Yankee Stadium

Tampa Bay Rays

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Kevin, I was just curious if you could start with walking us through the thought process behind Nick Martínez in Game 3, how much his success on the road, the season he had overall kind of came into play here?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah. It's definitely the season overall and how good we feel when he's on the mound for us, whether it's home or road. I'll be honest, I didn't really realize any of the road information until it started to be talked about by you guys.

I look at Nick, it doesn't matter where he takes the ball, he is as ready to compete and as good as any pitcher I've been around.

You guys know as well how infectious he's been and the type of treatment. I know our guys are pumped to be playing behind him.

Q. Talking a lot about the atmosphere at the Trop. What do you expect out of Yankee Stadium tomorrow night and possibly the next night?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I expect it to be a stadium packed full and supporting their team. We're probably at the mecca in the sports world of playing here in the Bronx and it's going to be exciting for us.

You know it's going to get loud. They're going to do everything they can to get their team in the right direction with some momentum, and respect and appreciate that.

Q. This is Nick Martínez's first full year as a starter. And as you know, he's not that young. What has impressed you the most about him as a starter?

KEVIN CASH: I think the way that he just, you know, soft contact. Strike throwing, pitch ability, but induces soft contact. We got a lot of guys and a lot of starters that get a lot of outs via the strikeout. We know and he knows that that's not his bread and butter. It's to try to get guys out early in the count, trust the defense. He does that as well as anybody, and set up his pitches, where it's not an over powerful approach. And don't want to see him try and do that, and confident he won't.

He knows that the reason he's had so much success this year is probably due in large part because of that cutter and the changeup combination have been getting a lot of early swings on it.

Q. It's rare that we hear that a pitcher is a leader, but I've heard this organization call him a leader. Why does he stand out as a leader on and off the field?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah. I feel like we've had a lot of pitchers that have been leaders and I've played with a lot of pitchers that were leaders. I think you can make the argument that starting pitchers, sometimes they have more time on their hands to really invest themselves in the clubhouse, into their teammates knowing that they're contributing one every five days.

But the reason why Nick is, he is so genuine and authentic as a person, the things that he did in spring training, the selfless approach. I mean, I've heard him no less than 20 times this year look at me as like, I don't care. I'll do whatever. I'll pitch out of the pen. I'll start games. I'll do whatever you need me to do to help this team win. That's probably what stands out.

Q. Kevin, looking at the way the Rays play, putting the ball in play a lot, making things happen, how much is that a product of the players you have and how much is deliberately trying to acquire those type of players?

KEVIN CASH: I think that's a product of the players that we have. We felt we were going to be a little bit more contact oriented in Spring Training when we got our Spring Training roster, and it's certainly proven to be that way. But that's a credit to the guys. There are some little things that Chad Mottola and Ozzie Timmons do in Spring Training that we put large focus on getting the runner from third base in with less than two outs. We'll even mock up at-bats.

They were picking two or three guys a game in Spring Training, and from day one, that we're not worried about your timing and this and that. We want you to get in compete mode right away and an at-bat that probably doesn't mean too much to them or us in the moment, but we're going to try to magnify that at-bat and give them as many reps as possible because they mean a lot when you get into the regular season and definitely the post-season.

Q. And when you have like last night and many other games, players reach on infield grounders that sets innings in motion, is there a feeling in the dugout that hey, yeah, that's the way we make things happen?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah. I think there is. It's kind of grown to that like here we go again. That's set up really well for us last night. We got the thumpers that get up there at second and third and then you got between Liam and Chandler and JD. Just very contact oriented be and you look at Chandler and Jonny DeLuca, just the speed getting down the line, the urgency it forces on the infielders, really good infielders, it forces them to get out of their comfort zone and make a highlight-reel play. Those are tough to make.

Q. Kevin, with Ben Rice being one of their main offensive threats so far, how does that affect how aggressive you want your pitchers to be with him, especially in that ballpark?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah. I mean, look, he's on a heater right now. He's a really good player, a great hitter, and he's on a heater right now. We've seen him throughout the course of the season. He's got a lot of big home runs. He handled Tropicana very, very well. But I think be our best way for success is to continue to try to get strike one on him. Don't let him get in the leverage of having the count be in his favor and knowing that I don't know if there's a benefit just to walk him or pitch around him, because the other guys around him are very talented.

Q. Kevin, the bunt is obviously like a huge part of your game, to the point where last night it seemed to affect the Yankees and the defense and the overall outcome of the game even when they weren't bunting. They were moving guys in to play for the bunt, especially in the first inning when Aranda shot the ball through the infield and I'm curious how much of a factor you think that is even when you're not actively bunting?

KEVIN CASH: Well, I don't think they thought Aranda was going to be bunting. I don't think so. But they opened the hole a little bit with the shortshop playing up the middle.

I understand your question. I do think there are players on our roster, whether it's Chandler or Wallsie or Cedric Mullins when he's in there, Victor Mesa, that they make the infield defense smaller, because you have to respect the bunt. They've shown it enough this year. They've had enough success doing it that no team wants to just give guys an opportunity to get on base via the bunt. We would be doing and behaving very similar.

So you pinch your corners in, and when you do that and you've gotta bring the second baseman in a little bit tighter more towards the baseline to cover first base or cover to the pull bunt, I mean, it shortens the infield a little bit and that's how you find some more balls get through.

Q. I'm guessing you guys got in late and you're talking about this but will you go with some of the right-handers tomorrow presumably with a lefty starting?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah. We could and likely will. Max Fried is so tough against righties or lefties. The guys right now that have played the last two days are certainly in rhythm but we've also done some things throughout the course of the year that has helped us, in my opinion, be better against left-handed pitching. Find ways to have a little more success and that's some contributions from Ryan Vilade, 40, Ben Williamson. Certainly Jonny has been in there.

So we'll have some discussions, but I would imagine there could be a little bit different look to the lineup.

Q. Kevin, the way you've been able to use your starters, what Ras gave you, you've only gotten seven outs from your kind of traditional relievers so far this series, six of them by Baker. Does that potentially help you as you get into a deeper series here, the fact that maybe they haven't seen some of the leverage guys to this point and how do you think that might influence some of the usage the rest of the way?

KEVIN CASH: I think it helps. I think that's a good point that we've talked about in post-season play in the past, when you're rolling out the same pitcher every time on the same matchup, I feel like that's a benefit to the hitter more times than not.

I don't know if the numbers or the information back that up, but they know every pitcher that we have in the pen, but not showing them the last two days, I would think is going to benefit whenever they do come in and help us get some big outs.

We did talk about before the season started -- or before the post-season, this series started, that we were going to rely heavily on our starters, and I mean, we've done that so far.