AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX VS GUARDIANS

October 6, 2026

Stephen Vogt

Rate Field

Cleveland Guardians

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Stephen Vogt.

Q. I think you know what I'm going to ask. Do you have a Game 3 starter?

STEPHEN VOGT: Daniel Espino will start tomorrow.

Q. How did you come to that decision?

STEPHEN VOGT: Just looking at what we have in front of us. Obviously, he's done a great job opening. With all the options in the bullpen, I felt like giving the ball to Daniel was the right call.

Q. Obviously, in an elimination game, you're going to do whatever you have to do. How does the manager organize that in his mind when he doesn't know for sure how the game's going to work out from the first inning on? Is that tough?

STEPHEN VOGT: I mean, I think it's just like any other game. I think obviously we know what's at stake, but we know that it's win or go home. But at the same time, you have to let the game unfold. And so every manager has a plan going into every game. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it gets ripped up. So we'll talk through all the different scenarios.

Q. Just to clarify, would this be a situation where you guys would ideally get it to Joey after Espino, or is it all hands on deck and who knows where it goes?

STEPHEN VOGT: Daniel is going to start.

Q. What kind of atmosphere do you think is going to be like here tomorrow night? How can a crowd influence a baseball game? Can you do anything to prepare for that as a visiting team?

STEPHEN VOGT: I think we've played in a lot of environments over the course of the year. You go on the road, there are sellouts, there are different fan bases. The first few series that we played here, it was a great crowd. I had never experienced that here. In the 12 years I've been coming here, this is the first year I've experienced the crowd the way it is here.

So it's really exciting. I always like playing on the road when it's an exciting, loud crowd and anticipate it's going to be just that. And our guys have played in this environment over and over again, whether it be postseasons in the past or regular season games. So expecting it to be a loud, hostile crowd that's talking a lot of smack to us from behind the dugout, and we enjoy that.

Q. Vogter, why not Foster or, you know, you had Tanner -- an option with Tanner Bibee as well?

STEPHEN VOGT: Because we feel like Daniel opening gives us the best chance going into tomorrow. It's been a formula that's worked, so Daniel is going to start.

Q. I know José might not be 100 percent. Do you get a sense he's, I want to say, pressing, but this time of year, knowing everything at stake, is he kind of searching, I guess, to try to have some signature moment?

STEPHEN VOGT: I don't know about signature moment. For those of us who have been around Josy for an extended amount of time, you know he wants to step up. You know he wants to help the team win. With the wrist this year, it's been a difficult run at it. Josy is somebody you never count out. Josy is somebody that you know he's giving you everything he has. So I don't know if "searching" is the right word.

I think it's more of he wants to step up. He's not 100 percent. He hasn't been since June. He's giving us everything we has, and we all know that Josy is one swing of the bat away from getting it going.

Q. The very good managers like yourself are always very consistent to you and the coaching staff. But in a game like tomorrow's, do you have to consciously remind yourself to just be you and just let the baseball game itself play out?

STEPHEN VOGT: I think we've done a nice job as a staff and as a team to just take one day at a time. You can focus on the fact that we have to win three games, or you could focus on we need to win tomorrow. And that's how we've approached it and we're going to continue to approach it. We have one game tomorrow. That's all we can control. We're going to do everything we can to go out and win it.

This group, in particular the last couple years, has been unbelievable at focusing on today. Same thing today. We're focused on the workout, getting our work in and being ready to go tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll be focused on doing everything we can to win the game.

Q. Adell was saying after yesterday, this team is going to come in ready for Game 3. Do you sense that offensively, it just needs to start with one and that can just get the wave of momentum going from what's happened so far?

STEPHEN VOGT: It's been a rough go the first two games. Again, that's what's beautiful and miserable about the postseason is one or two games gets heightened.

But for our offense, we go when we get on base, and we just haven't been able to get traffic. That's the goal tomorrow: Get traffic, make things happen. We saw the one inning we put pressure on them this series, we've made it happen. We just need to continue to do that. We need to continue to touch first base like we have all year and get the big hit when that opportunity comes up.

It could be as simple as one run. It could be as simple as coming through one inning. This offense has been really good for a month. We hit a little snag the last two. They pitched really well. I don't ever want to take credit away from that. They have pitched very, very well.

But we need to have good at-bats tomorrow, come out ready to go, and I'm confident we will.

Q. Stephen, I remember in early March, it was a big deal when Daniel made a Spring Training start at Salt River. What can you say about kind of the journey it's taken to get here and the fact that he's starting a playoff game for you?

STEPHEN VOGT: It is so special for Daniel and his family. I mean, I know not everybody knows his story, but from missing, what, three years, waiting to get to this point, to get back on a mound in game action, let alone make his Major League debut and now here he is starting a playoff game.

You bet on the person in times like this, and obviously we've seen his stuff. But what Daniel's been through, there's nothing that's going to rattle him or shake him. We're really excited for Daniel to be getting the ball tomorrow.

Q. Vogter, with the off days after Game 1 and Game 2, how have you seen that benefit you guys and benefit the White Sox as well?

STEPHEN VOGT: It benefits both teams. All of your bullpen guys have a day of rest. All your position players have a day of rest. So in this format, and we saw it two years ago, it allows you to deploy your bullpen however you want in Games 1 and 2. Then you have to get more strategic now because there's a Game 4 the next day.

But the days off in between Games 1 and 2 allows you to set your bullpen and run whatever play you want to. Both teams have that advantage. I think it's an interesting format for sure.

Q. The way the White Sox deploy their bullpen, does that strategy-wise for a manager make it difficult to know when you want to switch to platooning in a game, third inning, fifth inning? How does that change the normal strategy that you have to deal with in regular season games?

STEPHEN VOGT: It makes it very difficult. We faced a number of bullpen games throughout the course of the year. A lot of teams bullpen against us. But, again, when you don't know what the other team's going to do, it makes it a little more difficult.

You can't make two moves. You have to make the one move and be good with it the rest of the way. All it takes is disrupting one person, and we know what moves they're going to make. They know what moves we're going to make. It's just a when.

And they've executed. They've executed really well the first two games.

Q. Not to make any assumptions, just generally, what have you liked about Joey Cantillo in a nonstarting role for the last few weeks?

STEPHEN VOGT: The last few times Joey's come out of the bullpen, he's been great, attacking the zone, throwing strikes. We know how good his stuff is when it's in the zone. Joey has shown he can pitch out of this role really well.

Foster has thrown out of this role too. And Tanner says he's ready to take the ball whenever. We have three very good length options along with our very good bullpen that's been great all year. We don't know what we're going to do after Daniel. We'll have to let the game play out.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in, Stephen.