AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GUARDIANS VS RAYS

October 12, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Guardians - 7, Rays - 3

Q. Ras has been so good for you all year. What did you think of him tonight, first of all?

KEVIN CASH: I thought he was outstanding. I thought he threw an incredible ball game.

You gotta give credit to Cleveland's lineup. They really put some pitches on him and some longer at-bats early on. But I felt like after the third or fourth inning, he really settled in. But Ras was awesome.

Q. What was the way you made the decision, you had both guys warming up and then you sent him back out to start the seventh. What was kind of your thought process?

KEVIN CASH: Kind of going batter to batter, but he was likely not going to face Kwan again. So just have both available, depending on where they landed.

Q. What happened with Junior? What can you tell us?

KEVIN CASH: He's okay. I think he got the wind knocked out of him a little bit. I actually didn't even notice that he went down. I was looking at DeLuca. He popped up pretty quick and didn't realize that Cami had fallen down a couple feet behind him. But I think he just got the wind knocked out of him, and he seems to be totally fine now.

Q. You were in the situation years ago in the World Series. Opposite side of the situation, of course, but taking out a pitcher in Blake Snell. How much does that sort of impact your decision-making at this time of year, that experience?

KEVIN CASH: None.

Q. The middle relievers tonight, how much does rust come into play with guys like that who you have trusted all season long?

KEVIN CASH: None. They're ready to go. The guys have done everything they needed to do with the time off to keep their deliveries intact. We're going to give up some hits at times.

That's a very good team over there. They put a lot of pressure on pitchers and can foul balls off and lengthen out at-bats. And then you add the component that they're good hitters.

Q. In the ninth with Ramirez stealing third, two outs, two strikes, sinkerball pitcher, did you want Junior covering the bag?

KEVIN CASH: You know what? We were throwing behind. We were going to throw to second base. DeLauter had gone the first time.

I haven't spoke to Cami about it. We were going to go to second base. I'm guessing Cami recognized that DeLauter didn't take off and attempted to go to third base. Totally understand how it seemed like the perfect play for the Guardians to come in there, a vacated third base, and Adell hits a ground ball by him, hard ground ball.

Q. You get off to the good start, you get the two runs right away. And I think after that you went kind of quiet --

KEVIN CASH: Their pitching did a really good job. I would like to think that we can put a little bit more offense together, scratch and claw, get a couple more runs or knock a ball out of the ballpark.

But Griffin settled in after the first inning. Espino comes in, they get to their bullpen, kind of their high-leverage arms, and they become very challenging to piece together big innings with.

Q. There maybe was an opportunity for more there in that first?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, yeah, and we've been so good at capitalizing when we've got traffic on the bases and creating momentum. But Griffin made some big pitches.

Q. Was there anything they showed you that you didn't expect? Or is that kind of the baseball game, that's kind of the way they play baseball?

KEVIN CASH: I kind of expected that they -- we all expected it. They're a very good team. There will be some tight ball games, one swing of the bat here, one big pitch or one big play. I know we got separated there at the end. Felt like we were, ourselves, a big swing of the bat multiple times throughout that game.

Q. You mentioned the foul balls and the way they can grind. I believe it was 27 foul balls against Rasmussen there. Understanding that's part of their approach, is there something that you guys, a pitcher can do to counteract that? Is that a way to use that against them, the contact?

KEVIN CASH: I don't know how we would counteract it. We've got a bunch of guys in our lineup that foul balls off and put a lot of pressure on pitchers and drive pitch counts up. It's a sign of a bunch of good hitters that have good hand-eye coordination.

Feels like sometimes -- both lineups are talented enough to spoil pitches and kind of buy themselves another pitch to hit. I'm not saying they were doing that against Ras. They were -- you know, but you look at Kwan and Ramírez and DeLauter, for as good as they are as hitters, I mean, in hitting balls hard, they really make you work to get them to swing and miss. They're very challenge to go strike out.

Q. It's been like two weeks since you've lost a game. Is there a certain message you have to have to the group, a way to flush this?

KEVIN CASH: No, I thought about the exact same thing, sitting in here waiting -- or sitting, waiting to come in here. It's been a while since we lost, so I think that's a good thing, and I know the guys will come back and respond tomorrow.