AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GUARDIANS VS RAYS

October 13, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Rays - 3, Guardians - 1

Q. We've seen that fourth inning from you guys it feels like a lot this season. What did you like the most about the at-bats and the way you capitalized on kind of a rare mistake?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, big knock by Liam Hicks there after the one run came in through the error, but put some pressure on the defense. And José Ramírez is as good as any third baseman there is in the game, and we were fortunate to maybe catch a break there.

But once you catch the break, it's kind of what you do with it. And Liam picked us up in a big way. He had a lot of good at-bats against Messick tonight, who's obviously very tough.

Q. Six base hits out of the 5 through 9 in your lineup tonight. What was your thoughts on moving Liam Hicks to the eighth hole?

KEVIN CASH: I think it had a lot to do with Parker Messick and then balancing our lineup as much as we could right, left, right, left, generally. Throughout the course of this season and even some postseason games, we've kind of stacked a bunch of lefties and put Chandler right in the middle of them.

But with Messick, he creates a lot of challenges. And assume that he's going to pitch a good ball game and keep his team in the ball game. Felt like giving us balance throughout the entire lineup, top to bottom, might be our most challenging way for the opposition to manage it.

Q. With Liam, it's not easy for a catcher to get to a new team in the middle of the season and learn the staff. How much credit to him and what he's been able to do with the pitching staff in general?

KEVIN CASH: I give Liam a ton of credit. He was all ears. A lot of good questions and some good ideas when he came over.

When he came over, we were on right at the beginning of a nine-game road trip, so we were together quite a bit. And he had a lot of opportunities to talk to Kyle, talk to Tomas, talk to Jorge Moncada about our pitching staff and learn his new teammates and interactions.

But I felt like after two weeks of him being here, he really took a lot of ownership and handled game-calling and understanding what makes each pitcher tick.

Q. For Ian to come in the seventh inning and give up the run but still get out that inning with two stranded and then the next inning, how he did that inning, what can you say about him?

KEVIN CASH: He's been a stud for us. We knew that we had five really good starters throughout the course of the season. Look, you have Mack in there, a healthy McClanahan, that's six. But Ian Seymour, he's been as valuable as any player on our roster in this postseason.

I think what's impressive is that he comes in, DeLauter is a very talented hitter, gets the ball down and in, picks up a run, and that doesn't get him out of the zone. He just goes right back to work against Adell, another very talented hitter.

But Ian coming out of the bullpen has thickened our bullpen quite a bit. And the versatility he's shown where it's coming in to get one hitter or coming in to potentially navigate a time through the lineup has really helped.

Q. What impressed you today about Peralta? And was tonight the most confident you've seen him since he joined the Rays?

KEVIN CASH: He's been pretty confident, and a lot of reason why just given the month that he put together in September and the previous start against the Yankees.

I think the velocity really stood out today. I don't know for a fact, but it felt like that might have been his highest velocity we've seen. He had to have been averaging or carrying 97-plus. There were some 98s, 99s in there. But when you have that arsenal, no reason not to be confident.

Q. Obviously you make the trade for Peralta thinking that he can turn around his season from what it was in New York. The streak he's been on, has it worked out even better than you could have imagined at this point?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I don't think we'd ever expect, hey, we're going to acquire a guy and he's going to win pitcher of the month three weeks later.

We were very fortunate to get him. I give our scouts and certainly Erik and his group a ton of credit for recognizing and appreciating that Freddy Peralta wasn't that far removed from the Freddy Peralta in Milwaukee. And we have certainly reaped the benefits of him.

The type of teammate, it feels like he's been here for four or five years, the way he carries himself, the way he interacts. The pitching and the numbers he's thrown up speak for themselves.

Q. The inning when you scored the runs, there was a lot that obviously went into it. But Chandler hitting the high bounce, Mesa taking the extra base there and then Williamson putting the ball in play and leading up to Hicks' big hit, those are a bunch of elements there that it seems like have been part of what you've been doing early this year?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, it did feel like a very Rays inning. A mistake goes our way and then we're able to capitalize on it.

Even the ball that Chandler hit, I think Mesa broke towards second base. Rocchio goes to the bag. One step, I don't know if that helps, maybe Chandler catch an extra step to beat the play out. Rocchio is a very, very good defensive shortstop. So a lot of things went our way that inning.

Q. Confirmed that's the most over 97 that Peralta has thrown all season but my question being even by the second inning he was over 85 percent only fastballs it's the highest usage he's had of that one pitch all year. So where were you looking at game planning-wise, the confidence and the ability to him to go to that pitch so many times and still be so effective?

KEVIN CASH: I felt like we tipped our hand a little bit. The announcers before the game and even our PA were calling him Fastball Freddy. That told everybody what was coming.

But when you got a fastball that's with that velocity, that type of carry through the zone, I mean, you're talking 97, 98, 99 miles an hour, 20-plus inches of carry that's a very tough pitch to square up and definitely when he's pitching right at the belt or just above.

Q. You guys have the 1-1 split. You won two or three up there in Cleveland. That was a long time ago. What do you guys expect here coming in on Thursday?

KEVIN CASH: Going to a challenging place to play. We played there not too long ago in the postseason. That's as good an atmosphere as you're going to see. They've got a great fan base that's going to be behind our team. I'd like to think we can carry our momentum into there and just play good baseball for Game 3.

Q. Initially when you guys got Liam, is the thought we want that bat for the lineup? How much did the defense factor go into how you thought he was going to fit the puzzle here?

KEVIN CASH: You love the bat. As of late, before the acquisition, his catching time had kind of reduced a little bit, playing some first, DHing a lot. Basically catching twice a week, I think it was. But we were very much committed to, he's going to take the lion's share for us and our workload. I think we put some thoughtfulness into how we're going to build him up, get his legs underneath him and try to get him up to speed as quick as possible. But we definitely thought catcher first because Yandy is a pretty good DH.