AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GUARDIANS VS RAYS

October 16, 2026

Kevin Cash

Progressive Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. You've got Chandler hitting third today. Is that based on his 100 mile-an-hour drive yesterday?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, that definitely plays a part into it. No, I think with Armstrong going, just banked two lefties getting up there to see him, and having Cami hitting fourth.

Chandler, his skill set, I feel, can hit anywhere in any lineup because of the contact. Certainly, the top guys yesterday was a struggle for them and a grind. But that's a credit to Cleveland's pitching. But to have a guy sitting there in the middle in there that you're just confident that you're going to see some contact and put some pressure on the defense is a good thing.

Q. What's the latest you've heard on the weather, and how it might impact this game?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, we've got a call at 6:00. A lot of people are -- forecasters are putting their heads through it trying to decide what's best for both the Guardians and the Rays and certainly the Cleveland fans and everything. So not more than that other than I'm looking forward to getting on the call at 6:00.

Q. Do you have a say in any of this, or is it strictly up to MLB?

KEVIN CASH: I'd say more the latter, yeah -- and very respectfully.

Q. Would you like to say we don't want to play through certain --

KEVIN CASH: I think people would speak up. It doesn't necessarily come from me.

Q. A guy like Chandler Simpson, with his kind of speed and a guy who has figured out how to hit in the big leagues too, just how dangerous is having a player like that?

KEVIN CASH: I think he's very dangerous. The greatest compliment maybe was that you can hit him anywhere and know that he's going to have an impact on the lineup, on the game. We've hit Chandler fourth before in the past, and there was some critics -- why do that? But it's, like, well, he puts the ball in play.

In today's game, that can be very challenging on certain nights, where if you got your big boppers getting on base somehow, knocking a double or a walk or something, you're confident Chandler is going to make contact.

I don't think he has one spot to hit in the lineup. I know wherever we've put him this year, it feels like he's helped us win.

Q. It's obvious you value contact and why at the same time you guys are running at 27-percent strikeout rate in this series. And I understand it's just three games. But when you have a short series like this, how can you emphasize to your guys how important contact is and what it means to this team?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I think you emphasize -- from yesterday's game, if you want to be reactive, let's get back to being ourselves. And ourselves all season long, I think we had the best contact rate in the American League.

They know that. They hear that from myself or Chad Mottola or Ozzie Timmons. Much easier said than done. We saw what Gavin Williams did against the White Sox. And unfortunately, we saw what he did against us yesterday.

And then their bullpen is pretty elite when they have the leverage or the lead. And we lived it last night.

But I'm confident we can make some adjustment and put some balls in play.

Q. Speaking of contact, when you talk about the other side of the coin, you have Nick Martinez, who isn't necessarily a strikeout pitcher, but pitches to contact. How can a guy like that have success against a Guardians team that likes to put the ball in play and put pressure on the base paths?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I mean Nick does a tremendous job at inducing soft contact. I think Nick gets there a little differently. He's looking to get to you hit his pitch within the first three pitches. It's heavy, cutter, sinker, then obviously the change-up at any point.

He's had success against Cleveland. I don't think that carries a ton of weight into this game, for sure. They're going to make the adjustments.

But every time Nick has been thrown something different, it seems like he's adjusted and had an answer for himself. Excited to see him go out there today and give us a good start.

Q. When you were catching, did anyone throw three fastballs?

KEVIN CASH: No. I take that back. Three fastballs, yeah, I had certain guys throw three fastballs. In today's game, I can't compare the pitching of today's game as it is now. It's way different.

But I didn't catch many guys that just could throw three 100 mile-an-hour fastballs. So I'm going back to Jonathan Papelbon. He lived off his fastball. Mariano lived off a cut fastball.

Q. You saw it with Schlittler in New York, you saw it with Tolle in Boston. When you see the proliferation of the three fastball guys now -- and I think Nick is a perfect example of that -- why does that work so well?

KEVIN CASH: I misunderstood you. You're saying three shapes of fastballs. I thought you were talking three fastballs in a row, consecutive. No, I did not see that.

Q. Why did it take so long, you think, for this to become a thing?

KEVIN CASH: Well, I think we have more information now. Over the years, we've learned a lot more about pitching, how to manipulate the spin of the ball, how to cut it like you reference.

Ras does the same thing. Carry the fastball at the top. Cut, sink to both edges.

I mean, Roy Halladay was maybe a little bit ahead of his time. It was a lot of sink. But he'd pop a four-seamer every once in a while.

I think just information. Learning on the fly over the last decade has really sped pitching up. That's why it's so tough to hit.

Q. As you get deeper into a seven-game series like this, when you're making reliever decisions, do you factor or how if at all do you factor in how many times certain guys, certain pockets have already seen that reliever when you're deciding who to go with?

KEVIN CASH: Definitely. As much as we talk about the time-through-the-order effect, if Bake or Boos or anybody just continued to face the same hitters, I gotta think that somewhere in line that's an advantage to the hitter. So, yes, very mindful of that.

Going into the game today, I'll have a good understanding of the six batters Matzy faced, the six that Wellsy faced. I don't think that you run from going back to those guys, but you're certainly mindful of it.

Q. You were asked the other day about the benefits, the continuity of Chad being the hitting coach for a long period of time. Kind of be similar with Kyle, wouldn't it?

KEVIN CASH: Oh, definitely, yeah. We've been incredibly fortunate to have our veteran coaches. It's been a pretty consistent message for quite some time.

And I think Kyle and Chad do a tremendous job of, number one, connecting with the player. They understand the information. They're eager to continue to learn the new information. I think they're really good at being able to implement what they think is important for the hitter or the specific pitcher to hear.

Q. With Kyle specifically, just because you guys are so pitching-dependent, bringing new guys in from other organizations, do you see all that playing out to your benefit?

KEVIN CASH: I do. I mean, because I think Kyle pours himself into, I mean, the amount of time, quick time spent learning Tyler Wells and Freddy Peralta at the deadline. As soon as we found out they were Rays, Kyle shifted to digging in on them.

And not just digging in on this past four or five months, but digging in on their careers and could go back two or three years and looked at some points where they were really, really good and be able to have conversations off of those periods.

Q. These two teams in this series and the Brewers with their success, going to the World Series, the discussion right now is what does it take to win in October, like, what do you need in October, big market, small market, all that stuff. What do you think?

KEVIN CASH: Good players. You've got to have good players. We can talk about payroll and this and that. But at the end of the day, there's three really good teams with excellent players on them right now.

Q. Obviously guys change as they move along, but the small world that it is, you see an old friend in Shawn Armstrong on the other side. What are some of the differences you've noticed in studying him for this start compared to when he was a Ray?

KEVIN CASH: I haven't spent a ton of time studying his start because I'm guessing he's going to go three or four batters, but I could be way off on that. Maybe he'll go nine innings, I have no idea.

We did see Army early on this year and he actually got hurt, I think, backing up home plate. Was worried in the moment that his season was over. Obviously, it wasn't.

But Shawn Armstrong meant a lot to our club when he was there. He was one of our veteran pitchers in the bullpen, took on a leadership role.

But, I mean, he's a guy that's been there, done that. And I think looking at his career path kind of coming full circle, from coming up with Cleveland and now finding success and pitching huge innings, it's a credit to him and the character that he is.

Q. You mentioned knowing Shawn Armstrong a little bit better from his time in Tampa Bay, but you obviously thought that his season could have been over there. To see the guy have the resilience that he did in the regular season and now be pitching in this moment, what does that mean for his character as well?

KEVIN CASH: Not surprised. Definitely, high character pitcher, person, teammate. And it takes a lot of work ethic to get back and rehab to get back to this point. And now he's contributing on the biggest stage.