AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GUARDIANS VS RAYS

October 17, 2026

Kevin Cash

Progressive Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. (Indiscernible) from the lineup yesterday, still not clear on their plans?

KEVIN CASH: I have no idea other than Army's starting.

Q. Does the switch to potentially playing four straight games here change anything as far -- as I know you're used to doing it in the regular season, but typically not in the postseason?

KEVIN CASH: I think the thing is that you're going to probably, likely ask a little bit more of your bullpen without having that off day. But I think our guys, given that essentially, with the rest from yesterday, they're all ready to pitch, they're all ready to take the ball whenever it's asked.

Q. We know what this offense is capable of, but Nick Martinez, 5.79 runs of support every time he gets a start. We know for some pitchers it just magically is or isn't there. What is it about his starts, though? We know he's the guy that gets all these guys out and socializing, but for him to have that on his days?

KEVIN CASH: I hope that continues, for sure. But the guys definitely like playing behind Nick. There's a quickness to how he goes about it. He works very fast. It's a lot of contact. He doesn't get there via deep counts and strikeouts. It's soft contact that he tries to induce in the first two, three pitches of the at-bat.

And anytime you've got what you consider your leader out on the mound, you want to do everything that day to help him get a W. So hopefully they take that approach and we can get the bats going for them.

Q. You guys are so good at home, and yet Nick Martinez is actually, his numbers at least, are better on the road. Is there something to that of why he's been better away from the Trop?

KEVIN CASH: I really didn't know that until the postseason started. It wasn't something that we were necessarily valuing. But if that helps us game plan to have Nick pitch on the road, I think we're comfortable with it.

I do think anytime you're talking about a younger pitcher as opposed to a veteran, sometimes getting in these environments can be a little challenging. And the guy that has a little bit more experience, he can help manage himself a little bit more. And Nick does that as well as anybody.

Q. Nick has that bulldog-like mentality out there on the mound. Do you think it translates to a lot of his teammates out there?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I think our guys really come in with really strong mentalities every game. All of our starters go out there with a similar mentality.

And I know the position-player group, they're going to feed off the starting pitcher's energy on that given day. And they'll also be the first to support any pitcher that's on the mound.

Q. Liam's throwing ticked up once he got to you guys both in caught stealing, a little bit of velo as well. Anything specific you guys did with him in terms of his throwing, or something that you can correlate to that increase?

KEVIN CASH: I don't know all the details, but I know that the message was get rid of the ball as quick as possible. Put the pressure on Wallsy or Richie or Ben at second base up the middle to get the tag down. But just get rid of it real quick.

He's got plenty of arm strength. But, yeah, I'm guessing that they did. When we acquired Liam, we had to get his legs back underneath him a little bit because he had some downtime of not catching four or five days out of a week. He was more one or two.

So there was a little bit of time to get some work in. I know him and Tomas are pretty aligned, the throwing aspect of it. He's done an excellent job this postseason of getting rid of it and putting it right where they can handle it just 24 inches up the line. It seems like that's where the go-to throw is. Get rid of the ball.

Q. You spent a couple of years here coaching. So you saw firsthand how well the Indians/Guardians develop starting pitching or just develop pitching, period. What did you not know before you came here that you learned about their process and why they're so good at it?

KEVIN CASH: Oh, I didn't know anything. I was very fortunate to learn a lot. I had the experience of catching some really good pitchers, totally understanding how they got there to be good pitchers. I did not know that.

But Cleveland, while I was here, the run of starters they had -- Kluber, Carrasco, Danny Salazar, young pitchers coming up through the system -- just being involved in those meetings doing a lot more listening than anything else of what made them good and what they wanted to do to continue to make them on that trajectory and have the progress to continue to be better. So I was just fortunate to be part of that and listening.

Q. What does it say about the organization that as pitching has evolved as quickly as it has, they've continued to spit out Gavin Williams and Parker Messick and others and continue that tradition?

KEVIN CASH: It says that they're very bright and they're very open minded. And I think there's some similarities in the way that we view pitching. And certainly Kyle, and it feels like every year or two, there's something new that we can learn a lot about pitching. And like to think that, I know the Guardians and certainly the Rays, they do a good job of quickly implementing it.

Q. How different does the Guardians lineup feel with Adell and Lowe in it compared to earlier before the deadline? Just the feel of the lineup now, it's a little deeper.

KEVIN CASH: You've got just more veterans in there. Nathaniel and Jo Adell have been around the block for a little while and had some success. It does make it thicker. You're going to get that veteran approach.

It's probably not going to get maybe as sped up in the moment when those big at-bats come through, and they've already shown their ability to control the environment. I mean, Jo and Nathaniel both probably had the biggest hits for the Guardians at our ballpark.

Q. You were here when Carrasco went to the bullpen and then came back as a starter, and I know he credited you a lot with kind of his development. Just learning with him, how did that help you in your development with pitching staffs when guys might have to bounce between the two roles, because I know Nick's done it a lot in his career?

KEVIN CASH: Cookie was a starter, then went to the bullpen to try to maximize. Then went back to starter. I think the thought was just how talented he was, how many options, how many weapons he had, made sense to continue to pour into him as a starting pitcher.

The more options that you have, whether it's Nick Martinez, who has a bunch of different pitches; Griffin Jax has a bunch of different pitches. So there is some similarities to that. They all get there a little bit differently.

But having the options gave us the confidence to do that with our guys. You look at Nick's overall -- his career -- he's had a long career, he's been really good as a starter and he's been really good coming out of the bullpen in different stints with different clubs.

Q. It's not exactly southwest Florida weather out there right now. How do you guys feel that you're preparing for the cold tonight and the effects it can have on the game?

KEVIN CASH: I think more than anything we're excited to get out on the field and take batting practice. I'm assuming the sun is still out there. I know it won't be out there during game time. But guys find a way, very easy way to put all the cold or the heat aside when you're playing in games of this magnitude.

Q. Cami naturally brings a lot of attention to himself because of his talent. Do you think he'll view this kind of slow start as a challenge? Have you any sense of how he's going to take it?

KEVIN CASH: I would say Cami is highly motivated to get going, and rightfully so. Because every challenge that he's met or big game that he's been in, he's found his way to have some success and really impact the game.

Yesterday, or two days ago, probably was not his best game. Gotta credit the Guardians' pitching for the way they attacked him. But he's going to make the adjustments needed and find a way to get his name in the paper in the best possible way moving forward.

Q. With a bullpen game, the prep work that goes into it, how many permutations are on the table leading into a contest like this, where you don't necessarily know what's going to happen after Armstrong's out of the game?

KEVIN CASH: You just want to be as prepared as possible. I mean, we can talk exhaustively about a bunch of different scenarios, and they could all be wrong. But we're doing everything we can to prepare if we happen to go over the one that they might choose to do. That's why I'm so appreciative of our front office and our R & D group of sitting down. And there's a lot of what-ifs in these games. We've done them in the past, and we've had them done against us. So just try to be as prepared as possible.

Q. (Indiscernible) Junior, if this happened during the regular season where you had a couple of off days, it would just kind -- go unnoticed --

KEVIN CASH: He did, yeah, and he came out of it really, really well.

Q. It gets magnified so much now. How do you just try to make sure, hey, don't make this any worse than it is?

KEVIN CASH: I don't think Junior is concerned one bit. He was playing dominos last night after the ball game with the guys. I talked to him this morning. He's got the biggest smile in the clubhouse on his face. He's ready to get a bat in his hands.