MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 24, 2026

Pat Murphy

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Brewers - 5, Rays - 4

Q. You've talked many times about living with ups and downs of a young player. Cooper Pratt has that inning right out of the chute and then has kind of an incredible at-bat. He didn't look good on a couple of swings, then all of a sudden he stays on the ball and takes it to right, and all of a sudden he's got redemption.

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, the game has a way of doing that to you, you know what I mean? That speaks to Cooper, what type of individual he is, being able to hang in there when things didn't go great for him early, even early in that at-bat.

That guy is super tough on right-handers. For him to put that ball in play, we spent a lot of time on that reliever and talking about how to face him. He's outstanding, and Coop just put together a great at-bat, a great teacher for every young person in the room that the game doesn't start a certain way, doesn't mean it has to end that way.

Q. The comebacks that your club has been able to put together over and over, it's good at-bats, there's obviously pass the baton, but do you feel like that feeds off each other at some point, where once you do it once or twice, you do it more?

PAT MURPHY: We're down to the end of the season here. They're going to tap us on the shoulder here at some point and tell us no more. Guys just, they don't give up. They believe, and they don't give up. They just keep going. That's a great club across the way, it really is.

We saw 180-plus pitches tonight, 108 innings of offense, and that's dragging them. That's dragging them. It says a lot for our guys that they've adopted that. We're down four runs, like we were in L.A., I think, in the last game.

We didn't play great. We saw 184 pitches, but we left 12 guys on base. We hit some balls right to the track. I told Sal, you'll never hit two homers in a game. Stop trying to think that.

(Laughter.)

He had a great game. Turang's big double. His day didn't start exactly the way he wanted. He had a line drive caught, but he put together four quality ABs today. Numerous guys. Sal put together four quality, hit four balls on the screws today. Bauers put together quality. Chourio gets two knocks. Contreras two knocks.

Just a lot of guys contributing.

Q. You've been in a lot of clubhouses with a lot of guys over the years. What's the difference --

PAT MURPHY: Everything's about the age. Am I old? Do you think I'm kind of old?

CHILD ON DAIS: You're not that old.

Q. What's the difference between teams that are able to be resilient and bounce back and the ones that aren't?

PAT MURPHY: I think this time of year most teams are. I'm not taking anything away from our club. I love our club, I love our guys, and I believe in them, but most teams are resilient.

It's tough for teams to come in here and play. Our fans are so incredible. It's a tough environment to play in. Tampa Bay had us on the ropes every day. They had runners in scoring position when the game ended both days.

Q. How much does Contreras' first inning at-bat change that game?

PAT MURPHY: It's a huge at-bat. Huge at-bat. We set the guy, and he came through with a knock, and then Mitchell got a big knock. That first inning meant something that we bounced back against a pitcher that good. I mean, that guy, he's as good as there is out there. We got his pitch count up and got him out of there. So credit to our guys.

Q. Murph, you mentioned Sal's having good at-bats. The at-bat with the home run, he fouled off three pitches before he got the one he wanted. How dogged was that for him to hit that pitch?

PAT MURPHY: All night. He hit four lasers tonight, think about it. He hit four balls right on the screws. I think we talked about in pregame, a lot of you guys weren't here, but we talked about it when you guys were all here earlier, he's got the it factor.

You're a big Sal fan, right?

CHILD ON DAIS: Yeah.

PAT MURPHY: Named his dog Sal.

Q. You made a note on your desk calendar that you needed to tell Sal you loved him more often, and by the end of that conversation you crossed it off your calendar and decided it was a bad idea. I was curious where you landed on that and if you would reexamine it in light of the exclamation point he put on tonight.

PAT MURPHY: No, no, I've never told him that. I decided not to, and it's worked out okay. So probably won't tell him that.

Q. What have you learned about Tampa Bay tonight that could influence a decision you make later in the series?

PAT MURPHY: Rasmussen is really, really good. Their team is good. They're the best team in the American League, and I'm well aware of it. I don't think -- I think we had a lot of things go our way, and I realize that. I respect Tampa, and we've got a long way to go.

Q. Murph, can you talk about Henderson a little bit and obviously the tough first inning he went through and the confidence you showed him in the second and even the third inning with three of four lefties up in the heart of the order?

PAT MURPHY: He can get out lefties as well as he can get out righties, to be honest with you. I think he was a little jittery again in the first inning. I think in his mind he thinks he's tired because it's the end of the year and it's a lot, but this is where you've got to learn that lesson that you've got a lot left. You pick yourself up. You've got a lot left. He's got to come to that realization because we need him going forward.

Q. Sal's college manager even called him the ultimate competitor. What do you think -- what makes him that?

PAT MURPHY: Everybody's built differently. Everybody expresses it differently. I think that Sal was a young man that had very good physical skills but not -- he wasn't big in stature like a lot of these guys are. So as a smaller guy, I think he always was having to prove how great he was.

He has this edge about him that he believes in himself, and he has this -- I coached a guy back in college, Pedroia, and it's kind of similar. His career hasn't taken off as great as Dustin's Rookie of the Year, MVP when Dustin's career started, but he's that type of guy. Dustin was full of belief, full of a swagger and an edge that when he went out and played, it was like I'm going to get it done.

Then they have the awareness of what it takes for them to be good, like within their little physical capabilities. Sal has that.

Q. You have two good choices at the end with Ashby for another or Megill. How do you choose Ashby tonight --

PAT MURPHY: Very carefully. Very carefully.

Q. What's left to say about his performance so far in this postseason?

PAT MURPHY: It's been incredible. It's been incredible. He does what it takes. It's unconventional. Multiple innings in relief. It's Goose Gossage-like. I guess we had a guy like that here too, Rollie. Multiple-inning relief. Sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes you go with it.

We're lucky, Jimmy Henderson and I, we fight about it all game on the bench. I don't know who the arbitrator is, but we fight about it all game, and then we come up with something. So far, so good. Phew, yep.

Q. You talked about how many pitches your offense saw tonight. What have you liked about the way you guys have stuck to that principle on offense throughout whatever pitchers you're facing, whatever moment the team is in, this stage, you've stuck to that and been able to keep to that offensive strategy?

PAT MURPHY: That's a winning baseball concept, ball strike discernment. You discern balls and strikes. That is something that -- that's winning baseball, ball strike. They do something over there. They do a great job over there.

It's tough to do. Sometimes you're hitting deep in the count. You don't really want to hit deep in the count, but you start really understanding what the strike zone is. That's part of maturing as a Major League Baseball player.

Q. Yesterday I asked you to describe your team in one word, and you said they were resilient, and they were definitely resilient today, being down four runs in the first inning and coming back. What was the message to them in the dugout that had them fighting so hard?

PAT MURPHY: I didn't say anything. I was just standing over there doing what I do. I eat these mints all day long so my breath is good if I go out and argue with an umpire. I didn't say much, but I heard these guys talking to each other, and they were dead focused that they could continue to climb back in the game, and that first inning did a lot.

In that first inning, we got a line drive caught, and we were a little bit unlucky there, but at the same time, we had some balls go through. But that was the key that we fought back immediately and we showed them we're here to play.

Yeah, our bullpen doesn't get enough credit. I guess it does get a lot of credit, but you can't say enough great things about them. Again, six innings of shutout again. I don't know how many innings, I don't have all the numbers. You can have Mike, he won't know, but then he'll ask somebody, and they'll have to get the answer.

Q. Other than Ashby's apparent rubber arm, what have you been able to do to keep the relief unit fresh enough to keep getting these big outs?

PAT MURPHY: They're not fresh, that's for sure, but when you have the long layoff, you think like it helps their freshness, but to be honest with you, not being on the mound doesn't help him stay crisp, but having that long layoff and not throwing much allows them to give it all they've got.

Maybe they'll get crisp soon, but they certainly are willing. Yeah, they've been a godsend for us. Romero, May, Hall, Uribe, they were all so great.