MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 25, 2026

Richie Palacios

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. What do you think of having Freddy Peralta on the mound tomorrow in what's kind of a must-win kind of game as well as he's pitched here, as well as he's pitched for you guys overall?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Yeah, man, it's huge. It's huge to have a guy who's going to go out there and compete. All our guys go out there and compete, but it's huge to have a guy who's been pitching so well recently, to have him go out there and do what he's done recently. So we're excited for that.

Q. How frustrating was it yesterday when you almost have Contreras out at first, and then you have a grounder that's potentially right to you, but you have to break the cover of the bag?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Yeah, it's frustrating. Those are baseball plays -- that's where luck is involved in it. Because you know if that ball is up the middle, it's a double play. Or if he swings and miss, it can be a double play, strikeout, throw out.

It just happened he hit it right where I was standing. I was trying to take off as late as possible knowing he can possibly hit it, but we can't just give up an easy stolen base there with the way the runs were there 4-0.

Q. How different do you think the game turns out if that foul ball is caught?

RICHIE PALACIOS: We don't live in hypotheticals, so we don't even know. We don't know. We just live in the present, figure out exactly how we're going to attack, and win this next game.

Q. What are your thoughts on playing here at The Trop knowing how your fans showed up for those Yankee games and the Guardians Game 6? You certainly got a taste of what their atmosphere was like in Milwaukee last night. What do you expect here?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Just expect a lot of energy. We love playing at The Trop. We played so well at The Trop all year. It's going to be exciting to go out there and put on a show for our fans and hopefully bring them a couple more wins.

Q. The other question was there was a video from the game last night when Junior was kind of yelling in the dugout at some of your teammates trying to fire them up? What did you make of that given Junior's personality and his role on the team given how that plays out?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Junior is a leader by example. He mostly just goes out there and does his thing. But what's exciting is when he does open his mouth, it's always useful, and it's in the time that we need it.

So right before the playoffs, he told us a little message that was meaningful to us and helped us so far. Yesterday he was just encouraging us to just lock in, lock in, and not worry about what's behind us but to worry about what's ahead of us.

When he speaks, everybody listens. It's good to have a leader like that, especially a guy so young, understanding when the team needs a little pick me up.

Q. So you definitely took it as a positive?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Yeah, yeah, I took it as -- yeah, we all took it as a positive. There's times throughout the game where we might lose a little bit of energy, and we need somebody on our team to pretty much pick us up and tell us, look, we're not ending here. We're not giving up. We're going to go out there and continue to compete, and that's what he was able to do.

I know the effect that's going to have on us for these next couple games.

Q. Could you share with us what it means to you to represent your Curaçao roots and your Puerto Rican roots from your mom and dad? And secondly, how many family members do you expect to have in attendance for tomorrow night's game?

RICHIE PALACIOS: It's a blessing. My mother was born in Curaçao, so it's a blessing to go out and represent. And then my father's family is from Puerto Rico. So two small islands that really know baseball really well.

It means a lot for them to be supporting me as if I was born there. It's truly amazing for me to go out there and do it.

Second, I've got a couple of family members, my mom, my dad, my brother, and my cousin, and a couple of best friends are going to be out there to support.

We've been talking about the dream of playing in a World Series since I was a kid, so everyone that I know is going to be out there.

Q. When you first started playing at The Trop, how long did it take you to get used to the various quirks of this ballpark, and how much quirkier is it than some of the other ballparks you go to throughout the season?

RICHIE PALACIOS: Yeah, first time I played there, just getting used to a little bit of tracking fly balls and tracking pop-ups. Once you get that, pretty much the rest of the stadium is true besides the pop-ups. That's the only quirks that I see.

Obviously that's the biggest quirk because there's not a lot of stadiums where pop-ups can hit off certain things and land in play, land foul, and affect the game. But we know the lay of the land. We've been working on it all year, and that's our ballpark, and we love it.

Q. Has it been easier to pick up pop-ups, just the normal ones, with brighter lights and the new roof this year than in the past?

RICHIE PALACIOS: I believe it's the same. I believe it's the same, maybe a little bit better. Yeah, we worked on it a ton last year -- I mean, in '24 we worked on it a ton before the season, worked on it a ton this season for the new guy. I wouldn't say it's much of a difference. Yeah, we're used to it.

Q. What do you think it will take just to get the offense going? You've got some guys on in this series, but not a lot of hits with runners in scoring position.

RICHIE PALACIOS: It's also that's the game we play. We're not going to get hits every single time guys are on, but I think as a team over this next day or two, we're just going to discuss on how they are attacking us and how we can combat that in order to get guys in.

Yeah, we've been putting together good at-bats with the running. Hopefully we'll just continue to lock in, and we'll have some luck on our side as well and put some better approaches together that we think can help us scoring runs when we have guys on.