MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 25, 2026

Aaron Ashby

Brice Turang

Tropicana Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. For both of you, you guys took care of business at home. You're in a really good position right now. How do you not get too far ahead of yourselves with the position that you're in?

BRICE TURANG: I think we just go out and continue to play our game, just trying to win tonight. Like that mentality of winning tonight is so big for us. It's been big for us during the season as well.

I think with that mentality moving forward, trying to win every pitch, win every game, it doesn't matter what happened the previous days, it matters about tonight and winning tonight.

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, just kind of this mindset of like 0-0. We know they're going to come out and fight us hard. Just got to keep our head down and play as hard as we can as many games as it takes.

Q. For both you guys, this is a ballpark that plenty of guys have plenty of opinions on. Wonder what experience you have here, and if there's any point of emphasis in getting ready to play potentially three games here?

AARON ASHBY: I've only actually seen two games played here in person in '22. It's been a while since I've been here. I think it's one of those weird games, maybe Rowdy Tellez, and Willy Adamas all hit one off the roof.

Yeah, I don't know, other than it being turf, I don't know that I have any other strong opinions about it. But excited to see what it feels like.

BRICE TURANG: I've played here once. I don't really remember much about it, so maybe it didn't stand out to me as much as maybe others.

Q. Did you get to talk to Quinn's uncle and cousin today? What was it like knowing a relative of someone flying the plane?

BRICE TURANG: I think it's super cool. It's cool for him, cool for the pilots, his uncle and his cousin, to be a part of it.

We had the chance to say hello, but I think this might have been their second time.

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, second time. The landing was a little rough so -- (laughter).

No, it was good. It's always cool, family thing. For them to be able to do that.

I don't necessarily know who's lining that up, but certainly a cool thing. I guess we're in good hands.

Q. Did either his uncle or Quinn get on the PA and have any special greetings?

AARON ASHBY: I think that's against the law.

Oh, Quinn. Did Priester? No, Priester didn't do that. No, they were just -- nothing special or anything. I think they said congrats on the run you guys are on, and that was about it.

I thought he was trying to throw Priester under the bus. Hey, no secrets will be told.

(Laughter).

Q. There's so many things that get unrecognized with William's game behind the plate, game by game, regular season, now postseason. What's it been like for both you guys and the impact he's left on each of you throughout this postseason?

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, I feel like I've been blessed to have him as kind of our back stop for three years ago now. So I get to see it night in and night out.

He's certainly one of those guys that locks it in and just seems to do those extraordinary things in the bigger moments, which is special. Not everyone has the ability to do that.

He's just kind of our captain out there, man, especially for the pitchers. He's in control. You trust what he sees behind the plate with hitter swings and maybe what our stuff looks like, if it's good or not as good as the night before. Easy guy to follow from a pitcher's standpoint for sure.

BRICE TURANG: Yeah, the confidence he carries, the -- I mean, just the weight of being a catcher is already hard, having to deal with the pitching staff and then your offense and your defense, and he does a great job at all three.

The way he handles the game and takes control is really impressive. It speaks for himself. He's one of the best catchers in baseball. It's been a pleasure to have him on the team and see him work. Yeah, I'm excited to see how things continue for him.

Q. If the Crowder College online game logs are believed to be accurate, I think in your first game it says you walked eight guys and got two outs. Is that accurate?

AARON ASHBY: No, that's accurate.

Q. What did you do besides walking eight guys?

AARON ASHBY: I remember I warmed up in a pile of weeds on a flat ground, and there was probably 20 scouts in the stands, and it was like 38 degrees. I couldn't feel my hand. I didn't think I was ever going to play professional baseball after that game. That's pretty much what I remember.

Q. Aaron, what was the impetus behind shaving your head, and is that the reason why you've been so good lately?

BRICE TURANG: It was time.

(Laughter).

AARON ASHBY: You hear enough wise cracks when you're starting to lose your hair, I guess, and you're just like, you know what, I'm over it. I just decided to shave it.

I felt like it was a good time. The season was over, regular season that is. I promised DL Hall that he could shave my head, and it seemed like a good time to do it. So we just did it in the bathroom.

Q. Brice, is that why he's been so good?

BRICE TURANG: No, he's always good. But it looks good, I'll say that. It looks good with no hair.

AARON ASHBY: Nice.

Q. This morning at 4:00 a.m., there were a lot of people coming down here at the Milwaukee airport and making the flight and making the commitment and stuff like that. How much do you guys pay attention to that, or are you so locked into what you're doing that you don't pay attention to it? Is it going to be pretty cool to see at least some of your supporting people here?

AARON ASHBY: That's certainly, I feel like, maybe one of the things I have seen. Maybe this postseason is just -- you know, with the craziness and ticket prices maybe in Milwaukee, and then for some of those fans to be able to get down here, that's super special for them. I hope we can make them happy and make it worth their trip to come down here and support us.

Any time you can get some of your home fans on the road, it makes a huge difference when they're on your side.

Q. In the postseason, it's not uncommon for reliever roles to kind of get expanded, but you're taking it to sort of a new level and getting comparisons to other guys. Rollie Fingers pitched lots of multi-inning relief appearances, Goose Gossage, Andrew Miller. I'm wondering if you've heard from any of those types of guys about what they're seeing from you or whether there are any of those types of guys that you remember watching and admiring when the roles sort of got fuzzy?

AARON ASHBY: No, I haven't heard from any of those guys, but I would say that it's kind of -- that's kind of been my role, I feel like, I guess all year long is to be extended relief any way I can be. Earlier in the season, it was fifth inning to maybe bail the starter out and bridge the gap to Uribe and Megill towards the end.

I don't personally feel like my role has shifted all that much from what we did a lot of the season. Yeah, was there another part of your question?

Q. Just if there were any of those other type pitchers in the postseason you remember watching.

AARON ASHBY: Andrew Miller would probably be one. I think that was 2016. Yeah, just, like I said, trying to keep this as simple as I can and go out there and keep getting outs until Murph asks me to stop getting outs.

Q. I was just wondering, we all know that Murph can be a character at times. Has his demeanor been any different in the World Series than it maybe was in the NLDS, NLCS, or has he just kind of been the same demeanor, steady as she goes kind of guy?

BRICE TURANG: I don't think much has changed. He's the same guy every day, even in Spring Training, which is a good thing. It reminds you that this is a game. No matter the situation, you're playing baseball. When you have a goal, it's to go out there and win.

Regular season, postseason, it's the same, and it helps us -- when he acts like that, it helps us as well. I wouldn't say he's changed much.

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, I would second that. Murph's been probably the most consistent guy all along, and I think that's important to have when the guy who's leading the team is the same guy every day.

Q. For both you guys, I wanted to ask what you've seen from Freddy Peralta and his resurgence with the Rays here, and what do you think it will be like seeing him on the mound pitching against you guys in a big spot?

BRICE TURANG: Yeah, it will be fun. We'll be having some fun going to compete against him. It's part of his story. Part of everyone's kind of story is learning, and it makes you better. Going through some rough times makes you better.

But I think it will be fun being able to go out there and compete against him.

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, Freddy, I'm sure you've heard it from everyone, but everyone in our clubhouse was around him last year for the most part, and he's like one of the best teammates you can have. He's an unbelievable pitcher, but maybe another -- like just the same, exact, awesome, fun dude every single day. He was a huge part in our organization's success, and everyone over there in our clubhouse loves that dude.

Excited for him and what's to come for him. I hope we compete our butts off against him tomorrow.

Q. When we get back to Contreras, one of the things Murph often says when he has a great game is that a big part of it is he handled five pitchers or whatever. From a pitcher's perspective, what do you see are like the adjustments he's got to make between Uribe and you and Trevor or whatever?

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, he's very good in like during the at-bat, making the adjustment of what maybe the hitter is trying to do to you or the approach that they're taking against you this time through. And that's different for every guy that you're going to face in our bullpen.

He has to know from the warmup pitches what looks good. There's times where he's looked at me about the curveball, and he's just like that's not good today.

That's okay. It's not going to be -- I know I'm not going to have my best stuff every day. Then it's kind of on him and I to figure out what's working. And he does that a lot faster than I think most guys are able to, which is impressive.

Q. You guys have talked about how much more belief there was this year, but I'm just curious if there was some point at this playoff run, whether it was the Padres series or beating Skubal or beating Yamamoto where like it really felt that this is different?

BRICE TURANG: For me, just throughout the regular season, I mean, we were bouncing back constantly. We were always in the game. We were fighting back. We were kind of doing the things we're doing now, and you really started to see it and be like, man, this team, we can do this. Then you believe in it, and you go from there.

Then obviously as you get closer to it, you believe it more, and the more you see it, the more you believe it. Man, the trust that we have in each other, it's awesome.

That's why we're here where we're at. We trust each other, we believe in each other, and we believe we can win it. It all kind starts with that belief. I believed we can win it in Spring Training, and then you start seeing it play out and really start selling in.

AARON ASHBY: We've had this core group here for an extended period of time now, and we're all able to talk to each other after every game and get a feel for each other. And you kind of just go through this process of we've been playing through the Minor Leagues and now in the Big Leagues together, and you really start to, like Brice said, just see it happen every night.

You win some really close games. You come back. I think at the game in Vegas when we battled back -- I think I gave up four runs in the ninth or tenth inning, and then we came back and battled back and won. It was just like we just never gave up.

No one ever loses belief. It's kind of a crazy thing. We never feel like we're out of it. Of all the teams I've been a part of, this is definitely where -- this team is the strongest. We may go down, we may go down big early, and Yeli is the first one to say we're going to come back and we're going to walk these guys down, and we're going to win. Just plain and simple as that.

His belief kind of trickles down through everyone, and you start grinding out at-bats. This offense is unbelievable. The bullpen's job to hold the line and then just start taking care of business.

Q. This is a two-part question and sort of fun. I know you guys mentioned you have not played here often, but what do you think of the stingrays in the outfield, and what would you like to see differently or new at Am Fam Field in Milwaukee?

AARON ASHBY: They have stingrays in the outfield here? I didn't know that.

BRICE TURANG: I think it's cool. Can you touch them, like the two-finger touch? Yeah, that's cool. That's really cool.

AARON ASHBY: Maybe we should have a brewery.

BRICE TURANG: I think we have some.

(Laughter).

I think we've got some, right?

AARON ASHBY: We have a brewery in the stadium?

Q. Yeah.

(Laughter).

BRICE TURANG: I don't know. I don't know what we would need. I've walked the concourse maybe three times.

AARON ASHBY: We have X golf. That's really cool.

Q. You need a bigger brewery?

AARON ASHBY: A bigger brewery and more in sight so I can see it, I guess, would probably help.

Q. Brice, when Cooper Pratt first arrived, did you feel like you were on the same page with him defensively right away, or how has that developed over the course of the season? As you've had some miscues in the postseason, what are some things you've said to him? He also made some great plays. What are some conversations you've had with him about his postseason so far?

BRICE TURANG: For me, I just want to be open if he ever has questions, if he ever wants to ask or whatever. I mean, he's here for a reason. Obviously we all want to get better. We all want to learn. So I just told him from the start, hey, if you ever have anything, just let me know.

Then obviously we've had some conversations, but he's done a really good job for being as young as he is, to go out there and compete at this high of a level. He's ready for it.

We all make mistakes. Physical mistakes happen. It's part of the game. He moved past it and picked himself up, and the team picked him up. He made some good plays.

He actually got hit, probably the same ball later that game, and he made the out. It's like let it go type of thing, and he did just that. So the maturity that he carries is big for his age, and he's going to get better and better. So I'm excited to see his career.

When he first got up here, my thought was let him get comfortable, and if he has anything to ask me, he can come ask me. I just want to be an open book for him.

Q. In the first inning last night when you're on deck and Contreras is up and you see that ball fall, four pitches later as the runner is going, the ball goes through the vacant hole, does that give you an immediate feeling that, hey, this game is it going to turn?

BRICE TURANG: Yeah, the game was -- Chourio leading off that inning with a hit, right there, that's big. Just that alone is big. Then JB getting another one. You trust each other and move the line. Then William coming up clutch and JB running on a 3-2 count -- 3-2 count? Yeah, him running on a 3-2 count, open up the hole, hit it there.

That's part of baseball. That's how you play baseball, and that's how you win games. Like we said earlier, we never thought we were out of it. We haven't even got our offense up yet. There's no point in being like, oh, we're down or whatever. We haven't even gotten an opportunity offensively to go out there and put some runs on the board, and we answered back quick.

That's how it is, is how do you respond, and we responded quickly and cut the lead. Then just kept putting pressure on them and played our style of game confidently, and good things happen when you do that.

Q. Is that your style of game last night, 180-something pitches you forced out of them in eight innings?

BRICE TURANG: Yeah. I mean, I don't know what baseball player wouldn't want that, having quality at-bats, making them throw balls in the zone, and then getting pitches to hit. Then doing damage on them and hitting balls in the gap, bunting guys over, moving them over.

Whatever it takes, whatever it looks like, we've got to win the game at the end of the day. The stat line doesn't matter. The only stat that matters is who goes home with the win.

Q. How would you describe Jim Henderson as a pitching coach? Do you have a couple of examples of ways that he's maybe helped you, imported to you?

AARON ASHBY: Yeah, Jim and I have been together basically every day that I've been with this organization. I was drafted in '18, and he was hired in '18 as the bullpen coach in Helena, Montana, in short season. And we've basically -- he's watched me throw a baseball more times than probably any other individual on this earth.

We have an unbelievable relationship. He can see me from across the field and know what I'm doing wrong. He knows what cues I need to execute pitches or execute throwing program that day.

Yeah, he's contributed so much to my success as a pitcher and my development through this organization has pretty much been at the hands of him the entire time. He's been my pitching coach every year.

Yeah, I can't say enough good things about Jim. I hope he's my pitching coach for the long haul.