MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 26, 2026

Jackson Chourio

Sal Frelick

Robert Gasser

Tropicana Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Brewers 10, Rays 1

Q. Jackson, I have two questions for you. You were the igniter today. Would you call this your best game and why?

JACKSON CHOURIO: Yeah, I think that you could say this is one of my better games. Really I was just taking every at-bat like it could be my last and trying to find any way I could to get on base. Because I know, as long as I get on base, there's guys behind me who could score.

Q. You were named after Kobe Bryant. I'm just curious, do you think today you became like the great Kobe Bryant?

JACKSON CHOURIO: Kobe was one of the best basketball players of all time. I had the opportunity to read his book, some of it at least, but the discipline he had, I think that's what you try to do from the great ones. You just take little things you can take from them and implement it into your own game. Hopefully I'm doing a little bit of that.

Q. Sal, how much does the way you guys play kind of force the other team into making mistakes that you guys can turn into runs?

SAL FRELICK: Yeah, I think it's great when you have speed up and down the lineup. It puts a little pressure on the defense that they've got to rid of it quick.

Just to highlight it, don't want it to go under the radar or anything, but that base running by Yeli there which allowed us to have that huge inning. Like that's things we work on. We work on those things in spring. He's the guy that's running the meeting saying this is important. It's his 14th season. He's been All-Star, Silver Slugger, MVP, and nobody cares about base running more than him.

Just to see him do that, get a good secondary, run as hard as he could and beat that out, that's what allowed us able to have that big inning. Little things like that, that's what makes our team great.

JACKSON CHOURIO: I was ready. I was ready and I wanted to win today. I knew that us winning this game today, it was a big one and it was going to be a big one for us. Thanks to God, he was able to let me get on base a few times and for us to come out on top.

Q. This is for all you guys. The crowd was loud chanting go Brewers. Did it feel like a home game for you guys?

ROBERT GASSER: I wouldn't say a home game, but it is really cool when you go on the road in such an intense atmosphere to have that support. Normally it's 35,000 against 9, but tonight we had 20,000 people behind us.

It fuels the team. You feel it. You hear it when the rally's going. You've got fans at your back, it just helps propel you forward.

SAL FRELICK: I think it was really cool. We went out for a stretch, like almost three hours before the game, and they were all packed, all of them were in their seats. They were chanting let's go Brewers as we were walking out.

It kind of settles you in. First game on the road. A lot of guys haven't played here before. Two years ago we were at the Spring Training complex. So new stadium and you kind of get a feel of it. Then when you walk out to that, it feels like home. Big shout out to them. It definitely helped us a ton.

JACKSON CHOURIO: The fans have always been great for us, I think from day one. We feel the support that they have for us, and we feel that they have our back. It's a really beautiful feeling that we have that support from them.

Q. Robert, you've been asked some version of this question before, but if you could go back and talk to the Robert of this time last year that you would know a year later you'd be throwing six, facing the minimum in the World Series, names like Schilling and Koufax getting invoked, if you thought that was possible. And then along the journey, how much William Contreras has to do with this? Ashby talked about the rapport he has with him. I wonder what he's done for you to get you to this place.

ROBERT GASSER: A big word is belief. I haven't changed much over the years from mechanics to velocity. I think it always comes down to do you believe in yourself?

To jump to William, I know he believes in me. This is my third year or fourth year with him catching me, and since day one, I can feel that he's engaged and he's in the game and he wants to win and he wants me to be a part of that.

He has so many encouraging words, whether they're like positive or if he's getting on you and letting you know to pick it up. He just always has such a good feel for the game. He's a really special catcher.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

JACKSON CHOURIO: We still haven't achieved anything. So tomorrow the mentality remains the same. Tomorrow the mentality is to come out and win and to play our version of the game. So we've sacrificed a lot to get to this point, and we understand the job's not finished.

In relation to the fans back in Venezuela, it meant a lot to me. I saw at least five shirts from the winter ball team that I played back in Venezuela. Seeing videos, seeing everybody back home supporting me, it means a lot.

Q. Robert, all three of your starts this postseason have been on the road. I'm wondering if there's anything you learned from the first two in San Diego and L.A. that you were able to use today?

ROBERT GASSER: Yeah, San Diego is loud. Postseason, regular season, they know how to get you off your game. I feel like that was a big game to just kind of assure myself that I'm capable of it.

Then going to Dodgers Stadium, it's a historic site. You're up 2-0, you want to play well, and to contribute and help get the team to 3-0, that gives you even more confidence.

Taking those two starts, what I learned from those was I didn't have to do too much. I didn't have to press. I didn't need to be more than who I am. I feel like I was able to go out there today with that same mindset and execute.

Q. Do you feel like you were able to keep that kind of chill demeanor that you had going into this start here, even though it was a World Series?

ROBERT GASSER: Tonight was a little bit tougher. Using the same words of it's just a game, relax, do my best to look around, soak it in, enjoy it because it's a special opportunity that we all have to be here. To be nervous or scared would only be cheating myself and my teammates.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

JACKSON CHOURIO: In reference to kids with dreams back in Venezuela, the message that I would give to them is to never back down. I know what it's like to come from nothing. Very fortunately, thanks to my dad, I was never left without something in my house. He always did everything to take care of me. But to never back down from what you want to accomplish and from chasing your dreams.

Q. Sal, as a fellow hitter, I'm wondering when you look at Jackson, you see him every day behind the scenes, the quickness of his hands, the bat speed, just like how rare are those qualities?

SAL FRELICK: I don't want to gas him up too much, you know what I mean?

(Laughter).

No. He has the quickest hands I've ever seen. It's very impressive when he goes the other way with the ball. He's done it a few times against like righty sinker-ballers. I've seen him take a ball out of the glove and hit it down the first base line or take the slowest curveball ever and ride it out front. I get numb to it because I get to see it every day and I get to hit with him every day.

So when I go out there and see nights like this that he has, that's, I wouldn't say what we expect of him, but it kind of is. No one's surprised at that just because of how fortunate we are to have him on our team and to be able to hit behind him, or try to get on base for a guy like that. So, yeah, it's easy for him.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

JACKSON CHOURIO: I dedicate this to my family, and then I dedicate it as well to all the Brewers fans. We know how deserving all the Brewers fans are of a championship.

Again, I really dedicate this to my family. They've done everything for me. They mean everything to me. Especially to have them here and to feel their support from them physically here present, it just means the world to me.

Q. Sal, you're one game away from making history for the Brewers. How do you sleep tonight? But also, what's the focus like tomorrow?

SAL FRELICK: It's going to be the same as today. I think we kind of came into this game saying it's win or go home. That's the mindset, right? That's what we want, the pressure to be on the line for our execution. That's what we want to feel. There shouldn't be any margins. There shouldn't be any looseness. It's laser focused.

I think it's going to be the same thing tomorrow. It's great to get a win. You enjoy it for a few minutes after the game. Then you go back and it's reset mode.

That's what we've been doing every game, every series so far, so we're going to do the same thing.

Q. For all three of you guys, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the World Series. Only a couple have forced a Game 5. How important is it to not let the series go on any longer than tomorrow?

SAL FRELICK: Again, that's like we're focused on winning tomorrow. We're going to treat it like a Game 7. We obviously know that one more win can get us a nice trophy, but it's really just win every pitch, every inning, every at-bat, and that's what's kind of got us here.

When they tap us on the shoulder and say you got no more games, that's when we'll be like, all right, we can go home now.

That's kind of been the mindset, but again, no one's really thinking how great it is we're up 3-0 and it's all daisies and butterflies from here. That's not the case.

Q. (Question in Spanish.)

JACKSON CHOURIO: I think I'm going through a good moment in time right now. I think I'm going through a good stretch. Whenever you're going through a moment like this, I think you just have to take advantage of it. I know there's a lot of people that count on me and depend on me on the production that I can bring, so I just want to come through for them.

A message to fans in Venezuela, I always feel their support. I always feel their love for me. So I'm just always very happy and very thankful for their support.

Q. The emotions when Brandon Woodruff is checking into this game, what's going through your head when you see him taking the mound?

ROBERT GASSER: Yeah, Big Woo has been fighting through a lot over the last three to four years. I'm sure there were times when he didn't know if he was going to throw a ball again. To see him go out there tonight and close that one out, it was special for him, for us, for the fans.

He's been a Brewer his whole career. He'd die for this team. He went out there today and did his job at the highest level.

SAL FRELICK: There's very few times that I kind of feel like at the point of a game I kind of turn into a fan. And when I was watching him run from the bullpen, I was kind of sitting on the top step like kind of in that, oh, my gosh, this is so cool.

His family's here. His kids are here. It's the World Series. He was home contemplating what the future held, and next thing you know, he's toeing the rubber.

I turned around when I was running out, and the whole bench was standing up clapping. Like I don't know if any other player on any other team gets that sort of recognition for running out of the bullpen. It's just a testament to the type of person he is, his character, his leadership, and just how much he means to the team.

JACKSON CHOURIO: Everyone knows how special of a person Big Woo is. He's been tremendous to me. He's a tremendous teammate to everybody. For me, it just fills me with pride getting to see him live out his own dream as well and be able to toe the rubber in a World Series game.

Q. Jackson, you've had an incredible year going back to the WBC and with William too. Winning that and now having a chance to win the World Series with him also, how special has the whole season been for you? What do you think it means to the people of Venezuela to see you playing so well?

JACKSON CHOURIO: It's been a very blessed year. It's been an incredibly blessed year for me, something that I'm very appreciative for and something that God has blessed me with. I just hope that hopefully there's many more years like this in my future.