MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 27, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. Just talked to Yandy. The guys in there know what they're up against right now. What kind of mentality do you want to see from them as they come to the ballpark and take the field today?

KEVIN CASH: I think the consistent mentality they've shown all season long. We are definitely up against it, you have to acknowledge that, but you've got to come in as focused as possible, having good at-bats, making the good pitch, playing good defense behind them, and see if we can win one game tonight.

Q. How disappointed are you regarding runners in scoring position? You are 4 for 22. Also, defensively you haven't played clean defense. How disappointing has that been?

KEVIN CASH: It's been frustrating. It's really tough for me to find disappointment with this club. Certainly guys are frustrated, not in the spot that we want to be in. But we know for us to get this thing going in the right direction or simply win tonight, we've got to turn around a lot of those facets that you just alluded to.

Q. You have Griffin going tonight. What are you looking for out of him? Is it a situation where maybe he gets through the order once clean and then you turn it over to the bullpen? Just kind of what is your plan for him tonight?

KEVIN CASH: I think we're going to look at it as a normal start with Jax. I thought he threw the ball pretty good against Cleveland. Feels like a while ago at this point. Makes his pitches in. Know that his best avenue for success is to get strike 1 -- with any of our pitchers on the mound, get strike 1 against a very talented offense.

Q. When you go against a Pat Murphy team, this team, what are some of the challenges in the way he manages that you have to try to counteract? It seems like they play a little different than most teams.

KEVIN CASH: Give me an example.

Q. They walk a lot. They get a lot of singles, and they bunt.

KEVIN CASH: What has stood out to me in these three games most probably is the quality of their at-bats. That's a credit to the guys that are walking up to the plate with hitting, and their approach. The willingness to see some pitches and -- like Frelick and Hamilton down, very confident at times like they're not going to swing at the first pitch. They're going to see if you're going to throw the ball over the plate.

They're willing to hit with two strikes, and then when we get to two strikes, they've been really challenging to put away.

The other thing that has stood out is obviously the power that comes out of their bullpen. They're quality pitchers with quality stuff, and they're filling up the strike zone.

Q. A lot of your guys were saying last night just take it as one day, take it as one game, you've got to win one. You were on the '08 Red Sox that were down 3-1 and forced a Game 7. You were up 3-0 over Houston in 2020 in the ALCS, and they won three in a row and forced a Game 7. Is that how it works? Can players and staff isolate it to the one game and just kind of let it build as it does?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, there's a lot of belief in that room that we've got to go out and win today, create a little bit of momentum for us. We have not been able to do that in these three games because of the Brewers playing such good baseball.

Our staff, we had some text messages going through this morning. I know the players are coming in amped up ready to go. There's nothing that we can do from the last three games. We can focus on today, which I'm very confident our guys will do.

Q. Griffin last night, Cam as well, said you kind of have to flush last night. Coming off of two close games in Milwaukee, does the lopsidedness of last night make it more difficult to flush considering this is a must-win game?

KEVIN CASH: Sometimes those games are easier to flush. The two games in Milwaukee were grueling games. And to know that it came down to the last at-bat, last pitch of the game, where we could have swung some momentum in our favor -- I mean, with all due respect, in the fifth inning, most people probably thought that game was over. So you have more time to flush it.

Q. In the ten-plus years you've known Murph from your coaching days with Tito and his, what have you learned about him as a person?

KEVIN CASH: I certainly have a lot of respect for Murph. I've known him longer than that. I played against him in college. Went to Arizona State and played up there when I was in college and then revisited and played in the College World Series.

I think it's really impressive what he's done over the course of his career, working with Notre Dame and Arizona State, working with that style of player, and then coming up and managing in the Minor Leagues, being a bench coach under Craig Counsell.

He's got a wealth of experience under his belt, and you can see the reason he's having so much success because his players certainly seem to really respect, admire the way he goes about his business. And from afar, I do as well.

Q. What makes him unique as a person?

KEVIN CASH: I don't know him that well as a person, but the way he carries himself. I think it's kind of cool that everybody pumps him on the chest going down the line rather than high-fiving. I can understand that.

Q. For almost everyone outside of your clubhouse, for you to win a World Series seems impossible. How do you convince your players it's still possible at this point?

KEVIN CASH: Has it ever been done?

Q. No.

KEVIN CASH: I think that's probably what the right narrative is to have right now. That doesn't mean that we have to have that narrative in our clubhouse.

They've done a good job -- and I think even hearing what they've said publicly and internally -- is just keep the focus on winning tonight's game. I'm very confident that they're going to do that.

Q. You've had like an army of scouts watching the Brewers in September and postseason. Does anything in these three games particularly surprise you?

KEVIN CASH: No. Our scouts did a tremendous job of equipping us with a bunch of information and speaking to how talented the Brewers are on both sides of the ball. They do a lot of things really, really well. Unfortunately, we've kind of lived that the last three days and seen exactly what they kind of prepared us for before Game 1.

Q. Opponents have talked about how playing you kind of speeds them up in the field when they're trying to defend against you guys. I'm wondering how you've maybe seen or felt that effect from the Brewers on your players over the course of the series?

KEVIN CASH: That they're speeding us up?

Q. A little bit.

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I think that happens with some miscues on defense. Certainly in Game 2 it stood out a little bit. I do think there are some -- we do resemble a style of play, the two clubs do. They've just done it a lot better than us here lately.

We were really good during the regular season, and even early on in the postseason before the World Series, of putting pressure on defenses. We're trying to do that now. It hasn't necessarily worked in our favor.

Early on in that game, specifically yesterday, we smoked a couple balls up the middle. Brice Turang covers a ton of ground. He's very sure handed over there. He gets rid of it very quickly. So him and the other guys on their defense do a good job.

Q. A lot of fans always have an opinion on the lineups when they come out. Could you explain the process of how you build a lineup and what goes into it?

KEVIN CASH: Well, today's lineup, we've spent some time talking about it. We found out who was pitching or starting for them earlier today. Don't know which direction they're going to go. Dustin May, my guess is, he probably has 75, 80 pitches in him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he faces three batters.

So we're trying to make it as challenging as possible for them to kind of match up throughout seven, eight innings of baseball. The thought with the lineup today was let's just stagger right, left, right, left, all the way down, to where there's no pockets about maybe they feel less comfortable about bringing in a big split righty or a big split lefty.

Q. What's the fine balance between being a little bit more aggressive because it's an elimination game and just kind of staying the course because that's how you guys got here in the first place?

KEVIN CASH: I don't think we're going to do anything differently than we've done in the past, and that's more stay the course, play our style of baseball, and be confident that that works, that's a good style of baseball.

Being more aggressive, doing things uncharacteristic than maybe what you've done all season long, I think that can give your players a sense of inconsistency. And we pride ourselves on being consistent all season long. We're probably better off doing that in Game 4.

Q. You just talked about the good style of baseball that you guys play, and they do too. Do you think that this matchup has proven anything to the larger world of baseball about how to win games maybe differently than a lot of teams do?

KEVIN CASH: I don't know if I have the best answer for that. I've been really focused on trying to win a game. But fully respect the Milwaukee Brewers and how they've played against us. I'd like to see us play a little better moving forward. I'd need some time to think about that.