MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 27, 2026

Pat Murphy

Tropicana Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Rays 4, Brewers 3 (12)

Q. To be three outs from the goal everybody has had their whole lives and see it pulled away, just how do you process that? How do your guys process that?

PAT MURPHY: I think the guys understand it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. You're playing the best team in the American League. They proved it all year long, and they came up big today. It's going to be hard.

When you're achieving something like this, it's going to have its adversity. We had some things go our way yesterday. They had some things go their way today. That's the way it is. You just live with it, and if you're a competitor, you wake up tomorrow morning and come ready to play.

Q. Will the plan tomorrow be Misiorowski?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah.

Q. To have that as your guy for this type of situation --

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, it's all hands on deck. You can write it up and hope that they perform like the back of their baseball card, but that doesn't always happen. You go with what you believe is the deal. I trust our guys. I trust them. They put themselves in a position to win.

And credit to Tampa for what they did. Just credit them. Like look what they did. They put it in play when they needed to. We drained a lot of pitching, as they did, and that's part of playing a tight ballgame. That's part of it.

Q. On Miz, was he an option in extra innings?

PAT MURPHY: You can't blow that type of situation on a one-run lead on the road. If we were in the 13th inning and we had a three-run lead, that might have been a little bit different. Probably still wouldn't have.

We did the things we needed to do. They put the ball in play when they needed to and did some clutch things when they needed to there. We had the matchups we want. We made an error in -- whatever the last inning, we made an error, and that's unusual. But we made an error, and they capitalized with a hit, a hit, a hit, and a hit.

Q. That's a huge spot for Drohan, a rookie. How do you think he handled it? Did it snowball at all?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I the ball was up a little bit. Senzatela threw two yesterday. He was out of gas today. We didn't think he'd have to go in that direction, but he did a great job. We got him out of there yesterday in time, he had a few number of pitches. We felt like he could get us one today. We thought Drohan could come in and face the lefties there.

It seems like the ball was up a little bit. It was a little flat, but we learned from it.

Q. Another scoreless outing from Ashby today. When you went to go get him, it was kind of a longer than usual conversation with him. What was that about?

PAT MURPHY: He was disappointed he was coming out. But I said we've got to be mindful of your health, and we've got to be mindful of winning the whole thing. If you're going to win the whole thing, you have to understand that we can't drain you today or risk injury today. He's thrown a lot.

Luckily, we got out of that situation, and it didn't hurt us.

Q. There are reasons why Shane has pivoted and gone to be more of a sinker baller down the stretch, but in that inning in particular, to have not a swing and miss pitch, how did that change the trajectory of that inning?

PAT MURPHY: If the first guy hits a ground ball double play, we're not even talking about it. He threw strikes. Give him some credit, it was a tough situation. But we're in the 12th inning and we're drained a little bit.

Q. I know you're getting fan support down here in the Tampa Bay area in Tropicana Field, but are you aware of the amount of fans at American Family Field tonight and in Deer District and I suppose all over the state of Wisconsin trying to support you guys?

PAT MURPHY: I'm not aware of that, but I'm not surprised. Those are great people that care about the Brewers a great deal, and we need their continued support because we're playing a great ball club that has had some adversity in the series and they bounced back really nice tonight.

Q. Were you happy with the approach that the lineup had sort of in the latter half of the game? There were a couple moments where there were maybe some earlier count swings than you guys are used to. Were you pleased with it, or would you have wanted to see just a little bit more grind it out?

PAT MURPHY: You can go back and look at at-bats. You can go back and look at -- I mean, we hit seven balls that are above 97 tonight that got caught. So you can then say, well, your approach later on -- I mean, that affects things when you hit seven balls hard that got caught. There's a chance that's going to disrupt your flow in your offense.

I don't think we had poor at-bats at the end. I think we didn't punch out too much, but we had a checked swing -- a couple checked swings strikeouts. Sometimes that's a result of hitting a ball really, really hard and it gets caught. We're human too. We've played really good baseball. We lost tonight to a really good ball club who executed when they had to.

Q. Just a quick one on Ashby. When you talk about his health, are you talking about the metrics kind of showing you it was time there?

PAT MURPHY: No, just the velo was down, you know what I mean? The velo was down quite a bit. We can tell when Ashby's ball doesn't have the same movement and the same finish. So it was time.

Q. In that moment for Cooper Pratt as a rookie and the series he's had and the postseason he's had, what does that show you about a young --

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, no question. This kid responds to everything. He had some hiccups on defense, and he responded with a huge walk-off hit. He also almost had a winning hit tonight. He had a great night at the plate, the best of anybody at the plate. He was really locked in.

There's a caught stealing there that's -- you know what I mean, really, really close. Maybe in season that's a stands. You who knows? We had a couple things not go our way in terms of calls -- not saying they're wrong, but I'm just saying we had a couple things really -- running out of the baseline there the first run we gave up or second run, whatever. Come on.

Look at it. The ump didn't have it that way, and that's part of it. We got some benefit of some things too sometimes.

I just want to credit Tampa for the way they battled and stayed in there.

Q. I'd like to ask you a little bit on the criteria behind the use of Megill today only for one batter effectively against Díaz, but not getting any activity in the ninth. In retrospect with the game stretching for so long, do you think you could have gotten a little bit more out of him?

PAT MURPHY: Yes.